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Reading Horizons: A Journal of Literacy and

Language Arts
Volume 10
Article 3
Issue 2 January 1970

1-1-1970

Reading Readiness
Dorothy E. Smith

Joe R. Chapel

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Smith, D. E., & Chapel, J. R. (1970). Reading Readiness. Reading Horizons: A Journal of Literacy and Language Arts, 10 (2). Retrieved
from https://scholarworks.wmich.edu/reading_horizons/vol10/iss2/3

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 READING READINESS
Dorothy E. Smith ana Joe R. Chapel
One of the most difficult tasks facing the kindergarten or first
grade teacher is to recognize the degree of readiness to read which
her young students have attained by the time they face her on that
first September morning. A great deal has been written on the subject
of reading readiness, which is as it should be, since it is so important a
subject. However, much that has been written is inaccurate, and most
of it is incomplete.
There is essential agreement on what is meant by the words, "read-
ing readiness." It might be translated as, "the time at which a child
is capable of learning to read." Traditionally, in the United States,
we consider that a child is ready to read when he is about six years
and six months old. Formal reading instruction is introduced in
kindergarten or in the first grade, and since we have rules that govern
when a child may start school, it customarily happens to six-year olds.
Thus chronological age is made the official gauge of reading readiness.
There are, however, many people who have challenged this time-
table. About ten years ago there burgeoned in the land an idea that
children could be taught to read when they were still babies. Some
parents became aware that their offspring were ready for new experi-
ences and new learning opportunities long before the "average" child
was ready. They began trying out new learning experiences on their
babies, and they saw that their children not only learned, but that they
delighted in the exploration of new territory.
Thus was born the belief that children--even infants-were cap-
able of learning far more than had been asked of them heretofore.
Educated parents and interested educators became excited with the
possibilities of advanced education for very young children, and a
new philosophy was instituted; teach your child to read before his
second birthday. They had well-known examples of the possibility of
early education in Chopin, who was composing before he was six
years old, and Michelangelo who was an accomplished artist before
puberty.
Babies have been taught to recognize symbols, and they have been
taught to match the symbol-clusters with certain verbal stimuli. They
have even been able to identify objects symbolized by the printed,
written or vocalized stimulus. So far, however, no one has been able
to show that a two year old can comprehend, "the blue chair I saw
yesterday is softer than the one you are looking at now."
There are others who suggest that a child should not be introduced
6o-rh
to reading until he is eight years old or older. There are countries
in Europe which delay the reading process beyond what we in the
United States consider the optimal age. And it is true that these
children catch up to ours within a couple of years, and often it is
impossible to measure the difference between the two groups in
reading ability by the time the children are ten or eleven years old.
In any case, in order to decide when reading readiness occurs
in a child, we must know what reading is. Is reading the identification
of symbols? Is it the ability to reproduce those symbols in some other
form, such as pronunciation or cursive writing? Is it the interpretation
of the symbols? We can identify and correctly pronounce "slithey in
the toves," but can we attach meaning to it?
I t seems obvious that reading must be "a purposeful actlvity in
which the individual seeks to identify, interpret, and evaluate the
ideas and points of view expressed by the writer." (1 )
Here, then is the crux of the matter. Reading readiness is the
product of the whole child, not a splinter or a segment of himself.
Reading is a process of perceiving symbols, of visual, oral and aural
discrimination. It involves the ability to form concepts, and it cer-
tainly involves prior experience. If a child has never been introduced
to the fact of wetness, or hardness, or even of a cow or a cat, the
written or oral stimulation of the word will not evoke any mental image
in the child. He will not be able to read those words, no matter
how well he can pronounce or reproduce them.
The time in a child's life when he becomes capable of reading
involves a manifold readiness Gestalt. He must have reached readiness
in four different aspects of growth; physiological, psychological (emo-
tional and intellectual), educational and sociological (cultural and
environmental) .
A child must be ready physically before he can learn to read.
Children ordinarily start out far-sighted, and their eye muscles slowly
tighten in their focusing ability. Book publishers are aware of this
