RAPID READING

After speech, reading is the most important of the basic skills, involving as it does recognition of a visual pattern, and the ability to pronounce it. Reading readiness has been the subject of much investigation and varies considerably from country to country, but in Great Britain it is now fairly generally accepted that the age at which a child is ready to read depends upon intelligence, home influence and teaching methods. The latter have varied very much in the last decade and much investigation is still going on to determine the best methods. To combine maximum comprehension with rapid or effective reading, more early practice in ‘silent’ as opposed to oral reading is probably necessary.