INFS 431 LITERATURE AND SERVICES FOR CHILDREN

Session 2 – Factors that Affect the Development of Reading Habits in Children I Lecturer: S. Nii Bekoe Tackie, School of Information and Communication Studies, Department of Information Studies Contact Information: [email protected]

College of Education School of Continuing and Distance Education 2014/2015 – 2016/2017 Session Overview

• Educationists have tried to establish when children start reading. For some time, it was believed that certain traits in the development process of a child contributed to the child’s ability to read. It was thought that children acquired all these traits by a specific age which then makes them ready to read. It has, however, been realized that some children acquire those traits earlier or later in their developmental process. Thus, it became obvious that there may be other issues that affect children’s ability to acquire the habit of reading. This Session, therefore, looks at some of the factors that prevent children from developing the habit of reading.

S.N.B. Tackie, SICS-DIS Slide 2 Session Objectives

By the end of this section, you should be able to: • Understand the need to find out when children become ready to read. • Identify the general factors that prevent children from acquiring the habit of reading. • Discuss the solutions to the problems.

S.N.B. Tackie, SICS-DIS Slide 3 Session Outline

The key topics to be covered in the session are as follows:

• Topic One: The Search for Reading Readiness

• Topic Two: Dyslexia

• Topic Three: General factors that affect the development of reading habits in children

S.N.B. Tackie, SICS-DIS Slide 4 Reading List

• Bradford, J.(2009) What Causes Dyslexia? http://www.dyslexia-parent.com/mag24.html

S.N.B. Tackie, SICS-DIS Slide 5 Topic One: THE SEARCH FOR READING READINESS

S.N.B. Tackie, SICS-DIS Slide 6 Reading Readiness

Educationists occupied themselves with the task of finding when children are ready to read. • This is what is known as reading readiness. • They believed that visual ability, listening ability, personality development, interest and experiences, emotional stability, language achievements, Combine to indicate reading readiness of the child.

It was generally agreed that by the time the child reached age 6 ½, these characteristics are developed well enough for the child to begin reading.

S.N.B. Tackie, SICS-DIS Slide 7 Reading Readiness

• As a result, most schools begin to teach children how to read from age 6. • Belief questioned by many educators • Reasons: not automatic that by 6 ½ years of age all children would have acquired those characteristics. Some children may not develop those characteristics till age 8; Some develop the characteristics as early as age 4. • Apart from the age, many other educators believe that the ability to read depends on whether the child can focus his mind on letters and words that make meaning. • This is what is called Emergent Literacy. S.N.B. Tackie, SICS-DIS Slide 8 Emergent Literacy(EL)

Term used to explain a child's knowledge of reading and writing skills before they learn how to read and write words. • Belief that long before children are able to physically read and write, they begin developing the knowledge necessary to execute the skills of reading and writing even one- and two-year-olds . Emergent Literacy Theory(Marie Clay) explains that children learn to read and write through first hearing stories, touching books, and seeing letters, numbers and words(Blake, 2014)

S.N.B. Tackie, SICS-DIS Slide 9 Emergent Literacy Defined

. It signals a belief that, in literate society, young children are in the process of becoming literate. Defined as the developmental steps a young child takes prior to actually • reading a text, including – interacting with a book, – responding to texts, and – pretending at reading or – writing before actually being able to do so.

S.N.B.• Tackie, SICS-DIS Slide 10 Emergent Literacy Defined(Cont)

A child who has achieved emergent literacy has oral language skills, phonological awareness, print awareness and letter awareness.

Dr. Richard Boateng, UGBS Slide 11 Achieving Emergent Literacy

A number of skills and abilities are required for the achievement of Emergent Literacy. • These include: Print motivation -first step of emergent literacy. children become interested in print materials. seen through the child’s enjoyment of being read to, playing with books pretending to read or write. Vocabulary Vocabulary development is a significant pointer to a child’s overall academic achievement. Vocabulary is seen as a child’s ability to know the name of things.

Dr. Richard Boateng, UGBS Slide 12 Achieving Emergent Literacy(Cont.)

Print awareness stage at which children learn how to -handle a book -begin to recognize the differences between letters and words. -learn how texts are organized, -realize that reading is completed from left to right and from the top of the page to the bottom of the page.

Narrative skills -when children develop the ability to tell a story or describe a sequence of events.

Dr. Richard Boateng, UGBS Slide 13 Achieving Emergent Literacy(Cont.)

Letter awareness -when children understand that letters are unique from each other and begin to recognize different letters and their sounds. Phonological awareness -when children begin to understand that words are made up of different sounds or phonemes, and that stringing these sounds together creates words that results in meaning.

Dr. Richard Boateng, UGBS Slide 14 Activity

1. Enumerate the skills and abilities that a child would need to achieve Emergent Literacy. 2. Describe how each of the skills and abilities manifest itself in an Emergent Literate child.

