The development of reading and writing is one of the processes that, from the point of view of learning and psychology, are most important.

Thanks to reading and writing, we are able to use symbols to expand our sources of information and store all kinds of memories and interesting data between pages. But… what do we know about this development and about the ways in which we can intervene in it?

Written language recognition

From the historical perspective, research related to the analysis of the reading process argued that the direct conversion or codification of each of the words, by itself, could provide a complete meaning of the message or information received. However, subsequent work has broadened the initial perspectives.

Thus, two complementary processes involved in the recognition of the written word can be differentiated today.

1. Phonological or indirect route

It is the one that allows an exact grapheme-phoneme coding from which the word can be recognized (as it was in the initial theories). By means of this system the reader is able to identify both a regular or known word and a pseudo-word or unknown word.

This first system entails a higher level of cognitive effort for the reader at the level of working memory, therefore its response is slower.

2. Visual or direct route

It becomes a considerably more agile method for word recognition, since a complete grapheme-phoneme decoding is not performed. As with familiar words, the visual stimulus of graphemes is automatically and precisely identified.

Thus, this system is only valid for the most frequently used words, and cannot be used for unknown words or pseudo-words. Due to the savings in cognitive effort associated with this route, the reader can attend to other types of information different from that offered by the graphemes (spelling, syntax, pragmatic aspects, etc.) which facilitate a global complication of the information received.

Evolutionary models of reading acquisition

In order to explain the process of acquisition of reading ability, from the evolutionary perspective, several differentiated theoretical models have been proposed, among which we can highlight

Model by Marsh and Friedman (1981)

It is derived from Piagetian contributions and distinguishes four stages from the strategies the reader uses to access the meaning of the written word: linguistic divination (exclusive identification of very familiar words), memorization by visual index discrimination (from some keys such as the initial letters the complete word is deduced), sequential decoding (beginning of the regular grapheme-phoneme decoding process) and hierarchical decoding (fast recognition of complex, irregular or less familiar words by visual deduction).

Uta Frith Evolutionary Model (1985)

For its part, it proposes a sequence of three sequential phases, the overcoming of each of which leads to the immediately subsequent one. At first, the incipient reader is based on logographic strategies by associating the concrete form of the set of spellings of the word with a specific meaning (familiar words).

Later, by means of alphabetic strategies, the reader performs the mechanized conversion between grapheme and phoneme allowing him/her to identify all kinds of words. Finally, the spelling strategies facilitate an automated word recognition without carrying out a complete analysis of each grapheme, thus deducing some part of the word through the partial application of phonological recoding.

The contributions of Vigosky (1931-1995) and Bruner (1994)

These two researchers focus their interest on the social environment (and historical in the case of Lev Vigotsky) as a determining aspect in language acquisition. Thus, the function and purpose of the most relevant language is to promote interaction between the individuals who make up the social system.

Vigotsky emphasizes more the concept of constructivism, that is to say, the active role that the individual represents in the acquisition of a certain knowledge from the establishment of Zones of Proximal Development , which are combined with the guide or scaffolding that the figure of expert provides facilitating the apprentice’s passage through this process.

Jerome Bruner, however, places more emphasis on cognitive processes as the elements from which language develops, although he also gives significant importance to the social context where it takes place.

Processes in literacy skills

Reading comprehension is defined as the set of processes that allow a global meaning to be extracted from the information contained in a given text. An adaptive level of reading comprehension requires the reader to have a minimum level of previous knowledge about some of the topics that appear in the text, as well as a sufficient attentional and perceptive level to guarantee a correct assimilation of the data read.

On the other hand, cognitive and metacognitive aspects also play a relevant role, as well as the type of words in terms of specificity or technicality, length or familiarity with the reader.

Finally, the order and structure of the text are also determining aspects since they will facilitate the reader’s understanding of the sequence or development of the information to which the text refers.

Processes related to reading comprehension

Among the processes involved in reading comprehension, syntactic processing and semantic processing are differentiated:

Syntax processing

The first, more basic level of analysis is produced, which allows the reader to get closer to the meaning that corresponds to a specific piece of information.

This first level takes place from the implementation of the following strategies:

  1. Observe the word order in order to differentiate between the subject and object of each sentence.
  2. Detect key elements such as determinants, prepositions, adverbs, etc. that help to delimit the functions of the words to be identified.
  3. To differentiate the different elements of a sentence in terms of subject, verb, complements, subordinate sentences, etc.
  4. Integrate the meaning of individual words to arrive at a general understanding of the sentence.
  5. Pay attention to the punctuation marks that delimit the sentences and establish the relationships between them with respect to their predecessors and consequences.

