Very early reading, with little or no formal instruction, is often found among children of very high IQ. Of four children measuring over 180 IQ (Stanford-Binet), found by the present writer in New York City, every one learned to read simple matter fluently during or before the third year of life. Their early mastery of reading was but a symptom of their great general capacity.
Just what degree of intellectual development is typically reached before children can be taught to read is not known, but it is probably not far from a 6-year level. That is, children of ordinary intelligence can learn to read after they have passed their sixth birthday. A child who can read fluently at a mental age much below this must be considered to show a special ability; while one who cannot begin to learn at or above this general level[[10]] is afflicted with a special defect, in some of the functions which enter into the reading process. These functions may be classified as those which enter into mechanics, and those which enter into comprehension, of reading.
II. THE MECHANICS OF READING
Under the mechanics of the process fall the sensory, motor, and to a great extent the perceptual, elements in reading.
The sensory elements include the participation of eye, ear, and muscles as sense organs, furnishing respectively the visual, auditory, and kinæsthetic contributions to the total function. In the case of the blind, tactual sensations replace the visual, and in the deaf, the visual replace the auditory. Sensory impairment, that is, impairment of eye, ear, or muscle as an organ, may prevent an intelligent child from learning to read. Examination of the special senses is the first step dictated by common sense and scientific procedure, when an intelligent child does not learn to read. In this way it has happened historically that the first cases of special disability in reading and spelling among school children have been reported by ophthalmologists, to whom they were taken for examination of the eyes. Parents naturally sought the expert who knows eyes in such cases, for to one who has not studied the psychology of reading, it appears that a person “reads with his eyes” only.
The visual defects which may most commonly interfere with the mastery of the mechanics of reading are myopia, hyperopia, astigmatism, cataract, muscle-weakness, diplopia, and anomalies of the retina. Surveys of school children by competent oculists have shown that considerable numbers suffer from eye-defects sufficient to cause difficulty.
Deafness obviously may constitute an interference, since the correct sound of the word is essential to reading. Not so obvious is the rôle of the kinæsthetic sensations, but we are led to believe that their part is important through the studies of Fernald, later to be reported here.
Under the motor elements involved, we have to consider articulation, pronunciation, eye-movements, and the coördination of arm, hand, and fingers in writing words. It is hard for an expert reader, like an educated adult, to realize without first-hand study of the facts, to what extent these elements originally entered into his learning. The inexpert reader tends to retain lip-movements, and, indeed, movements of the whole apparatus of articulation, in silent reading.
Perception of a stimulus may be defined for our purposes as seeing, hearing, or otherwise interpreting it in a certain way. Perception is habit, learned just as other habits are learned. We perceive the spoken words “home again” as such, because we learned to do so. One who has not learned, will not perceive two words, but only a jumble of articulate sound. In reading, the perceptual elements include the formulation of habits of responding to parts, and to groups of words, as such. Many investigations have been made of the perceptual elements in the mechanics of reading within the past twenty years.
It has been discovered that the word may be learned without first learning the separate letters which compose it. Spelling and reading are thus psychologically far from identical. In perceiving a word, all parts are not equally stressed. The first half and the upper half of the word have a great advantage over the last and lower halves. In fluent reading, the eye moves by jerks across the line, making three to five pauses in crossing an ordinary page of printed matter. Oral reading requires about 1.6 more pauses per line than silent reading, and the average duration of these pauses is longer. Thus oral reading requires 44 to 64 per cent more perception time than does silent reading. The unit of perception in reading may be the letter, the word, the phrase, the sentence, or even the paragraph, according to the training of the pupil, the degree of skill attained, and the extent to which he “skims.” The letter or the word as the unit of perception results in halting and expressionless oral reading, and in retarded silent reading.