Give the "Wordbox" Lots of Practice

Writing was invented in Southern Mesopotamia (present day Iraq) by the Babylonians around 5,400 years ago.  Way back then very few people could read and write. Today reading is taught in school but many people in the world have never had a chance to learn to read. Today, about 1 in every 10 people on our planet cannot read or write.

Reading Partners, a nonprofit agency, says that students who lack proficient reading skills by fourth grade are a higher risk of struggling in school and are four times as likely of dropping out of school.

Reading is a complicated task but an extremely important one.  Reading is one of the unique activities that only humans do. People have been practicing spoken communication using a language system with grammatical rules for at least 100,000 years.  Humans have been using tools for over 2 million years so reading and writing is a relative new skill. 

Tanja Kassuba and Sabine Kastner, discuss in Scientific American how the brain understands and use language.  About a third of our brain is used to determine what the brain sees.  This part is called the visual system and is based in the cortex.  Another part of the brain help us understand and produce spoken language.  These parts are located mostly in the left half of the brain.  When we read both the visual system and language regions are involved.  The visual system examines what the word looks like and the language regions tell us what they mean.  A third part of the brain links the visual system and the language regions together.  This area is known as the visual word form area or the “wordbox”.  It takes the visual shapes, a string of round symbols with straight lines, and changes them into words that have meaning.

So the eye sees the symbols and then the “wordbox” translate the written symbols into words.  People are born with a “wordbox” that is prepared to recognize word shapes. Before learning to read written words are seen as squiggly shapes and when learning to read the brain sees the squiggles represent a sound or word. An “O” is seen as a round shape.  So is an orange or basketball seen as a round shape but the “wordbox” gives the “O” a different purpose and meaning.

The “wordbox” learns what words typically look like, follows rules like reading from left to right, and recognizes letters and word shapes precisely as they appear. The “wordbox” learns that the order of letters is important because it defines words, for example, “pat” and “tap” mean different things.

For the “wordbox” to learn and to do its job it needs lots of practice.  It starts with a parent reading aloud to an infant to toddlers having parents help them read.  Most public libraries have a children’s section dedicated to children reading.  Rosenberg Library has an excellent Children’s Library and is offering free access to books and help to help the “wordbox” practice.