Reading

A pupil learns to read within his / her own particular circumstances. A pupil’s learning may be either impacted by underperforming cognitive processors or he / she may have experience of environmental factors which impact on the learning process:

• A pupil may have co-occurring difficulties, such as Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD), Developmental Language Disorder (DLD), Autism or Dyslexia
• He / she may also have underlying cognitive abilities which are under-performing, for example, verbal and visual working memory, processing speed and auditory processing
• There may be a difficulty with orthographic processing, (that is difficulties recognising patterns in words which other pupils can detect when reading).
• Pupils with orthographic processing difficulties need to be explicitly taught onset and rime patterns to enhance the development of automatic sight word recognition (sight word recognition means that a word is read automatically ‘on sight’ without the conscious use of any decoding strategies)
• There may be memory difficulties which will impact on storage and retrieval of word knowledge and more specifically sound knowledge. An approach which involves chunking of information may be more beneficial 
• There may be phonological processing difficulties (unable to discriminate between similar speech sounds, for example, /b, /d/, /t/).  Activities to provide practise in discriminating these similar sounds will be of benefit. Vowel sounds are also extremely difficult to discriminate for many pupils and are more easily learned with a rime pattern
• A pupil may, on the other hand have a specific difficulty with comprehension
• The difficulty may be environmental (can the pupil access the book or is it too difficult, hence the pupil is demotivated)
• The pupil may have self-esteem and motivation issues
• The pupil may be experiencing Emotional well-being issues 
• The home environment may be a factor
• The pupil may be a newcomer pupil who is underachieving in reading, it is important to decide if this is due to a learning difficulty or more time is needed for the pupil to absorb the culture and gain sufficient exposure to the English language

Therefore, a one-size fits all approach will not work for a significant minority of pupils, and pupils in this group may require an individualised approach to meet their needs. This can only be achieved by careful observation and assessment of an individual pupil to determine what aspect of reading the pupil finds must difficult:

• Inability to comprehend what has been read
• Struggling with sight word recognition 
• Limited ability to decode
• Limited vocabulary
• Reluctance to read due to fear of failure
• Disinterested in reading or not enjoying the books available

The process of reading is complex; the pupil must read the words, retrieve word meaning, put the words together to form meaningful units and determine what the text is about. The pupil’s success will depend on knowledge of the alphabetic code, sight word reading ability / vocabulary, orthographic knowledge, semantic and syntactic processing and understanding of context / comprehension of text.

Contextual knowledge draws on a pupil’s prior experience, for example, if the pupil comes across a word like, “balloon” the context will help the pupil to identify the word aided by his / her experience of parties. The context of a sentence will help in the correct reading of words like, ‘read’ as in ‘I can read’ or ‘I have read’ or “bow” as in ‘the bow of a ship’ or ‘the bow on a dress’. In different contexts these words are pronounced differently to depict the different meaning. The goal is to engage the pupil in reading whilst teaching the skills and strategies which can then be used independently, flexibly and interactively. Flexibility is required due to the irregular orthographic nature of the English language. 

The Executive Function (EF) network supports the coordination of the various processes involved in reading and active self-regulation is key to successful reading.

The pupil must use all cognitive resources effectively whilst controlling environmental influences. 

In a beginning reading programme the aim should be to develop all the sub-skills simultaneously, ensuring the skills are interconnected to aid efficient memory storage and retrieval. Automaticity gained through learning to spell enhances reading fluency.

The approach to teaching reading has been influenced over the last thirty years by the whole-language approach where the pupil uses the context and structure to guess words and more recently the systematic synthetic phonics approach which focuses on teaching sounds at grapheme-to phoneme level (the alphabetic code). Recent research has identified weaknesses in teaching the alphabetic code only because of the orthographic processing difficulties due to multiple mappings between phonemes and graphemes. It is important to be aware of the full range of strategies and skills that a pupil requires to read with fluency and understanding. Research has identified that orthographic difficulties are as great as phonological and rapid naming difficulties, therefore reading interventions need to acknowledge this and phonological, orthographic and morphemic knowledge should be introduced as early as possible in a beginning reading programme alongside a spelling programme which also integrates each of these processes. 

The Simple View of Reading (SVR): Fluent Word Reading combined with Language Comprehension, leads to Reading Comprehension. The SVR is useful in identifying different reading profiles but is not a model of reading development.