and accommodate their clients by using large type for little children.
Very often we find that poor readers have "double vision" which
usually means their focus field is too far out; that they are still far-
sighted. Also, auditory acuity is a near-necessity. Reading, talking, and
listening are so intertwined as to be almost inseparable. There are
Helen Kellers in the world, but they are remarkable exceptions.
Physical factors are also important in that a child must have mastered
at least a modicum of ability in use of fine-as opposed to gross-
muscular control. The sequence of growth follows a typical pattern
 rh-61
in humans, but the rate of this growth is a highly individual process.
The sequence of development is from the head downward, from the
center outward, and from gross to refined movements. The grasping
of discrimination between "b" and "p" requires fine distinctions,
whether the stimulus is visual or oral. A third requirement in physical
factors is general good health. If a person has an habitual headache,
or he is partially blind, or his feet hurt constantly, he will not be
able to concentrate on the intricate process of reading.
Psychological factors are every bit as important as the physical,
in determining reading readiness. Educators differ in their evaluation
of a person's "intelligence quotient," but everyone will undoubtedly
agree that there are degrees of mental maturity, and that a child must
have attained a certain degree of intellectual functioning before he can
assimilate what he reads.
One of the most important factors of all is emotional stability and
maturity. A child who is at odds with himself and the world will
not be able to concentrate on those black-on-white squiggles on a page.
A child who has been taught to be super organized and structured
will be unable to venture into the excitement of reading and, con-
versely, the disorganized, wholely impulsive child will be incapacitated.
The paranoid child will not be able to accept the authority of the
printed word and the autistic child will refuse to respond in any
way. The degree of instability or immaturity of a child has a direct
relationship to his reading readiness.
It is interesting to note that there is a typical pattern of develop-
ment in the human personality, just as there is in the physical growth.
"At some ages (C.A. 2, 5, and 10 years) the child tends to be good
tempered, cooperative, and well adjusted. These are followed by ages
(C.A. 2Y2, 5Y2 to 6, and 11 years) when the child seems at odds
with himself and others. There are also regular periods of-withdrawal
and introspection (C.A. 3Y2, 7, and 13 years) followed by ages at
which the child is outgoing, expansive, and adventurous (C.A. 4,
8, and 14 years)."(2)
So far as young children are concerned, the third factor, educa-
tion, must be considered in conjunction with the child's sociological
background. Aside from any nursery school he may have attended,
educational factors are a product of his family's culture and environ-
ment. The type of society the child comes from will have an impor-
tant bearing on the direction his development takes. Cultural differences
have been widely discussed in the past few years and need not be
reiterated here.
62-rh
The educational-environmental factor is influenced by the kind of
family the child belongs to. Some of the more important aspects are:
the language patterns within the home; the concern and interest of
the parents in stimulating the child to explore new ideas and new
places; the attitudes parents have toward learning, toward school,
and toward books; the model they present to the child; and, the
care with which they provide mental content, or experiential back-
ground.
Some of the specific things the teacher hopes a child has learned
before he enters first grade, which parents might teach their children,
are how to hold crayons or pencils, to become familiar with writing
implements, the ability to detect likenesses and differences, the ability
to rhyme, being able to interpret pictures, also the conventional left
to right progression, and hopefully the attention span of the child
will be sufficiently lengthened so he can sit still long enough to learn
new things.
The teacher who is faced with anywhere from ten to thirty
kindergarteners or first-graders cannot expect that they will all be
at the same stage in the developmental process. Difficult as it is, it is
up to her to recognize the degree of readiness of each of the children.
There are many reading readiness tests on the market; however, none
of them is comprehensive enough to take into account all of the
factors necessary. By means of an appropriate selectivity of standardized
tests, informal inventories and observation the teacher can become
proficient in recognizing the physiological, psychological, educational,
and sociological factors which combine to produce the "compleat"
child who is ready to read.

BIBLIOGRAPHY

1. Carter, Homer L. J. and Dorothy J. McGinnis. Reading, A Key

to Academic Success. Dubuque, Iowa: Wm. C. Brown Company,
1967, p. 2.
2. Smith, Charles P., Child Development. Dubuque, Iowa: Wm. C.
Brown Company, 1966.