Metalinguistic awareness and reading strategies

Abstract

A relatively large group of children does not learn to read with traditional methods of instruction in a regular classroom setting. Although estimates of the prevalence of reading disabilities vary according to the definitions used and according to the severity of the disorder, there is a general consensus that at least 15 percent of school age children have significant reading problems (Harris and Sipay 1975). Many factors, e.g., emotional disturb ance, mental retardation, or lack of opportunity, can interfere with reading acquisition. A distinct group of children, however, apparently does not learn to read because of a neurological dysfunction in the central nervous system which affects the processing of information. Children who fall into this category are often referred to as having a specific learning disability (Johnson and Myklebust 1967). Children so classified, however, do not form a homogeneous group since they exhibit variation in complex patterns of strengths and weaknes ses in information processing. Some of these children fail to learn to read primarily because of difficulty in auditory processing and in applying phonic word attack skills. Johnson and Myklebust (1967) refer to them as auditory dyslexies and Boder (1971) refers to them as dysphonetics. Another group, referred to as visual dyslexies or dyseidetics, has difficulty processing visual information and remembering the visual gestalt of the word. The tendency of these children is to rely upon phonics when reading. Boder (1971) found the dysphonetic group to be significantly larger than the dyseidetic one, 63 percent compared to 9 percent, respectively. In addition to these two groups, however, there are children who exhibit both auditory and visual processing problems, as well as difficulties integrating auditory and visual information.