Reading or Decoding?

Reading is a complicated process. It is much more than recognizing the sounds of letters and syllables. It also involves comprehension. These are separate processes. The brain can perform these separate processes simultaneously, but only when it learns to do so subliminally (slightly below one’s conscious threshold). When a baby learns to use his hand, at first his full concentration is focused on it as he tries to guide it to an object and make his fingers wrap around that object. As he matures, his focus is simply on the object, and he merely reaches for it. Still later, when he is old enough to comb his hair, he concentrates on how it lays—not on the comb or on his hands. The style has the focus. The brain has learned to make the processes reflexive, performing them simultaneously and automatically.

When a child first begins to "read" words, he/she sputters through each word with a noticeable silence after each phonetic sound. We’ve all listened to, "D-a-n f-e-d h-i-s c-a-t." This is not reading at all. It is something we like to call "decoding." At this stage, the child can rarely explain what was read, because the brain was so consciously focused on recognition of each sound. Nothing has become automatic.

Normally, at the next level, we listen to something like, "Dan—fed—his—cat." This is not yet fluent, but the phonograms are recognized, combined and pronounced as a unit, as they should be. But this is not reading. The child can usually not give any analysis of new material because the focus is still on recognition.

Finally, we get to, "Dan fed his cat." Ah, the child can read. But is that really so? Has recognition become such an instinctive process that the brain can be totally focused on comprehension? Many people say their children read well, but cannot digest what they read. That is because of an incomplete reading foundation—one that does not function as if it was an innate part of them. The decoding process has become faster, but they are essentially still not reading. The parents may find themselves reading to the child from textbooks because the child comprehends better that way. He is not hindered by the recognition process. Obviously, the sooner that he becomes a reader, the more effective will be his educational experience.