| There are several possible causes of reading | | | | the cerebrum tends to close down and the brain |
| difficulty. You can get an overview of them from | | | | stem (or "lizard brain") takes over. It is only with |
| my article The 7 Causes Of Reading Difficulty. | | | | training and practice that someone can get good |
| The essential key to getting a child reading | | | | at "thinking through" a highly stressful situation. So |
| confidently is to be able to identify any underlying | | | | stress is a very uncomfortable bedfellow of |
| cause of difficulty and fix it. One cause of | | | | reading. The two are virtually incompatible. And |
| difficulty that can standalone or be combined with | | | | yet learning to read can be one of the most |
| any of the others is stress. Some children develop | | | | stressful activities of a child's life. It is very |
| a rising spiral of stress when reading that leads to | | | | demanding and often involves a lot of "public" |
| a virtually complete breakdown of ability. To | | | | failure. |
| understand how stress can achieve that, we need | | | | By public I am not meaning the front of the class |
| to look into the neurology involved. | | | | or being on stage. I mean being on the sofa with |
| Reading is very much a higher brain function, | | | | a parent and getting stuck on the word was yet |
| based in the cerebral cortex. It involves the visual | | | | again. Children hate to fail at things just as much |
| cortex, auditory cortex, linguistic cortex, | | | | as adults and early reading practice in English is a |
| pre-frontal cortex and motor control cortex. So | | | | series of failures. The symptoms of a stress |
| every lobe of the cerebrum is involved. Now the | | | | pattern like this are strong negative emotions to |
| origins of our stress response mechanisms are | | | | reading and an apparent ability to read OK at |
| based in evolution and are the best way to deal | | | | moments, but a spiral of failure and stress |
| with danger. In evolutionary terms danger was | | | | developing while reading. The solution to this is to |
| about encounters with large aggressive animals or | | | | provide a structured environment where the child |
| groups of other humans. In those situations the | | | | is not faced with impossible tasks that lead to |
| best form of response was "fight, flight or | | | | failure. English spelling is so inconsistent that |
| immobility". | | | | nobody could learn to read it without mistakes, |
| You will know that different people respond to | | | | unless this sort of structure is created. |
| danger in different ways, but in almost all cases | | | | |