Learning to Read

Reading is the foundation of learning, earning, understanding and wisdom. For that reason, learning to read is the most important thing your child will undertake during his school years.

What learning to read will do is to allow your child to share the information that others have written down, and to share his own experiences with others — to put his questions, his beliefs, his thoughts and dreams on paper. It will offer him hours of enjoyment, decrease his likelihood of depression, low self-esteem and unemployment.

There are many different beliefs of what the ‘best’ way of teaching a child to read is, and on-going debates persist as to whether the use of the whole-word approach or phonetics is more effective. The fact is that both systems are complex. Whole word reading systems ask learners to commit huge amounts of material to memory. Phonics programs, on the other hand, ask students to become fluent in phonetic pronunciation, and still demand they memorize almost as many exceptions and variants as the basic set of phonics “rules.”

The complexity of these systems is one reason why many children find learning to read a challenge. According to research by Lyon et al. (2001) approximately five percent of schoolchildren have absolutely no difficulties learning to read as opposed to sixty percent who find learning to read a challenge. Roughly half of that sixty percent find learning to read extremely difficult.

Another common reason for reading failure is poor cognitive skills. Research has shown that reading success is dependent on the strength of a person’s underlying cognitive skills — skills like concentration, processing speed, auditory memory, working memory and reasoning. So, when the challenges set by the whole-word and phonics systems are further complicated by weak cognitive skills, the task of learning to read becomes very frustrating, and often impossible.

The great news is that weaknesses in cognitive skills can be attacked head-on. The key is to identify the specific weaknesses and to strengthen these mental skills through dynamic training and practice. Yes, that’s one simple reason why Edublox succeeds where other methods fail. Edublox specifically and effectively targets the cognitive skills that make learning to read possible and easy.

Whether your child is finding learning to read a small or big challenge, Edublox can help him — or her — succeed!