Science of Reading Resource Round-Up

Image of Liesel Schmidt.
Courtesy of author. 

Liesel Schmidt is a children’s librarian at Denver Public Library’s Central Library. She enjoys exploring the wonders of the world alongside kids of all kinds.

When we evaluate beginning readers, we look for illustrations that support the text, simple sentences with plenty of white space on the page, and the repetition of new words. How does all this relate to the actual process of learning to read? Neuroscience from the past few decades has a lot to tell us about how we learn to understand a universe of meaning starting with little black marks on a page. Let’s take a look at three books about the science that is helping us understand the reading brain: Language at the Speed of Sight by Mark Seidenberg, Proust and the Squid by Maryanne Wolf, and Reading in the Brain by Stanislas Dehaene. What can these books tell us about the best texts for beginning readers?

Reading in the Brain: The New Science of How We Read by Stanislas Dehaene
Without changes to the structures of our brains, humans have become adept readers. Dehaene explores the ways that the brain has adapted its circuitry to allow for reading. Studies of the structures involved in reading reveal what Dehaene calls the “letterbox area”, which processes incoming words, acting as a switchboard to connect words with meaning. A book packed with ideas, this is a good overview of our reading brains.

Proust and the Squid: The Story and Science of the Reading Brain by Maryanne Wolf 
In this dense, yet compelling narrative, Wolf traces the ways that the humans learned to read and how that discovery has shaped our species. As Wolf puts it, “How could a single cultural invention less than 6,000 years ago change the ways the brain is connected within itself and the intellectual possibilities of our species?” (Wolf, 215). Look to this book for a thorough exploration of reading, drawing on sociology, linguistics, education and neuroscience.

Language at the Speed of Sight: Why We Read, Why So Many Can’t, and What Can Be Done About It by Mark Seidenberg 
Seidenberg reports on how we learn to read with vigor and style. He is determined to bring the field of education up-to-speed with advances in neuroscience. Behavior, including reading, arises from a vast network of interconnected neurons. Learning is the process of developing and tuning these networks of linked neurons. When we learn to read, we’re building connections among the spoken language we already know, to the words on the page. We’re linking the sounds of words to the visual representations of words. Building from scientific reportage to an impassioned argument for the importance of scientific evidence in teaching reading, this is a page turner.

All three of these texts make clear that reading requires interplay among the brain’s visual and auditory processing systems, connecting these with systems for processing semantics or the meanings of words. All of these systems are linked, with information moving back and forth until the right connection is made. Perhaps skillfully created books for beginning readers can support those brain connections? Illustrations that support the text can help children connect the words they are decoding with words they already know. Simple, straightforward sentences allow children to develop the attention they need to move from decoding a word to understanding its meaning. And, repetition in beginning readers allows the brain to develop more efficient pathways linking the necessary neurons.

It doesn’t take a neuroscientist to recognize the joy on the face of a child who has just read their first book. But, understanding the science of what’s going on under the surface may help us get there faster. Try one of these books to get started.

• Deheane, S. (2009). Reading in the brain: The science and evolution of a cultural invention. New York: Penguin. 
• Seidenberg, M. (2018). Language at the speed of sight: How we read, why so many can’t, and what can be done about it. New York: Basic Books. 
• Wolf, M. (2007). Proust and the squid: The story and science of the reading brain. New York: Harper Collins.