within our reach

New research reveals four ingredients critical to reaching goal

ORAL LANGUAGE (vocabulary and grammar)

LISTENING COMPREHENSION

WORLD KNOWLEDGE PHONICS, DECODING, AND WORD RECOGNITION

A 10-year initiative called Reading for Understanding identified oral language, listening comprehension, world knowledge, and decoding/word recognition as key ingredients for reading comprehension.

Once a child learns to decode words, low language skills and gaps in world knowledge (especially science and social studies) impede further progress in reading comprehension. In fact, listening comprehension becomes the leading predictor of reading comprehension.

Development of oral language, listening comprehension, and world knowledge begins early in life, well before children start school. This points to the importance of building early literacy skills starting at birth.