Angela
Elite member
- Messages
- 21,823
- Reaction score
- 12,329
- Points
- 113
- Ethnic group
- Italian
This is an interesting blog and opinions on very early readers. They're talking three and four year olds. Apparently, it's usually girls. That doesn't surprise me given that women tend to have the better verbal capacity.
That observation sparked a debate as to whether this supports the "whole" word approach to reading or the "phonetic" approach.
I don't know that the experience of really early readers is very helpful, necessarily. I was one of them, reading Italian before I was four, but I actually don't remember it happening as a "learning" experience. In my memory I just always knew how to do it. It had to start with my father reading to me, but they didn't really have "children's" books to facilitate reading, so it must have been newspapers or the stories he read to me. I do know he said he never actually "taught" me, other than perhaps running his finger along the line.
I do wonder, if they did studies, they would find that it's much easier with really phonetic based systems like Italian. I have a hunch that's the case. From what I've seen the phonetic approach is best. After that, especially in languages like English, "whole" word recognition, which is basically shape recognition, can supplement the rest.
Writing is different, because it requires better motor skills than a four year old possesses.
https://westhunt.wordpress.com/2019/03/31/early-reading/
That observation sparked a debate as to whether this supports the "whole" word approach to reading or the "phonetic" approach.
I don't know that the experience of really early readers is very helpful, necessarily. I was one of them, reading Italian before I was four, but I actually don't remember it happening as a "learning" experience. In my memory I just always knew how to do it. It had to start with my father reading to me, but they didn't really have "children's" books to facilitate reading, so it must have been newspapers or the stories he read to me. I do know he said he never actually "taught" me, other than perhaps running his finger along the line.
I do wonder, if they did studies, they would find that it's much easier with really phonetic based systems like Italian. I have a hunch that's the case. From what I've seen the phonetic approach is best. After that, especially in languages like English, "whole" word recognition, which is basically shape recognition, can supplement the rest.
Writing is different, because it requires better motor skills than a four year old possesses.
https://westhunt.wordpress.com/2019/03/31/early-reading/