Dr. Richard Boateng, UGBS Slide 15 Topic Two: DYSLEXIA

S.N.B. Tackie, SICS-DIS Slide 16 Introduction Research has shown that • Children begin to associate sound with symbols that they stand for at an early age. • Reading readiness for children of all ages therefore can begin from their language related experiences. • Children’s experiences both at home and school influence how well they learn to read. • Some children, however, find it difficult to read though the characteristics that make for reading readiness may be present.

S.N.B. Tackie, SICS-DIS Slide 17 Introduction(Cont.)

. This phenomenon set researchers wondering why some children are not able to read. . Series of studies proved that the issue was more complex than it was thought. . Thus instead of looking for the problems, it was decided to focus on solutions rather. • In trying to find out why some children have problems with reading, it was thought that dyslexia accounted for children’s inability to develop the habit of reading. • However, other experts have questioned that assertion. • Because there are children who are not dyslexic and yet are not able to read. • Thus it was decided that reading disabilities will be a better way of expression for problems that children face with reading.

S.N.B. Tackie, SICS-DIS Slide 18 What is Dyslexia?

Term given to the condition that makes it difficult for children to acquire reading ability. • Dyslexic children see letters and words and sometimes figures turned upside down or inside out. • Thus a dyslexic child may see the letter w as m; or d as b; or p as q; tar may be seen as rat; or won as now; or saw as was.

S.N.B. Tackie, SICS-DIS Slide 19 Causes of Dyslexia

Exact cause or causes not known. • Studies have shown, basically two causes of dyslexia. developmental dyslexia which comes from inherited traits; acquired dyslexia which is brought on by frequent colds and throat infections in children between age zero and five years. Lack of early treatment, causes hearing problems in the child as a result of intermittent blocking of the ear passage.

S.N.B. Tackie, SICS-DIS Slide 20 Causes of Dyslexia(Cont.)

• As a result, the developing brain is not able to make the links between the sounds it hears. • The early learning of sounds and words is primary to a child’s ability to deal with language and text. • Failure to hear clearly will make it difficult for the child to hear the difference between words like • pin and thin; or • fan and van.

S.N.B. Tackie, SICS-DIS Slide 21 Causes of Dyslexia(Cont.)

• Again lack of clear hearing will slow the child’s phonemic awareness, which is the ability to hear that words are made up of smaller sounds and syllables such as • c-a-t; or • in-ter-est-ing. • Parents may easily fail to be aware of the problem until a doctor actually looks into the child’s ear. • This problem is often called glue ear or conductive hearing loss. • For developmental dyslexia, studies have shown that children who come from families that have left-handed members are more at risk of getting the condition. • For example, it has been discovered that more than half of children with learning difficulties have a family member who is left-handed.

S.N.B. Tackie, SICS-DIS Slide 22 Causes of Dyslexia(Cont.)

• Sometimes a child may be unlucky to experience a combination of the two causes. • This means that the child has inherited genes that predispose him or her to reading difficulties and has also been affected by early hearing problems. • Such children become severely dyslexic. • In such circumstances, the child will need a lot of support throughout his or her years in school as well as in the work place.

Dr. Richard Boateng, UGBS Slide 23 Causes of Dyslexia(Cont.)

• Technical advances in brain scanning in recent years, • show that there are bunches of brain cells that lie below the surface of the brain in dyslexic people. • However, these bunches of cells are found lying on the surface of the brains of non-dyslexic persons. • These cells are in the front and left side of the brain – areas responsible for reading and writing. • Those bunches of cells normally move to the surface of the brain while the brain is developing in the foetus. • In dyslexic children the cells remain beneath the surface of the brain. • They are therefore called ectopic cells

Dr. Richard Boateng, UGBS Slide 24 Causes of Dyslexia(Cont.)

• Another part of the brain called the magno-cellular system which is responsible for our ability to see moving things, has been discovered to be smaller in the brains of dyslexic people. • As a result of these deficiencies, dyslexic children use both the right and left sides of the brain for language work • while non-dyslexic children use the left side which is the correct part of the brain to use for language work. • Thus the brains of dyslexic children have to work almost six times harder to cope with reading activities. • This may account for why dyslexic people get easily tired in language work and in dealing with text.

Dr. Richard Boateng, UGBS Slide 25 Treatment for Dyslexia

It is very necessary to point out that dyslexia is not a matter of lack of intelligence. Dyslexic people are not stupid. On the contrary people with dyslexia compensate for their inability to read with other traits like creativity; physical coordination; empathy with others. They are known to make good architects and sportsmen.

• Treatment of dyslexia requires patience, encouragement and extra motivation from both parents and teachers. • Phonics is by far the best method of treatment for dyslexia. • A dyslexic child will have to be taken through extensive phonic drill. This should be done through a multi-sensory approach. Dr. Richard Boateng, UGBS Slide 26 Treatment for Dyslexia(Cont.)

