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Yes, good readers are made.  With the advance of computer technology, brain research has taken gigantic leaps forward.  Wonderful results of that research show us how people learn.  Research in this area is continuing, but a substantial amount is already available to us.

 In recent years many questions have been asked why it is that 20 to 30% of all school-age children struggle to become fluent readers with good comprehension.  The picture of students’ overall academic achievement is, therefore, affected.  Children who don’t comprehend what they read, usually also have a hard time in other academic subjects.  The questions about struggling readers have led to specific research into the area of reading and what it takes to become a good reader.

To consider what the reading research has shown, let’s first deal with the statement that good readers are made, not born.  Research has established clearly that reading ability is not dependent on intelligence.  A low IQ does not equate directly to poor reading results!  Then what conditions do lead to reading fluency and good comprehension?  We literally have to go back to the beginning of a child’s life.  In the first two to four years of life humans acquire the most complex, abstract knowledge known to us, language.

By the time a child enters school, the amount of success or lack of success the child will have in school is largely determined.  Let’s get back to language.  By the time most children are four years old they can understand the spoken language of the parent and can speak
it without having to think about what words to use. 

It’s as if the child can do so automatically.  How large a vocabulary the child can understand (called the receptive language) is dependent on how much language the child has heard in those first few years after birth. Some research even suggests that the child can recognize the tone and rhythm of the spoken word before birth. The child's ability to speak (called expressive language) obviously will depend on how well developed the receptive language is. How much language the child has heard repeatedly and has internalized.

The implications are clear.  Parents are the child’s first and most significant teachers.  Much of what success students will have after age five depends on how much language the early caregivers have taught the child in those first, formative years.  Parents are able to teach a barrel full of language by example and incidentally.  Knowing what specific things they can do to provide children with a solid foundation for future learning has more potential.  It will enable those children to become good readers.

So what can a parent do?  Let me outline for you, in point form, important steps you can take to help your child toward success in reading and learning in general.

• Make sure you have many books for children in your house.  Research studies show that environments where   many books, pictures and other interesting things are found have positive effects on children’s learning.

• Speak to your child often.  Seek out opportunities that allow your child to listen to others.  Engage the child in   frequent conversations. Encourage your child to speak in complete sentences.

• Use correct grammar. Stop baby talk soon after birth.

• Read often to your child. Tell stories and quote poetry to the youngster. Poetry?  Yes, poetry.

• While you read or tell stories ask questions like, “Do you remember what the Cat in the Hat saw?  What was it    the cat saw on the lawn? What do you think will happen next?  Why would Mary think that it might rain?     Encourage the child to recall information, and also to learn to make abstract associations about what was read.

• Make sure your child sees you reading, and hears you tell that you enjoy it.

• Give your children things to memorize, first words and phrases and small numbers, and as they grow older ask   them to memorize lines and poems.

Read on ... (PDF)