[email protected]

In a message dated 2/24/03 5:41:17 PM Central Standard Time,
[email protected] writes:

<< > << Or are there lots of early unschooled readers
> too, and we just aren't hearing those stories? >> >>

I wouldn't necessarily call Sierra an "early" reader, I'm assuming you mean
children under five. But this totally unschooled child is teaching herself to
read at age five and doesn't have any program or coaching, just a Mom that
reads to her, answers her questions and has a lot of paper and pens available.
She writes more neatly than Trevor did at age 11, loves to write and can
sound out a lot of words now.
It amazes me constantly how into it they get when there is a desire.....and
no coercion.
This is a very strong willed, independent child and if it was someone elses
idea that she "should" learn to read, I have a feeling it would have taken
much longer!!


Ren
"The sun is shining--the sun is shining. That is the magic. The flowers are
growing--the roots are stirring. That is the magic. Being alive is the
magic--being strong is the magic The magic is in me--the magic is in
me....It's in every one of us."

----Frances Hodgson Burnett

the_clevengers <[email protected]>

> In a message dated 2/24/03 5:41:17 PM Central Standard Time,
> [email protected] writes:
>
> << > << Or are there lots of early unschooled readers
> > too, and we just aren't hearing those stories? >> >>

My son's 6 and can read basic stuff. He seems to take a phonic-like
approach in sounding words out as he goes along. I don't have a clue
at what age he will become a fluent/proficient reader, but he seems
to be approaching it in large spurts at times and then plateaus off
for awhile.

My daughter is already sight-reading lots of words (she's 3) (the
other day she read the word "organic" from a label) and I have a
feeling that she might learn to read like I did. I learned to read at
age 4, just from my parents reading out loud to me. One day I just
realized that I knew what all the words were. At first, I think my
parents thought that I had just memorized everything, but I was
really reading it. By the time I entered first grade, I was reading
adult chapter books, so they put me in a 4th grade reading class. I'm
guessing that my daughter's brain works the same as mine, because she
seems to have a lot of our books "memorized" and I'm guessing that
will probably someday just click into reading for her.

I just recently read an interesting article about brain research and
how they've discovered that there's two major groups of readers. I'm
going to paraphrase this really badly from my poor recollection, but
from what I recall, in one type of people, the words go directly to
one spot in their brain with no translation. I would say this is how
I read - I'm not really even aware of the words I'm reading, I just
see the pictures in my head, kind of like thoughts, and I read really
fast. For me, listening to books on tape are a form of torture,
because I actually hear the words, which I don't when I'm reading.

For the other type of reader, the words actually have to be
translated in another part of the brain first. They determined this
via MRIs I believe. In the study, they showed that these types
of readers were pervasive throughout their lives. I saw it as more
evidence that it makes absolutely no sense to push kids to read early
when they're obviously not ready for it. If you have a kid whose
brain is the decoding type, they're going to seem like a "late"
reader, but in reality their brain has to take more steps to read, it
has to go through this whole translation scheme. Other kids just seem
to get it via osmosis, and those are probably the early readers, and
people who are very fast readers in later life. There's not anything
inherently "better" or "smarter" about these people, they just have a
different brain setup with regards to this one skill of reading.

I'd hazard a guess that the "translator" kind of reader is more
common than the "straight through" type of reader, therefore it would
be more likely for unschoolers to read later than the norm if more of
them have to pick up these translating skills without being
arbitrarily forced to do it early, before their brains are ready to
do it easily.

What I felt really sad about is how many kids are convinced that
they're stupid because they can't read at age 7, or whenever our
school system says that they should, when maybe they just have this
totally different brain pattern than the early readers.

Blue Skies,
-Robin-

[email protected]

Keith reads the words, and so he's more likely to remember the people's names
and exact quotes than I am. I have the story, but not so much in order as I
remember scenes and feelings. (That's about non-fiction stuff.)

I read non-fiction differently, and more often.

Sandra

[email protected]

**I just recently read an interesting article about brain research and
how they've discovered that there's two major groups of readers.**

Robin, do you have any idea where you read this, so I have some idea where to
start searching for it?

Thanks,
Deborah in IL