Reading is a complex activity and the Reading Comprehension House provides a more detailed breakdown of the components, illustrating that word reading and language comprehension are underpinned by several other building blocks. These component parts build on one another and connect together as pupils learn to read:

• Vocabulary (word meaning)
• Grammar and syntax (recognising a well-formed sentences)
• Orthographic awareness - print knowledge (recognising patterns in print)
• Phonological awareness of the smaller sounds in the spoken language (syllable, onset and rime, whole word and phoneme level)

• Print Knowledge (recognising parts of books and left-right directionality of print)

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Figure 9: Reading Comprehension House - the sum of many parts - Adapted from Hogan, Bridges, Justice and Cain (2011)

• The left-hand side of the house illustrates that to become proficient at word reading, pupils need to develop an awareness of the sound structures of language (phonological awareness) and knowledge of how language is represented in writing (print knowledge /orthographic awareness). Skilled readers begin to recognise some full words automatically after repeated encounters with them and learn to read with fluency, however pupils with specific literacy difficulties will often struggle with this and will require explicit teaching
• The right-hand side of the house illustrates that to build strong language comprehension skills, pupils need to develop an understanding of grammar and syntax and build up a wide-ranging vocabulary. The pupil will also need to learn how to make inferences (using information in a text to understand things that are implied rather than explicitly stated) and monitor their own comprehension as they read. Additionally, pupils need to learn about different text structures and genres

Recent research since the ‘Simple View of Reading (SVR)’ has demonstrated that there are many other contributing components to reading which are not named in the SVR. The Active View of Reading Model illustrates the importance active, self-regulatory processes, at play in reading and demonstrates that there are important bridging processes between the development of language comprehension and word recognition:

• It demonstrates the central importance of the Executive Function (EF) network and explains how it coordinates and connects all the processes and skills required for reading - word recognition strategies, comprehension strategies and vocabulary strategies. Skilled readers are active, strategic and engaged, using EF skills to manage the reading process. EFs include three core skills, cognitive flexibility, working memory, and inhibitory control and skills such as attention and planning.  Any weakness in the EF network will impact on the complete reading process

• It points to causes of reading difficulties within and beyond word recognition and comprehension. Reading difficulties may be:

  • Context dependent, occurring when there is a mismatch between the knowledge assumed by the teacher and the knowledge of the reader. One needs to consider how race, religious background, socioeconomic status, and factors impact the reading process
  • Vocabulary knowledge may be limited and affect the pupils’ language comprehension but also their word recognition
  • The pupil may lack Fluency which affects not just word recognition but also semantic, syntactic knowledge, use of punctuation and comprehension of text
  •  The pupil may have limited morphological awareness which will impact on both word recognition and reading comprehension 
  • It bridges word recognition and language comprehension, highlighting the need for a top-down, bottom-up approach to teaching reading and the interactive and interconnected nature of the reading process
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                     Figure 10: The Active View of Reading Model - Adapted by Duke and Cartwright, (2021)

In the Simultaneous, interconnected processing and memory capacity model of reading development, attention is drawn to the complexity of a deep orthography such as English. The model places an importance on drawing on the full range of sources of knowledge (morphemic, orthographic, phonic, semantic and syntactic) which are necessary for reading. This model of reading development focuses on the pupils who have limited implicit learning capabilities as a result of working memory and orthographic processing difficulties. The model indicates that an over-reliance on phonemic knowledge, can only result in other sources of knowledge and larger units of sounds, which aid memory and retrieval, not being developed and there is limited interconnected learning. The brain does not engage in a subconscious decision-making process and is limited to utilising one strategy only when attempting to read unknown words. 

As a pupil progresses through Key Stage 1 and into Key Stage 2 an increasing level of independent reading is required to access the curriculum, as the focus shifts from ‘learning to read’ to ‘reading to learn’. If a pupil struggles to read at the level of his / her peers, learning opportunities can become limited. In addition, insufficient access to text can result in a widening gap due to a lack of opportunity to develop skills in language, comprehension, and cognition. Lack of reading practice can therefore contribute to poor oral vocabulary, as the pupil is not encountering new words through reading. 

The ability to read at a proficient level is a fundamental skill which allows a pupil to have full access to the curriculum at any stage. Pupils who struggle with reading are at an immediate disadvantage when it comes to academic attainment. At post primary level, to cope with the literacy demands of the various post primary subjects, pupils must be able to read fluently and accurately whilst at the same time understanding the content of the material / vocabulary and be able to hold the information gained in memory, while presenting or discussing. Pupils need to become strategic readers:

An emphasis should be promoted on a ‘top-down, bottom-up’ and ‘balanced’ approach to literacy development at whole school level and systems level as well as individual pupil level. An interactive, balanced approach should aim to develop all the knowledge sources interconnected and working together to ensure the working memory is well supported in pupil’s with literacy difficulties. Pupils need to be taught to be effective and independent problem-solvers and this can be modelled by teachers verbalising the problem-solving approach.

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Figure 11: Reading comprehension with prompts to support practice