Children Learning to Read: A Guide for Parents and Teachers
Children Learning to Read: A Guide for Parents and Teachers
Synopsis
Excerpt
Once upon a time, reading didn't matter that much. To a family of good intelligence living on the frontier, the challenges of raw nature were complex enough. Even in recent generations, a farmer, woodcutter, auto mechanic, or neighborhood fixer-upper might get along without being able to read, or need to read only at a rudimentary level, enough to sign his or her name or decipher basic road, street, or other signs. Those days are gone forever. A new world beckons-- has beckoned for several decades.
In the old days, teachers were taught in their professional courses to be sensitive to their students' emotional and confidence levels. Parent-child relationships were scrutinized for any signs that the tensions that could often be observed in dysfunctional families were having any impact on the learning abilities of the child.
Reading problems were viewed as sure signs that all was not right with the emotional health of the child. However, more study, observation, and sophistication in understanding the nature of learning, and, in particular, reading, began to reveal something new.