Thursday, February 11, 2016

Can a narrow focus for too long in reading skills development stagnate a natural ability to change?

One of the problems I hear in schools is that the children cannot generate meaning from the words they have learned to read, the patterns they are sounding on the line of information in front of them. The term is fluency. A child can build fluency and yet not understand, or ‘ create meaning’ from the text. They cannot place the word into a living context and make sense of the words. This means that they really do not know their words. They are simply at a stage of development. A sequence of development. Often, we give up at the moment where the whole and the parts begin to come together. Or, as in the perfect practice makes perfect model, the ‘ volume’ as the speed and movement used in the learning process has in itself become entrenched. The point of building momentum is lost to a habit of a movement. Then one has to have an extra effort to move out of an embedded meter. If this in space and time is not realized, this ‘ quantum seeing’ of the parts interchanging, then the child can get stuck and become labeled as having a slow processing speed.  And, though appearing fluent, will need a boost to move out of the means that lead to that fluency.

Because we are so absorbent, if we practice something again and again, incorrectly, we become that mis-measure in time and meter, in expression. That measure is is not a good or a bad, it is simply a point in the learning process. In other words, it is hard to sometimes see through the ‘ good.’  Our natural capacity to learn and remember as what we absorb as a measure can become our behavior, and that behavior can become something that is not what is best for us. In the context of the process of developing word processing skills, as what reading is, if we practice speaking words, decoding words, again and again, for fluency, over a long period of time, without any real momentum in placing the words into a context that makes sense, we become that measure of decoding only. This behavior in tandem with our foundational experience/measure, can create a memory/experience ‘map’  that would take more time to correct than to have done this correctly in the first place! 

This means over all that everything that absorbent ability in the child is exposed to, must be carefully guided, and that this ability is a natural learning ability and it is by nature, an ability to change! It means to expose the child and allow the child to understand because it is natural for the child to understand. And, it means that the ability to narrow one’s focus and self monitor, is cool, yet a narrow focus in measure can also create a lack. Learning is and must be a dynamic process, it must always have a movement into the whole, or the good one is doing can become a limitation.

This is also why a solid vocabulary is so important. It is important that the children know the  words so well they do not have to think about them, the children must effectively know their words. This allows the child to spend more time on the meaning of the word, to discover the measure the word implies in real living time and space, meaning the child must also practice ‘ playing the instrument that is them!  Within this, showing a child a picture only, in relationship to a word, memorizes a picture and not a living common sense action or thing.  

Words impart information, they are not the actual movement or thing in themselves. Because humans use language to communicate, words are very important. And because we use language we can use that language as a means to order ourselves and our actions. Language in itself is always changing, it is dynamic. Thus language taught in segmented ways, appears good, and lacks real development through a default of practical application. The instrument, as the child, must generate a momentum in real time application to live the meaning. That segment of building fluency can become a measure that stagnates, it has to maintain a momentum in order for the child to realize the patterns and apply the word recognition in practical terms.


If we understand how absorbent a child is by nature, and we understand how words are very important, we can build a child who is very capable of becoming their real potential in this world. It is what is best for each of us, because that child is unique in their expression, and that message they bring, ultimately benefits all of us. Our job is to make sure that that child reaches their goal.