Scientists talked about the two main skills for successful reading in children
The ability to read depends not only on how quickly a child memorizes letters and puts them into words. To master this skill, it is necessary to distinguish between the sounds of speech, understand the meaning of words and connect what you read with already known information. However, difficulties with reading do not necessarily indicate a lack of intelligence or vision problems. Scientists have found that abilities related to auditory perception and language comprehension may be much more important. About what skills help children learn to read and why failures in this matter do not indicate low mental abilities — in the material of Izvestia.
Not just intelligence
Researchers led by Daniel Hajowski from Texas A&M University analyzed the relationship between cognitive abilities and reading skills. To do this, they combined about 50,000 correlations from 137 sets of tests that assessed intellectual abilities and educational achievements. The results of the work are published in the Journal of Intelligence (JI).
The analysis showed that general intelligence is indeed associated with success in reading, but its role turned out to be less significant than some previous studies suggested. Another unexpected result concerned visual information processing: in the framework of the analysis, scientists did not find a significant relationship between this ability and reading results.
Instead, auditory processing and understanding of knowledge—the ability to use accumulated vocabulary, concepts, and information about the world-turned out to be the strongest predictors. These skills were more closely related to reading than other cognitive characteristics studied.
Daniel Hajowski
One of the notable results was that general intelligence turned out to be less significant than in some previous meta-analyses. Broader abilities such as comprehension and auditory processing played an important independent role in reading beyond general intelligence, especially in decoding and understanding text.
How sounds help you read
Auditory processing is the ability to distinguish between the individual sounds that make up spoken words. To read an unfamiliar word, the child needs to understand which sounds are included in it, and correlate them with the corresponding letters. This process is called decoding.
For example, when reading a new word, a child must recognize its sound structure, sequentially associate sounds with letters and combine them into a whole. If it is difficult to distinguish between speech sounds, mastering this mechanism may be more difficult. Therefore, auditory processing is especially important in the early stages of learning to read.
The second significant factor is the set of vocabulary, concepts and background knowledge that a child receives in the learning process and in everyday life. The more he knows about the language and the world around him, the easier it is for him to understand the meaning of individual words, sentences, and entire texts.
The researchers found that these two abilities are particularly important for decoding and reading comprehension. Memory, logical thinking, and information processing speed are also associated with reading development, but they play a more supportive role.
Why is it difficult for a child to read
The results obtained can help teachers more accurately identify the reasons why it is difficult for a particular student to master reading. The researchers emphasize that such difficulties are not necessarily of the same nature. It may be difficult for one child to distinguish sounds, while it may be difficult for another child to understand the meaning of words and connect information into a single text.
Therefore, it is not enough to evaluate abilities only by reading speed or general intelligence indicators. It is important to take into account the individual skills on which the mastery of writing depends. This approach allows you to better understand which area requires additional attention.
Daniel Hajowski
Reading difficulties are not a sign of low abilities, but often reflect one specific skill that needs to be strengthened within a more complex system of interconnected abilities.
Skills that can be developed
The authors believe that the results of the study can be useful not only to specialists in the field of education, but also to parents. In particular, they pay attention to the importance of basic language skills, which are developed long before a child begins to read complex texts on their own.
Daniel Hajowski
Strengthening fundamental skills at home—even those that seem simple—can have a significant impact on developing more advanced reading abilities.
According to the researcher, the most effective support requires the interaction of family, school and community. At the same time, the work did not test specific teaching methods and does not prove that the development of auditory processing or vocabulary alone is guaranteed to improve reading results. It shows a statistical relationship between these abilities and the success of mastering a skill.
Scientists emphasize that reading is formed due to a whole system of interrelated processes. Therefore, difficulties with it should not be automatically perceived as an indicator of low intelligence — it is important to figure out exactly which element of this system needs support.
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