Why do some children struggle to read? | Integrated Learning Therapy

Why are there so many bright and hard-working children in our schools that aren’t learning to read as they should? Interestingly, if you read something to them, giving them information through their ears, they understand. But when you give them the same words to read or to absorb through their eyes, they fail. Reading problems seem different from hearing or understanding problems, yet it is the same brain showing these differences in ability.

Our brains are ultimately responsible for us being able to read. If a child struggles to make sense of written words, surely it must be related to problems in some or other area of the brain. Is this true and if so, which brain areas are not functioning as they should?[1]

Essentially, reading needs a brain

That can change light waves into electro-chemical impulses through the visual system
That has organized, adequately insulted neural networks through which the electro-chemical impulses can travel efficiently
With an area where storage, retrieval and decoding of information can take place efficiently.

Which of these might help us understand why reading problems occur?

If a child can look at a cow and recognise it as a cow, he perceives it. This means that he interprets the image correctly as being a cow. The light waves from the cow are changed to electro-chemical impulses by the retina in the eye, then pass on to the brain. If there is no conflicting information coming in from the cow, the child will perceive a cow. Children with reading problems have no problem recognising objects. In essence, they can read all the physical things in their environment; they have no trouble recognising and perceiving actual objects.

If we show him a picture of those objects he recognise the pictures quite easily. He can, in essence, ‘read’ the pictures. Pictures aren’t real objects but are symbols which stand for the objects but they are closely related to the objects. The picture of a cow is easily related to a cow because the picture (the symbol) represents what an actual cow looks like.

If a child with a reading problem easily recognises a cow when he sees one, and he easily recognises a picture of a cow, why can’t he recognise the written word ‘cow’? What is there about written words which make them different from the real thing or from pictures? The problem seems to be one of language.

Language is a man-made code, composed of symbols that have no meaning in themselves. The word ‘cow’ is a symbol with no relation to the way an actual cow appears to the eye or brain.

To be able to use the code, we first have to memorise the meaning assigned to each symbol. If either the memory of the symbol or the memory of its assigned meaning is forgotten, the code breaks down. Thus, storage of both the symbol and its meaning is essential to memory. We know that language is stored in the left brain hemisphere. This means that language and decoding functions needs organized ‘wiring’ or neural pathways that convey information to this area. Any scrambling of the network due to shorted wires, inadequate connections cause a breakdown in transmitting the electrical messages.

Once the symbol and its meaning have been stored, we have to be able to retrieve it. Decoding needs a storehouse from which information is easily retrieved. Poor storage in the brain slows down the process of retrieval of information; children who suffer from this slow-down might speak more slowly, or read more slowly. If incoming information is stored in an excessively disordered way, then we have a reading problem.

Following this analysis, it seems that reading problems can be the result of lack of development of the nervous system, especially if underdevelopment results in undecided or cross-dominance.

Confirmation of this theory comes by looking at other, sometimes subtle, signs of brain underdevelopment that children with reading problems commonly share. Some of these include

Problems with coordination. They seem to lack grace when walking and running, often have a history of skipping crawling or cannot crawl smoothly without concentrating on doing so
Early problems with deciding hand, foot and eye dominance, and showing uncertain dominance after the age of 6 years
Show an extreme love for music and listening to music
Handwriting characteristically shows little consistency of slant; vertical lines of letters such as ‘h,j,p,t,l” make all kinds of different angles
Eye problems even though eyes test as normal. Many have problems with binocular vision or eye tracking movements
Many reverse words or letters
Most are poor spellers
Many seem to do better in numeracy than reading and all prefer verbal discussions to having to write something down
Nearly all poor readers understand language better through their ears than through their eyes.

So reading problems are related to the development of the nervous system. No amount of remedial reading will be as effective as addressing the nervous system inefficiencies directly.

[1] With thanks to Carl Delacato and insights from his book A new start for the child with reading problems.

Image supplied by Freepik

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Martin Doherty, writing for The Conversation, says that at the age of about four, children reach important milestones in brain development.

One of these is a huge improvement in understanding others’ thoughts and feelings. This is the start of empathy. Another is in spatial thinking—understanding how objects are positioned and related. This is the beginning of the ability to read maps.

Martin and his colleague, Catherine Sayer, conducted a study with 175 two to five-year-olds to explore how children are able to use scale models to figure out where something is in the real world. At about four, children are able to use a scale model of a room to work out where something is. We thought that this might result from children’s understanding of how one thing can represent something else. But we actually found that four-year-olds’ ability to use scale models came from their spatial abilities.

At the same age, children start to understand that someone’s behaviour is due to what that person believes, not necessarily what is really the case. This has interesting consequences.

If you’ve played hide-and-seek with young children, you may have noticed that they aren’t always very good at it. They love the ritual of looking in all the wrong places first, but beforehand they may tell you where they are going to hide, hide in the same place every time, or not be especially hidden.

After their fourth birthday, they get much better at hide and seek. They understand that the seeker looks in the wrong places because they don’t know where the hider is.

At about three to four children also start to tell lies. They realize they can make someone believe something that isn’t true.

Understanding symbols

Martin’s earlier research with fellow psychologist Josef Perner suggests that four-year-olds don’t just start to understand how others’ minds work. Figuring this out is part of the development of an understanding of “representation”—that symbols, like thoughts, words, or pictures, can be used to stand for something else.

Children start to think about how words relate to objects. This means, for instance, knowing that “animal” can refer to something you already have a name for, such as “rabbit”. This might help children learn the new word.

Their ability to use a understand the components of pictures also improves around this age. Very young children use a lot of trial and error to complete a jigsaw, picking up random pieces to see if they fit. By the time they are about four years old, they start to use the picture as a guide, trying to connect lines and match bits of colour, while checking the guide picture on the box lid.

Developmental experiments

Another ability children develop at around four is using scale models. A classic set of developmental experiments involved a model of a regular household room. The real room had typical furniture—sofa, table, cupboard and so on—and the model had miniature versions laid out in the same way.

Children were shown where something was hidden in the model and told to find an object hidden in “the same place” in the room. Children of around four can find the object using the identical layouts. If shown a sticker under a particular chair in the model room, for example, they can go straight to the “same” chair in the other room. This is the fundamental understanding required to read maps.

Adults see scale models and maps as representations. Maps represent a town or a country. A scale model of, say, the Eiffel Tower represents the real thing. At first, Martin suspected children’s ability to use scale models is more evidence of understanding representation at this age.

He was wrong. Instead, the researchers found that this ability is based on a development in children’s spatial abilities that also occurs at about four. This is the ability to think about spaces and where objects are within them. Spatial abilities help with maths skills, and good spatial ability is linked to an interest in science, technology, engineering and mathematics.

Their experiment was simple. They compared the model room task with a test of understanding how representation works. The two abilities develop around the same age, but they found they were not related. Children who could do one task couldn’t necessarily do the other.

They also had a test of purely spatial ability. Children who passed the model room task also passed the spatial task. So it looks like the model room task relied on children‘s spatial thinking.

They don’t yet know why two important but apparently unrelated abilities arise at the same time. Perhaps it’s related to changes in the growing brain at this interesting age.

Provided by The Conversation.

Image supplied by Freepik.