• The multi-sensory approach involves appealing to the child’s aural (hearing), visual (seeing) and tactile (touch) senses. • Teaching the child to spell by saying the word you appeal to the child’s sense of hearing. • The letters or words may be written in the air, on the carpet or floor or board, or using plasticine to mould the letter, or using very large handwriting on big sheets of paper. • This approach gives the brain a visual and tactile memory of the word in addition to hearing it. • By joining letters together in large handwriting allows the brain to recollect the order of the letters in a word.

Dr. Richard Boateng, UGBS Slide 27 Activity

i. Itemise the symptoms of dyslexia …………………………………………………………………………… …………………………………………………………………………… …………………………………………………………………………....

ii. What causes dyslexia ? …………………………………………………………………………… …………………………………………………………………………… ……………………………………………………………………………

iii. How may dyslexic children be treated ? …………………………………………………………………………….. …………………………………………………………………………….. ……………………………………………………………………………..

Dr. Richard Boateng, UGBS Slide 28 Topic Three: General Factors that Prevent the Development of Reading Habits in Children

PRIVATE INFORMATION

S.N.B. Tackie, SICS-DIS Slide 29 Introduction

General factors affect every child, no matter where the child is born. It is a well-known fact that literacy rates are higher in the advanced countries than in the developing countries. No effort is spared in these countries to equip children with the ability to acquire a reading habit. However, there are people (children) in advanced countries who also fail to acquire the reading habit. General reading disability may be classified into four areas namely aliteracy, failure to concentrate, insufficient reading experience and physical disabilities.

S.N.B. Tackie, SICS-DIS Slide 30 Aliteracy

This means the lack of a desire to read. Aliterate people can read but do not have a desire to read so they will avoid reading activities. By avoiding reading activities, the aliterate persons can reinforce their condition Aliteracy condition is reinforced more in the classroom when the alliterate child find himself among children who enjoy reading, he withdraws more. Solution to the problem of aliteracy capture the interest of the aliterate child expose him to more attractive materials meaningful reading materials.

S.N.B. Tackie, SICS-DIS Slide 31 Insufficient Reading Experience

Everybody who reads brings his or her experience to bear on the understanding of what he or she is reading; so it is with children. • Children who come from homes where conversation, books and ideas are varied have a broad base of experience which allows them to understand easily what they read. • For those who come from homes where children are relegated to the background or where children can only be seen but not heard, they find it difficult to read and understand what they are reading. • For such children, books are a luxury; and when adults are conversing, children must make themselves scarce. • For such children their only experience with books is at school. Therefore, for children like that, reading cannot be seen as a compulsion.

S.N.B. Tackie, SICS-DIS Slide 32 Failure to Concentrate.

To get meaning out of what you are reading, it is important to focus your mind on the reading activity. • To be able to understand what you are reading you need to bring your past experience to bear on what you are reading. • If you do not have a past experience, you will find the reading exercise tedious and uninteresting thus • For children without any reading experience at all, it becomes difficult to focus the mind on the reading activity because it is boring and uninteresting. • Such children do not see the need to read because they do not know why they should read.

S.N.B. Tackie, SICS-DIS Slide 33 Failure to Concentrate(Cont.)

To solve the problem first of all the child must understand why we read (purpose of reading). • When reading, you must summarise and evaluate what you are reading either in your mind or on paper. • You need to vary the activity. • By varying the activity, you can sustain your reading. • Thus for children, there must be the opportunity to evaluate and discuss what has been read. • Parents and teachers have the responsibility of creating the conditions that will allow what has been read to the child or what the child has read to be discussed.

S.N.B. Tackie, SICS-DIS Slide 34 Physical Disabilities

This refers to inadequate brain development, vision defects and hearing defects. These can cause reading difficulties in children. But these are just a minor part of the problems because parents and teachers and other adults can detect these problems very early and necessary action can be taken.

• Signs of visual (sight) problems include frequent rubbing of the eyes and squinting.

• Pointers to the fact that the child has hearing problems. Children who do not pay attention when they are spoken to or Children who ask for what has been said to be repeated several times or Children who do not understand direction • For the issue of inadequate brain development, it becomes very obvious much earlier in the child and this can be discovered by doctors during post natal treatment.

Dr. Richard Boateng, UGBS Slide 35 Activity

i. Explain how aliteracy reinforces itself …………………………………………………………………… …………………………………………………………………… …………………………………………………………………….

ii. How will you solve the problem of a child who fails to concentrate on a reading exercise ? ………………………………………………………………………. ……………………………………………………………………… ……………………………………………………………………… ……………………………………………………………………….

S.N.B. Tackie, SICS-DIS Slide 36 Activity(Cont.) iii. What causes insufficient reading experience? …………………………………………………………………………. …………………………………………………………………………. ………………………………………………………………………….. ……………………………………………………………………………

iv. List the physical disabilities that may prevent children from acquiring the habit of reading. …………………………………………………………………………… …………………………………………………………………………… ……………………………………………………………………………. …………………………………………………………………………….

S.N.B. Tackie, SICS-DIS Slide 37