A picture paints a thousand words

Before I have another restless night’s sleep I thought I would get this off my chest! Not much keeps me awake, but I’ve pondered this a few times now in the wee hours of the morning when I should be getting my full eight hours.

I can’t count the number of times a parent (usually a mum, but also one father who shall remain nameless) has divulged that they use a reading strategy with their young child that I believe should be banned by the Geneva Convention! Covering up the pictures to test that their child is “really” reading words and not just “guessing” the words from the visual clues seems to be a common, but problematic occurrence.

In the early stages of learning to read, children need the support of visual clues to help them decipher what the words might say. It’s one of a number of very helpful and necessary reading strategies that teachers teach children to use. If the child is having trouble working out a particular word, we can ask, “Can you look at the picture and work out what the word might say?” Children need to see a word many times before they can instantly recognise it. So what if they don’t really know what a word says, but they’ve “guessed” it right at that particular time? Next time they read the word they might just get it right without looking at the picture. Yay!

School readers are written and illustrated in very specific ways to enable young readers to experience reading success. The most commonly occurring sight words (also known as high frequency words or 100 magic words) are consistently repeated in early readers, with the 100 magic words making up one half of all the words used in reading. They will read, write and see these words many times.

All lower level readers have illustrations that provide high support for the text. As the child’s reading fluency increases, the dependency on visual clues decreases. It’s critical to allow our kids to crawl before they walk, and to walk before they run.

Covering up the pictures would be like driving our car blindfolded! Without visual clues and road signs to help us navigate our way around, it would be a difficult task. Pictures provide kids with a roadmap to help them make meaning from the text. And apart from the helpful nature of illustrations, they also provide interest and evoke emotions.

I realise mums and dads are a well-meaning bunch and intend to help and not hinder their child’s reading progress, but the process of learning to read can sometimes seem like a strange and slippery beast. As parents we often wonder if we are doing the “right” thing in all manner of parenting situations and what to do to best help our children learn to read is no exception.

With this in mind, I will sleep a little easier tonight knowing fewer parents are covering up the pictures, but I’ll also be back to give some helpful tips on reading strategies we can all use with our kids.