Did you know that our brains are not wired to read?
Our human brains don’t start out wired for reading. We’re not born with the ability to read. To learn to read, we have to use parts of the brain that evolved to do other things.
Since our brains aren’t pre-wired to translate letters into sounds, we learn to read by repurposing parts of the brain meant to do other things — visual processing, language comprehension, and speech production. A child's brain must physically forge a brand-new neural superhighway connecting vision, sound, and meaning!!
Think of it like:
The Vision Village: The brain takes over the area in the back of the brain used for recognizing faces and objects and turns it into a "letterbox" to recognize shapes like b, a, and t.
The Sound City: It connects that visual area to the front part of the brain that already understands spoken language and individual speech sounds (phonemes).
The Meaning Mountain: It ties both of those to the regions that make sense of what words actually mean.
Building Our Brain’s Connections by Grade Level
Kdg. | Gr. 1 | Gr. 2 | Gr. 3 & 4 |
|---|---|---|---|
★ Letter names ★ Letter sounds ★ Hearing sounds in words | ★ Sounding out words correctly ★ Reading simple words | ★ Reading whole words ★ Reading simple sentences and paragraphs | ★ Reading paragraphs ★ Understanding text |
To determine your child’s reading needs, we give a Benchmark Assessment at the beginning, middle and end of the year. We use that information to provide your child with direct instruction in targeted reading skills to help them become independent fluent readers. You will be getting a parent copy in the next few weeks:
"At Home Brain Builders"
You don't need expensive tutoring kits or hours of worksheets to build a reader. According to educational research, the most effective activities are brief, playful, and built into your normal daily routine.
In addition, you will be receiving Home Support Recommendations that match your child’s benchmark skills:
