(An excerpt from the Reading Rockets Web site. The full document is available at ReadingRockets.org.)

1. Learning to read is complex. Reading - making meaning from print - is a complex process that draws upon many skills that need to be developed at the same time.
2. Teaching reading requires an integration of methods. In past years, the merits of phonics instruction (which focuses on decoding skills) and whole language instruction (which focuses on meaning-making) have been hotly debated. Recently, most people have come to agree that skilled teachers integrate both skills and meaning into a balanced program.
3. A lot of American children do not read well. Researchers estimate that 10 million American children are poor readers (Fletcher & Lyon, 1998). Thirty-seven percent of fourth graders read below the "basic" level on the National Assessment of Educational Progress reading test (NCES, 2001).
4. Kids from all kinds of families have reading problems. About 20 percent of elementary students have significant reading difficulties. The rate of reading failure for African-American, Hispanic, limited-English speakers and poor children ranges from 60 to 70 percent. However, one third of poor readers nationwide are from college-educated families (AFT, 1999).
5. Kids who struggle usually have problems sounding out words. Difficulties in decoding and word recognition are at the core of most reading difficulties. When word recognition isn't automatic, reading isn't fluent and comprehension suffers.
6. What happens before school matters a lot. What preschoolers know before they enter school is strongly related to how easily they learn to read in elementary school.
7. Learning to read is closely tied to learning to talk and listen. Families and caregivers need to talk and listen to young children in order to help them learn a lot of the skills they will need for reading. Children with language, hearing or speech problems need to be identified early to avoid developing future reading difficulties.
8. Without help, slow starters don't improve. Eighty-eight percent of children who have difficulty reading at the end of first grade display similar difficulties at the end of fourth grade (Juel, 1998). Three-quarters of students who are poor readers in third grade will remain poor readers in high school (Shaywitz et al., 1997).
9. With help, slow starters can succeed. As many as two-thirds of reading-disabled children can become average or above-average readers if they are identified early and taught appropriately (Vellutino et al., 1996; Fletcher & Lyon, 1998).
10. Teaching kids to read is a collaborative effort. Parents, teachers, caregivers and members of the community play a role in helping children learn to read.

Get information about helping young children learn to read and making them avid readers at ReadingRockets.org.

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