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Learning To Read Is Harder For Visual Learners

by: DavidMorgan
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It is something that every teacher will have seen.

There will often be several bright children in the class, who can do most things well and have a good attitude, but fall behind in reading.

They will often do well at first, learning the alphabet and simple words quite easily. But then, as other children progress, they start to struggle, hitting a plateau by the age of 7. With the text using a wider vocabulary, they resort to more and more wild guessing as they become confused.

In the end their reading will go into reverse as their confidence implodes. They can feel the worry of their teacher and parents, but don't know what to do.

Because people are not trained to recognise this pattern, it is often diagnosed as dyslexia. But that is quite wrong.

Dyslexia suggests there is some underlying problem that cannot be overcome.

But these children are usually just trying to read the wrong way. There is no reason why they should not be able to read.

Let me explain the process.

A very visual child will learn most of the alphabet quite easily. Then they are usually shown some simple high frequency words, which they can sight-memorise. Their first early reader books are usually made up of a very simple vocabulary of these common words and they can apparently read them, using this sight-memorisation and a bit of intelligent guessing.

So all seems well.

But this approach implodes on them as the text gets more complicated. Some children will be able to switch to decoding words phonetically, because they also have a strong natural auditory ability. They can see how the sounds within the speech relate to the text.

The rest stay with their natural visual approach, unless carefully guided away from it. They just cannot hear the phonic structure of the words without the right help.

And these are the children that get stuck.

They will use the context to guess wildly, taking the first letter of the word as a guide.

They are baffled by their predicament and have no idea why it has gone wrong. They can feel people's frustration, but have actually been working hard.

Of the one in five children who reach the age of 11 unable to read properly, around 80% are in this group. It virtually destroys their chances of a good academic career and severely limits their working options.

And what a tragedy. We routinely watch them become confident readers in just a few weeks. They only need to be guided back onto the right path.

The label dyslexic carries a great risk that everyone will just relax into acceptance of the situation as inevitable. That leaves the child to deal with a much harder path through life.

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For more information on how to help a child learn to read have a look at our site. You will find a mass of tips on techniques to cure almost every form of dyslexia. There is usually a solution!

Learning To Read Is Harder For Visual Learners

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