On Reading and Parenting (2 of 2)

1. The Stages of Reading Development by Jean Chall
   
   
   
   
   Jean Chall’s (1984) seminal research on the developmental stages of reading is used by many teachers as bases to facilitate activities and experiences for children who are learning how to read.
2. Know your toddler: The Emergent Reader

Pre-reading stage - marked by rapid brain growth; use of spoken language.

Your baby or toddler would be needing a lot of oral and aural experiences to acquire language skills. These language skills contribute to their visual skills once they see letters and words as symbols representing speech and ideas.

2. Know your child: The Beginning Reader

Initial reading stage - children learn the letters of the alphabet; phonetics; phonemic awareness; basic sentence structures; language learning peaks.

This is the ideal stage to introduce printed books!

3. Know your pre-teen and teenager: The Transitional Reader

Reading for confirmation and fluency and Reading for learning the new - reading skills are used to gain knowledge, facts and information using varied texts and literature.

This is the stage where in readers have gained a level of independence in reading. But they still need support from peers and the adults they interact with on their choices of reading materials. This is a crucial stage where success and failure in reading happens. If the child gets the best reading instruction from parents and teachers in the pre-reading and initial reading stages, the quality teaching of reading skills MUST continue in the middle grades in in junior high school.

This is an ideal time to introduce different reading materials and media formats. This is also a good time to encourage readers to write and create their books and their media.

4. Know your young adult: The Fluent Reader

Reading to comprehend multiple viewpoints - students read multiple viewpoints from varied texts and literature.

The reader has gained confidence, autonomy and independence in reading. Not only he or she makes sound reading choices, but also expresses a voice of informed opinions as a response to a reading experience. A deeper critical and creative thinking patterns occur in this stage of development. Readers are being prepared to fully join a community or a collective of thinkers and learners.

5. READ to LIVE!

Construction and Reconstruction - highest stage of reading development; Reading to learn and construct new knowledge.

The child is now an adult who reads and uses this skill to learn, relearn and unlearn.

What’s amazing at this stage is that, the adult reader is capable of making a difference in the lives of others. He or she is a functional member of the society. He or she can contribute to the community and can join in a conversation and a discourse of varying views, opinions and feelings with peers and even elders of the community.

    Good job, parents!