Prevention of reading difficulties

 Barbara Foorman

Florida State University
Florida Center for Reading Research

During the past few decades reading research has highlighted correlates and causes of reading success as well as reading difficulties. Learning to read entails normally developed language skills, knowledge of phonological structures, knowledge of how written units connect with spoken units, phonological recoding and fluency, and print exposure. Neurological, familial, socioeconomic, and instructional causes will be discussed as candidate causes of reading difficulties. Central points are that (a) brain activation patterns can change as a result of effective intervention, (b) genetic and environmental factors share the variability in reading disability, (c) instructional factors are often underestimated as a cause of reading difficulties, and (d) the emphasis needs to be on prevention rather than remediation. Research on effective early reading instruction at the classroom level and at the level of intensive, pull-out interventions will be provided and the challenges of scaling will be discussed. Concluding comments will emphasize the importance of systemic, multi-tiered approaches to preventing reading difficulties in school settings.