INFS 431 LITERATURE AND SERVICES FOR CHILDREN Session 2 Factors - - PowerPoint PPT Presentation

College of Education School of Continuing and Distance Education

2014/2015 – 2016/2017

INFS 431 LITERATURE AND SERVICES FOR CHILDREN

Session 2 – Factors that Affect the Development of Reading Habits in Children I

Lecturer: S. Nii Bekoe Tackie, School of Information and Communication Studies, Department of Information Studies Contact Information: snbtackie@ug.edu.gh

Session Overview

• Educationists have tried to establish when children start
• reading. For some time, it was believed that certain

traits in the development process of a child contributed to the child’s ability to read. It was thought that children acquired all these traits by a specific age which then makes them ready to read. It has, however, been realized that some children acquire those traits earlier or later in their developmental process. Thus, it became

• bvious that there may be other issues that affect

children’s ability to acquire the habit of reading. This Session, therefore, looks at some of the factors that prevent children from developing the habit of reading.

S.N.B. Tackie, SICS-DIS Slide 2

Session Objectives

By the end of this section, you should be able to:

• Understand the need to find out when children

become ready to read.

• Identify the general factors that prevent children

from acquiring the habit of reading.

• Discuss the solutions to the problems.

S.N.B. Tackie, SICS-DIS Slide 3

Session Outline

The key topics to be covered in the session are as follows:

• Topic One:

The Search for Reading Readiness

• Topic Two:

Dyslexia

• Topic Three: General factors that affect the development
• f reading habits in children

S.N.B. Tackie, SICS-DIS Slide 4

Reading List

• Bradford,

J.(2009) What Causes Dyslexia? http://www.dyslexia-parent.com/mag24.html

S.N.B. Tackie, SICS-DIS Slide 5

THE SEARCH FOR READING READINESS

Topic One:

S.N.B. Tackie, SICS-DIS Slide 6

Reading Readiness

Educationists occupied themselves with the task of finding when children are ready to read.

• This is what is known as reading readiness.
• They believed that

visual ability, listening ability, personality development, interest and experiences, emotional stability, language achievements, Combine to indicate reading readiness of the child. It was generally agreed that by the time the child reached age 6 ½, these characteristics are developed well enough for the child to begin reading.

S.N.B. Tackie, SICS-DIS Slide 7

Reading Readiness

• As a result, most schools begin to teach children how to read

from age 6.

• Belief questioned by many educators
• Reasons:

not automatic that by 6 ½ years of age all children would have acquired those characteristics. Some children may not develop those characteristics till age 8; Some develop the characteristics as early as age 4.

• Apart from the age, many other educators believe that the

ability to read depends on whether the child can focus his mind on letters and words that make meaning.

• This is what is called Emergent Literacy.

S.N.B. Tackie, SICS-DIS Slide 8

Emergent Literacy(EL)

Term used to explain a child's knowledge of reading and writing skills before they learn how to read and write words.

• Belief that long before children are able to physically

read and write, they begin developing the knowledge necessary to execute the skills of reading and writing even one- and two-year-olds

• Emergent Literacy Theory(Marie Clay)

explains that children learn to read and write through first hearing stories, touching books, and seeing letters, numbers and words(Blake, 2014)

S.N.B. Tackie, SICS-DIS Slide 9

Emergent Literacy Defined

• It signals a belief that, in literate society, young children are in

the process of becoming literate.

Defined as the developmental steps a young child takes prior to actually

• reading a text, including

– interacting with a book, – responding to texts, and – pretending at reading or – writing before actually being able to do so.

• S.N.B. Tackie, SICS-DIS

Slide 10

Emergent Literacy Defined(Cont)

A child who has achieved emergent literacy has

• ral language skills,

phonological awareness, print awareness and letter awareness.

• Dr. Richard Boateng, UGBS

Slide 11

Achieving Emergent Literacy

A number of skills and abilities are required for the achievement of Emergent Literacy.