Semantic processing

After the period of grammatical understanding of the sentence , an interpretation of the global meaning of the sentence is defined. A representation is thus obtained, usually in the form of an image, which synthesises the content of the sentence completely. For this, it is known that the combination of the information of the sentence read with the reader’s previous knowledge and cognitive schemes is necessary.

Schemes are interrelated knowledge organizations that intervene in: the interpretation of the perceived data, the recovery of the information contained in the subject’s report, the structuring of the information received, the establishment of general and specific objectives and the location of the resources necessary to respond to such incorporated information. Its main function is the achievement of inferences, for which it must focus and direct the attention process to focus on the elements that allow it to extract the general meaning of the information read.

Difficulties in handwriting recognition

With regard to the difficulties of word recognition related to visual perception , the following aspects should be taken into account, among others: the capacity for differentiation in the spatial arrangement of mirror letters such as “d”, “p”, “b”, “q”; the ability to discriminate between the consonants “m” and “n”; the possibility of determining the graphic aspects of each letter regardless of the type of writing that is presented, or the implementation of the memory capacity assigned to each letter.

These problems, frequent in dyslexia , must be analyzed carefully since they serve to detect difficulties in visual perceptual integration since this does not occur almost immediately as it usually does in non-dyslexic subjects.

Other types of issues are addressed by the problems in the functioning of the lexical access routes , both phonological and visual. Since both have complementary functions, an alteration in one of them inevitably causes an incomplete sintering of the written contents to which the subject is exposed. A particularity that may occur in the use of the visual route in the face of unknown words or pseudo-words is the phenomenon of lexicalization.

The reader confuses a familiar word with another one that presents certain coincidences in the phonemes it contains and may exchange them if the phonological pathway is not set in motion or if it suffers some kind of alteration, as for example in cases of phonological dyslexia (from which the identification of those unknown words is made).

Superficial dyslexia and other problems

At the other extreme, superficial dyslexia occurs in cases where regular words are read correctly but irregular words are not , since the subject relies on accurate grapheme-phoneme decoding. This type of reader has difficulty in discriminating between homophonic words such as “beautiful-hair” or “slingshot-wave”.

Finally, if the problem lies in the syntactic processing , the reader may find it difficult to integrate the meaning of the sentence when:

  1. The structure is more complex or contains several subordinate phrases in the same unit,
  2. Cannot access prior knowledge of the subject matter of the text or
  3. When the performance of its operating memory is lower than expected to work on different aspects of the information to be processed simultaneously.

Intervention

Various contributions have been made by authors who have researched the type of actions that are most effective for students with reading difficulties.

For their part, Huertas and Matamala advocate early and individualised intervention , adopting positive expectations regarding the student’s performance and tolerance towards one’s own pace of improvement, not being overly critical of mistakes made. Furthermore, they emphasize the type and manner of giving the instructions to be followed, short, precise and clear indications being more effective. Finally, it is necessary to transmit to the student the idea of linking the effort invested in the improvements achieved in order to increase their motivational level.

At the level of prevention in the appearance of difficulties in reading, Clemente and Domínguez bet for a program of interactive, ludic and dynamic character focused in promoting the abilities of identification of phonemes and syllables.

When the central element revolves around the difficulties in the recognition of the word, Thomson prioritizes the following actions : to emphasize the work in promoting the integration of the norms of grapheme-phoneme conversion from a multisensory and individualized approach, to be based on processes of overlearning to fix more successfully the knowledge acquired and to combine with actions of promotion of the positive self-esteem and self-concept counting on the collaboration of the family as the main part involved.

To compensate for the difficulties in implementing the visual way of processing the word, it can be practiced with exercises in which a word is repeatedly associated with its pronunciation and meaning.

When the problem lies in the phonological path, word construction activities can be carried out from individual phonemes by applying additions, substitutions or omissions of grapheme-phonemes in different order.

Finally, to work on syntactic understanding, tasks can be prescribed associating syntactic functions with colours from which the reader can more competently discern the meaning of each part of the sentence. To improve the discrimination and proper use of punctuation marks, one can work with texts in which the punctuation mark is linked with a small tap with the palms of the hands or on a table) that helps to accentuate the pause of the comma or period in each sentence.

Bibliographic references:

  • Clement, M. and Dominguez, A. B. (1999). The teaching of reading. Madrid. Pirámide.
  • Crespo, M. T. and Carbonero, M. A. (1998). “Basic cognitive skills and processes”. In J. A. González-Pienda and Núñez, J. C. (coords.): Dificultades del Aprendizaje Escolar, 91-125. Madrid: Pirámide.
  • Huerta, E. and Matamala, A. (1995). Treatment and prevention of reading difficulties. Madrid. Viewer.
  • Jiménez, J. (1999). Psychology of Learning Difficulties. Madrid. Síntesis.