News Flash: Kids Have to Sound Out in Order To Become Skilled Readers

In further corroboration of the intricacy of human brains and the impossibility of assigning complicated functions like reading to a single hemisphere, here is an excerpt (pp. 79-81) from Sally Shaywitz’s book, Overcoming Dyslexia. Dr. Shaywitz is a Yale neuroscientist and professor of pediatrics, and her book has been widely hailed as ground-breaking. Using functional imaging studies, Dr. Shaywitz’s team identified three primary regions in various parts of the brain (the parieto-temporal region, the occipito-temporal area, and the inferior frontal gyrus (Broca’s area). Each plays a different role in reading.

“The parieto-temporal system works for the novice reader. Slow and analytic, its function seems to be in the early stages of learning to read, that is, in initially analyzing a word, pulling it apart, and linking its letters to their sounds. In contract to the step-by-step parieto-temporal system, the occipto-temporal region is the express pathway to reading and is the one used by skilled readers. The more skilled the reader, the more she activates this region. It responds very rapidly - in less than 150- milliseconds (less than a heartbeat) - to seeing a word; instead of analyzing a word, the occipito-temporal area reacts almost instantly to the whole word as a pattern. One brief glance and the word is automatically identified on sight. Not surprisingly, the occipito-temporal region is referred to as the word form area or system.

“Here’s how we think the word form system works: After a child has analyzed and correctly read a word several times, he forms an exact neural model of that specific word; the model (word form), reflecting the word’s spelling, its pronunciation, and its meaning, is now permanently stored in the occipito-temporal system. Subsequently, just seeing the word in print immediately activates the word form and all the relevant information about that word. it all happens automatically, without conscious thought or effort. As skilled readers speed through the text, the word form area is in full gear, instantly recognizing one word after another. Not surprisingly, the best readers, those with the highest scores on tests of reading, are the ones who show the most activation of the word form region during imaging, Thus, there is a strong link between reading skill and reliance on the word form area. A third reading pathway, this one in Broca’s area in the front of the brain, also helps in slowly analyzing a word. There are therefore three neural pathways for reading: two slower, analytic ones, the parieto-temporal and frontal, that are used mainly by beginning readers, and an express route, the occipito-temporal, relied on by experienced, skilled readers.”

It is tempting to try to bypass the slow, laborious sounding out process and instead go straight to the quick and easy occipito-temporal system. However, as Dr. Shaywitz explains, beginning readers have to sound out every single word a number of times before it can be stored in the occipito-temporal system. As with most everything, beginners have to go through a laborious learning process before they can perform the new skills fluently.

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