• These include:

Print motivation

• first step of emergent literacy.

children become interested in print materials. seen through the child’s enjoyment of being read to, playing with books pretending to read or write. Vocabulary Vocabulary development is a significant pointer to a child’s

• verall academic achievement.

Vocabulary is seen as a child’s ability to know the name of things.

• Dr. Richard Boateng, UGBS

Slide 12

Achieving Emergent Literacy(Cont.)

Print awareness stage at which children learn how to

• handle a book
• begin to recognize the differences between letters

and words.

• learn how texts are organized,
• realize that reading is completed from left to right

and from the top of the page to the bottom of the page. Narrative skills

• when children develop the ability to

tell a story or describe a sequence of events.

• Dr. Richard Boateng, UGBS

Slide 13

Achieving Emergent Literacy(Cont.)

Letter awareness

• when children understand that letters are

unique from each other and begin to recognize different letters and their sounds. Phonological awareness

• when children begin to understand that words

are made up of different sounds or phonemes, and that stringing these sounds together creates words that results in meaning.

• Dr. Richard Boateng, UGBS

Slide 14

Activity

• 1. Enumerate the skills and abilities that a child would

need to achieve Emergent Literacy.

• 2. Describe how each of the skills and abilities manifest

itself in an Emergent Literate child.

• Dr. Richard Boateng, UGBS

Slide 15

DYSLEXIA

Topic Two:

S.N.B. Tackie, SICS-DIS Slide 16

Introduction

Research has shown that

• Children begin to associate sound with symbols that

they stand for at an early age.

• Reading readiness for children of all ages therefore can

begin from their language related experiences.

• Children’s experiences both at home and school

influence how well they learn to read.

• Some children, however, find it difficult to read though

the characteristics that make for reading readiness may be present.

S.N.B. Tackie, SICS-DIS Slide 17

Introduction(Cont.)

• This phenomenon set researchers wondering why some children

are not able to read.

• Series of studies proved that the issue was more complex than it

was thought.

• Thus instead of looking for the problems, it was decided to focus
• n solutions rather.
• In trying to find out why some children have problems with

reading, it was thought that dyslexia accounted for children’s inability to develop the habit of reading.

• However, other experts have questioned that assertion.
• Because there are children who are not dyslexic and yet are not

able to read.

• Thus it was decided that reading disabilities will be a better way
• f expression for problems that children face with reading.

S.N.B. Tackie, SICS-DIS Slide 18

What is Dyslexia?

Term given to the condition that makes it difficult for children to acquire reading ability.

• Dyslexic children see letters and words and sometimes

figures turned upside down or inside out.

• Thus a dyslexic child may see the letter

w as m; or d as b; or p as q; tar may be seen as rat; or won as now; or saw as was.

S.N.B. Tackie, SICS-DIS Slide 19

Causes of Dyslexia

Exact cause or causes not known.

• Studies have shown, basically two causes of dyslexia.

developmental dyslexia which comes from inherited traits; acquired dyslexia which is brought on by frequent colds and throat infections in children between age zero and five years. Lack of early treatment, causes hearing problems in the child as a result of intermittent blocking of the ear passage.

S.N.B. Tackie, SICS-DIS Slide 20

Causes of Dyslexia(Cont.)

• As a result, the developing brain is not able to make the links

between the sounds it hears.

• The early learning of sounds and words is primary to a child’s

ability to deal with language and text.

• Failure to hear clearly will make it difficult for the child to hear

the difference between words like

• pin and thin; or
• fan and van.

S.N.B. Tackie, SICS-DIS Slide 21

Causes of Dyslexia(Cont.)

• Again lack of clear hearing will slow the child’s phonemic

awareness, which is the ability to hear that words are made up of smaller sounds and syllables such as

• c-a-t; or
• in-ter-est-ing.
• Parents may easily fail to be aware of the problem until a doctor

actually looks into the child’s ear.

