The skill of reading is an important indicator of mental development and one of the basic achievements in schooling. It is a complex mechanism that, although it has now been largely deciphered, researchers are still trying to delineate the factors that contribute to the development of reading skill or those that negatively affect it, leading to poor readers. Reading skill is related to decoding the text and understanding it. What is after all the point of reading something you cannot understand? Decoding written language is a necessary condition to reach the level of textual understanding. As it is the first skill that a new reader must develop, it is very important to focus on the factors that affect the whole process and to identify early signs of reading difficulties, aiming to support potential poor readers through an early intervention program. In the first school grades the emphasis is placed on decoding simple texts and their understanding, while advancing to the next grades the texts that the students are asked to read contain much more complex meanings. This chapter focus on preschool and early school age and try to highlight the early signs of reading deficit that related to phonological awareness, aiming to raising the awareness of teachers, so that they can identify in time and contribute to early intervention in children who are at risk of developing reading difficulties. Furthermore, this chapter’s purpose is to develop empathy in educators and readers by highlighting the challenges a child from preschool through adulthood faces when is at risk for a reading deficit and motivate them to promote and support early detection of such difficulties.
Why Learning to Read is so Important
Literacy and teaching a child to read is one of the first and basic goals of all schooling. Undoubtedly, a person’s ability to read and write is linked to both his cognitive development and social ‘survival’. In modern societies, traditional literacy is complemented by digital literacy. And while a global debate has begun on the necessity of learning to write as technology comes to replace handwriting, at the same time the reading skill does not appear to get as much interaction with technology, at least not yet. Therefore, writing might not be a skill that someone must perfectly develop, as long as he can speak, because an algorithm will write for them, but reading ability remains a big request.
Although the importance and necessity of acquiring reading and writing skills is not disputed, opposing views have been expressed, such as Plato’s and Schopenhauer’s who suggested that “when we read someone else is thinking for us… we merely repeat his mental process”, “reading enables us to cultivate the appearance of wisdom without doing the actual intellectual work” (Bennett, 2008:2). Despite the greatness of these philosophers, these views were not taken seriously in modern societies, probably because the people who formulated them had themselves read a lot. In a context where the development of reading skills is a priority and all political decisions, social structures and the modern way of life are aligned with this view, people accept that developing efficient reading skills is necessary.
Usual arguments to strengthen reading motivation are that reading ‘opens people’s mind’, gives them access to literature, information, and science, helps them communicate and be an active and functional member of modern society, connects them with the past through texts that have been written thousands of years ago, evolves and advances their thinking. Within this context it is very important to support all children to develop adequate reading skills. And for children who are at risk of developing a reading deficit, the educational system must be able to act proactively and effectively. The development of phonological awareness begins at preschool years and has been linked to reading skill and characterized as an important determining factor for reading (Andreou et al., 2022; DeWitt, 2022; Kjeldsen et al., 2014; Pfosta et al., 2019).