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Can you read this?

johnnyc

NAXJA Forum User
NAXJA Member
Location
La Habra, CA
Sorry if this is a repost...

I can read this just fine. But I guess there are some people who can't.

I cdnuolt blveiee taht I cluod aulaclty uesdnatnrd waht I was rdanieg. The phaonmneal pweor of the hmuan mnid, aoccdrnig to a rscheearch at Cmabrigde Uinervtisy, it dseno't mtaetr in waht oerdr the ltteres in a wrod are, the olny iproamtnt tihng is taht the frsit and lsat ltteer be in the rghit pclae.

The rset can be a taotl mses and you can sitll raed it whotuit a pboerlm. Tihs is bcuseae the huamn mnid deos not raed ervey lteter by istlef, but the wrod as a wlohe. Azanmig huh? yaeh and I awlyas tghuhot slpeling was ipmorantt! if you can raed tihs rpsoet it.
 
That is pretty interesting. I have several 8th grade students that are reading on a 2-3 grade level. Typically, they will see a word like, "harvest" and see the h and then come up with a word that begins with h. Incidentally, they score poorly on word recognition as well as context and comprehension. Do you have a link to the study?
 
I think it's a bit of a crock, really. It's true of course that a person who already knows how to read well, and has a pretty good idea of what ought to be there, will be able to understand the text. Honestly, though, it is not comfortable to read. It's a minor puzzle which a good reader can solve on the fly. We read words whole once we know them, and can use context to shortcut the solution, but that's a far cry from saying that letter order in a word is unimportant. Y cn ls lv th vwls t nd stll ndrstnd mst f t. S wht?

Riverfever, it sounds as if your students are victims of "whole word" theory. I had the same problem when I started first grade, until my parents taught me phonics. How you learn a word and how you deal with it once you know it are two different things.
 
riverfever said:
That is pretty interesting. I have several 8th grade students that are reading on a 2-3 grade level. Typically, they will see a word like, "harvest" and see the h and then come up with a word that begins with h. Incidentally, they score poorly on word recognition as well as context and comprehension. Do you have a link to the study?

Just a theory but it sounds like what I had going on. Dyslexia comes in levels and flavors. I could get the letters and words mostly sorted out in my mind and under pressure for a solution would guess at the word. My dyslexia is actually worse typing than writing. And actually works both directions, reading and writing.
I finally got it sorted out (mostly) some serious work at phonics and tinted glasses (I don't know why, but they help). I also spent many hours, with picture word association. A little old lady named Mrs. Lamb was way ahead of her time (in the early 50`s) and had a system worked out to deal with dyslexia, way before it even had a name. It's a shame her work and system wasn't recoginized and disiminated early on, it could have saved many people a lot of grief. I beleive another factor was, I had a lot trouble figuring out if I was left or right dominanat. My father was ambidexterous and my brothers were both lefties.
Funny after I got it sorted out, in short order my recognition, reading and comprehension, went up into the top percentiles.
Your word game reminds me of German and Yiddish. If a person knows German and has a little imagination, they can pick there way through Yiddish fairly easily. Though many of the words share very few letters, when spelled out.
 
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I agree Matt. Reading is such a horribly difficult process to master. Most of my students don't know the rules of our language and that makes it so much harder to decode unfamiliar words. Even more interesting for me is the wide spectrum of reading problems that I see each day. One kid will have 2 grade word recognition skills and suck at reading. Another's sight vocab. will be on grade level and so, to a reg. ed teacher, it might appear that the student can read. Their comprehension sucks though. I have a girl that reads constantly and I really thought she'd test close to grade level. Word recog. was great. Comprehension sucked but she was still functioning at approx. a 7-8 level (on narrative text....stories, etc). When I changed things and tested her with an expository text (science or social studies is what I use) she was down on 4-5 level. Most of the texts that school districts use are written in a fashion that is WAY harder than you'll find used in something like Nancy Drew, Hardy Boys, Harry Potter or some of the more popular books that kids read.



Matthew Currie said:
I think it's a bit of a crock, really. It's true of course that a person who already knows how to read well, and has a pretty good idea of what ought to be there, will be able to understand the text. Honestly, though, it is not comfortable to read. It's a minor puzzle which a good reader can solve on the fly. We read words whole once we know them, and can use context to shortcut the solution, but that's a far cry from saying that letter order in a word is unimportant. Y cn ls lv th vwls t nd stll ndrstnd mst f t. S wht?

Riverfever, it sounds as if your students are victims of "whole word" theory. I had the same problem when I started first grade, until my parents taught me phonics. How you learn a word and how you deal with it once you know it are two different things.
 
I have been working with my 1st grade daughter with her reading skills. She also has been doing the first letter recognition. When she takes her time and her sister isn't doing anything she will read just fine. When her sister is doing something she wants to do as well, that is when she starts stumbling and gets frustrated.

She may have a bit of dyslexia as well, b and d look the same to her. Every trick I know hasn't worked yet.

I have to hand it to all teachers. I feel that I am a very patient person, and have enough to help my children with their studies. But even that is just barely enough. Teachers have to have all the patience in the world to deal with all the different levels.

Rass
 
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