• This problem is often called glue ear or conductive hearing loss.
• For developmental dyslexia, studies have shown that children who

come from families that have left-handed members are more at risk

• f getting the condition.
• For example, it has been discovered that more than half of children

with learning difficulties have a family member who is left-handed.

S.N.B. Tackie, SICS-DIS Slide 22

Causes of Dyslexia(Cont.)

• Sometimes a child may be unlucky to experience a

combination of the two causes.

• This means that the child has inherited genes that

predispose him or her to reading difficulties and has also been affected by early hearing problems.

• Such children become severely dyslexic.
• In such circumstances, the child will need a lot of

support throughout his or her years in school as well as in the work place.

• Dr. Richard Boateng, UGBS

Slide 23

Causes of Dyslexia(Cont.)

• Technical advances in brain scanning in recent years,
• show that there are bunches of brain cells that lie below

the surface of the brain in dyslexic people.

• However, these bunches of cells are found lying on the

surface of the brains of non-dyslexic persons.

• These cells are in the front and left side of the brain

– areas responsible for reading and writing.

• Those bunches of cells normally move to the surface of

the brain while the brain is developing in the foetus.

• In dyslexic children the cells remain beneath the surface
• f the brain.
• They are therefore called ectopic cells
• Dr. Richard Boateng, UGBS

Slide 24

Causes of Dyslexia(Cont.)

• Another part of the brain called the magno-cellular system

which is responsible for our ability to see moving things, has been discovered to be smaller in the brains of dyslexic people.

• As a result of these deficiencies, dyslexic children use both the

right and left sides of the brain for language work

• while non-dyslexic children use the left side which is the

correct part of the brain to use for language work.

• Thus the brains of dyslexic children have to work almost six

times harder to cope with reading activities.

• This may account for why dyslexic people get easily tired in

language work and in dealing with text.

• Dr. Richard Boateng, UGBS

Slide 25

Treatment for Dyslexia

It is very necessary to point out that dyslexia is not a matter of lack of intelligence. Dyslexic people are not stupid. On the contrary people with dyslexia compensate for their inability to read with other traits like creativity; physical coordination; empathy with others. They are known to make good architects and sportsmen.

• Treatment of dyslexia requires patience, encouragement and extra

motivation from both parents and teachers.

• Phonics is by far the best method of treatment for dyslexia.
• A dyslexic child will have to be taken through extensive phonic drill.

This should be done through a multi-sensory approach.

• Dr. Richard Boateng, UGBS

Slide 26

Treatment for Dyslexia(Cont.)

• The multi-sensory approach involves appealing to the child’s

aural (hearing), visual (seeing) and tactile (touch) senses.

• Teaching the child to spell by saying the word you appeal to the child’s

sense of hearing.

• The letters or words may be written

in the air,

• n the carpet or floor or board,
• r using plasticine to mould the letter,
• r using very large handwriting on big sheets of paper.
• This approach gives the brain a visual and tactile memory of the word in

addition to hearing it.

• By joining letters together in large handwriting allows the brain to

recollect the order of the letters in a word.

• Dr. Richard Boateng, UGBS

Slide 27

Activity

i. Itemise the symptoms of dyslexia …………………………………………………………………………… …………………………………………………………………………… …………………………………………………………………………....

• ii. What causes dyslexia ?

…………………………………………………………………………… …………………………………………………………………………… ……………………………………………………………………………

• iii. How may dyslexic children be treated ?

…………………………………………………………………………….. …………………………………………………………………………….. ……………………………………………………………………………..

• Dr. Richard Boateng, UGBS

Slide 28

PRIVATE INFORMATION

Topic Three: General Factors that Prevent the Development of Reading Habits in Children

S.N.B. Tackie, SICS-DIS Slide 29

Introduction

General factors affect every child, no matter where the child is born. It is a well-known fact that literacy rates are higher in the advanced countries than in the developing countries. No effort is spared in these countries to equip children with the ability to acquire a reading habit. However, there are people (children) in advanced countries who also fail to acquire the reading habit. General reading disability may be classified into four areas namely aliteracy, failure to concentrate, insufficient reading experience and physical disabilities.

S.N.B. Tackie, SICS-DIS Slide 30

Aliteracy

This means the lack of a desire to read. Aliterate people can read but do not have a desire to read so they will avoid reading activities. By avoiding reading activities, the aliterate persons can reinforce their condition Aliteracy condition is reinforced more in the classroom when the alliterate child find himself among children who enjoy reading, he withdraws more. Solution to the problem of aliteracy capture the interest of the aliterate child expose him to more attractive materials meaningful reading materials.

S.N.B. Tackie, SICS-DIS Slide 31

Insufficient Reading Experience

Everybody who reads brings his or her experience to bear on the understanding of what he or she is reading; so it is with children.

• Children who come from homes where conversation, books and

ideas are varied have a broad base of experience which allows them to understand easily what they read.

• For those who come from homes where children are relegated to

the background or where children can only be seen but not heard, they find it difficult to read and understand what they are reading.

• For such children, books are a luxury; and when adults are

conversing, children must make themselves scarce.

• For such children their only experience with books is at school.

Therefore, for children like that, reading cannot be seen as a compulsion.

S.N.B. Tackie, SICS-DIS Slide 32

Failure to Concentrate.

To get meaning out of what you are reading, it is important to focus your mind on the reading activity.

• To be able to understand what you are reading you need

to bring your past experience to bear on what you are reading.

• If you do not have a past experience, you will find the

reading exercise tedious and uninteresting thus

• For children without any reading experience at all, it

becomes difficult to focus the mind on the reading activity because it is boring and uninteresting.

• Such children do not see the need to read because they

do not know why they should read.

S.N.B. Tackie, SICS-DIS Slide 33

Failure to Concentrate(Cont.)

To solve the problem first of all the child must understand why we read (purpose of reading).

• When reading, you must summarise and evaluate what

you are reading either in your mind or on paper.

• You need to vary the activity.
• By varying the activity, you can sustain your reading.
• Thus for children, there must be the opportunity to

evaluate and discuss what has been read.

• Parents and teachers have the responsibility of creating

the conditions that will allow what has been read to the child or what the child has read to be discussed.

S.N.B. Tackie, SICS-DIS Slide 34

Physical Disabilities

This refers to inadequate brain development, vision defects and hearing defects. These can cause reading difficulties in children. But these are just a minor part of the problems because parents and teachers and

• ther adults can detect these problems very early and necessary action can be

taken.

• Signs of visual (sight) problems include frequent rubbing of the eyes and

squinting.

• Pointers to the fact that the child has hearing problems.

Children who do not pay attention when they are spoken to or Children who ask for what has been said to be repeated several times or Children who do not understand direction

• For the issue of inadequate brain development, it becomes very obvious much

earlier in the child and this can be discovered by doctors during post natal treatment.

• Dr. Richard Boateng, UGBS

Slide 35

Activity

i. Explain how aliteracy reinforces itself …………………………………………………………………… …………………………………………………………………… ……………………………………………………………………. ii. How will you solve the problem of a child who fails to concentrate on a reading exercise ? ………………………………………………………………………. ……………………………………………………………………… ……………………………………………………………………… ……………………………………………………………………….

S.N.B. Tackie, SICS-DIS Slide 36

Activity(Cont.)

• iii. What causes insufficient reading experience?

…………………………………………………………………………. …………………………………………………………………………. ………………………………………………………………………….. ……………………………………………………………………………

• iv. List the physical disabilities that may prevent children

from acquiring the habit of reading. …………………………………………………………………………… …………………………………………………………………………… ……………………………………………………………………………. …………………………………………………………………………….

S.N.B. Tackie, SICS-DIS Slide 37