Science of Reading

Reading fluently and knowing the meaning of what you are reading involves various skills such as phonemic awareness (i.e., knowing how to read the sounds in words), phonics (i.e., knowing how letters sound like), vocabulary (i.e., knowing the meaning of words), reading fluency (i.e., the ability to read smoothly), and comprehension (i.e., understanding what you are reading) (National University Hospital, 2023). These are some of the main skills that would help one become a fluent reader.  

Reading difficulties may occur where there is a specific skill or a range of skills that a child is struggling with when learning how to read. According to National University Hospital (2023), reading difficulty may be attributed to specific learning disorders (e.g., dyslexia), lack of literacy experiences, impairments in language and sensory processing, weakness in auditory and visual processing, and difficulties in sustaining attention. While it is beneficial to be aware and look out for signs of reading difficulties, if you suspect that your child might have reading difficulties, it would be best to consult a professional for a proper diagnosis. 

After observing or having diagnosed reading difficulties in your child, you might be wondering what you can do to better support them in their learning journey. Here are some evidence-based suggestions: 

1. Expose your child to books regularly and try out books of different genres and topics. 

It is important for children to enjoy what they are reading to motivate them to spend more time with books. As children may not yet know how to choose level-appropriate books, parents and caregivers can help with the book selection process. According to Associate Professor Kaye Lowe from the University of Canberra, choosing books that contain a child’s interests or what they find important is an important link to literacy (NSW Department of Education, 2022). 

Fig. 1: Child choosing from a wide range of books.

For starters, parents and caregivers can introduce books of different genres to their children. Some examples of genres include non-fiction, fantasy, science fiction, and poetry. Through this process, your child can explore the wide variety of reading materials available to them and find a genre that they enjoy reading. Parents and caregivers can also find books which include what your child is interested in, like animals, vehicles, or superheroes, for example. 

2. Participate in “echo reading” with your child.  

As it can be challenging and intimidating for children with reading difficulties to read a whole book by themselves, try echo reading to encourage them. Depending on your child’s ability and the book’s difficulty level, read a sentence, paragraph, or a suitable chunk of text, and ask your child to repeat after you. Trace your finger smoothly underneath the text that you are reading. 

Fig. 2: Reading together with your children can benefit language learning.

Echo reading and tracking the words whilst reading has been shown in several studies to be an effective method to improve children’s fluency in reading (Duran and Sezgin,2012; Knoll,2015).  

3. Participate in “repeated reading” with your child. 

Repeated reading involves your child reading a selected passage out loud for 3 or more times, during which you, the parent/caregiver, correct mistakes in reading or prompt your child when they hesitate for a long time. Your child should repeatedly read the entire passage until they reach a satisfactory level of fluency and accuracy. 

Fig. 3: Encourage your child to repeat passages until they are fluent.

By improving reading fluency through steps 2-3, reading comprehension can also be better supported through training automatic word reading (compared to laborious decoding of each word) and freeing cognitive resources to focus on word meaning. 

4. Facilitate story mapping during reading sessions. 

What is story mapping? Story mapping acts as a visual aid and prompts your child to identify relevant story-grammar information from a story, including the characters, setting, problem, and resolution, and linking them together. Have your child complete a story map while reading a story and ask them to answer questions about the story afterwards. When your child gets better at identifying story-grammar elements, remove the story map but prompt them to self-question by taking note of the same elements in the next few stories that they read and visualising the map. Finish off by asking them comprehension and inference questions after they finish reading the stories. 

Fig. 4: Example of story mapping.

How does story mapping help? Using story mapping, children can improve their reading comprehension through training their mental imagery of the stories and keeping the stories’ content in their memory. Asking your child questions about stories keeps the stories’ information fresh in their memory and helps them become better at linking it with their prior knowledge, which is stored in their long-term memory. The story mapping process can help to increase children’s vocabulary capacity and in turn, help them better understand what they are reading when they encounter new reading materials. 

How does the story mapping process help children with reading difficulties? The story mapping process helps to breakdown the storyline into bite-sized information for children with reading difficulties, so that the information is easier for them to process. Story mapping is applicable to any type of books and give parents and caregivers opportunities to check their child’s understanding of the reading material.  

5. It takes consistent effort to see improvement. Always remain supportive for your child! 

It can be emotionally challenging and frustrating for your child when they participate in reading sessions. Continue to encourage them and acknowledge their hard work! An enjoyable time reading will help them want to read more, which is beneficial for their reading development in the long run. 

 

References

Boulineau, T., Fore, C., Hagan-Burke, S, & Burke, M. D. (2004). Use of story-mapping to increase the story-grammar text comprehension of elementary students with learning disabilities. Learning Disability Quarterly, 27(2), 105-121. https://doi.org/10.2307/1593645  

Duran, E., & Sezgin, B. (2012). The effect of echo reading method to fluency reading. Ondokuz Mayis Univ Egitim Fakultesi, 31(2). https://doi.org/10.7822/egt85  

Hudson, A., Poh, W. K., Moore, K. A., & Binks-Cantrell, E. (2020). Fluency interventions for elementary students with reading difficulties: A synthesis of research from 2000-2019. Education Sciences, 10(3), 52. https://doi.org/10.3390/educsci10030052  

Knoll, E. (2015). Using echo reading and tracking simultaneously during small group read alouds with preschool children (Publication No. 287). [Master’s Thesis, Rowan University]. Theses and Dissertations.  

National University Hospital. (2023, August 23). Reading Difficulty (Children). https://www.nuh.com.sg/Health-Information/Diseases-Conditions/Pages/Reading-Difficulty-(Children).aspx  

NSW Department of Education. (2022, June 14). What to do if your child is struggling to read or write. https://education.nsw.gov.au/parents-and-carers/learning/english/when-older-kids-struggle  

Stevens, E. A., Walker, M. A., & Vaughn, S. (2017). The effects of reading fluency interventions on the reading fluency and reading comprehension performance of elementary students with learning disabilities: A synthesis of the research from 2001 to 2014. Journal of Learning Disabilities, 50(5), 576-590. https://doi.org/10.1177/0022219416638028   

Woolley, G. (2007). A comprehension intervention for children with reading comprehension difficulties. Australian Journal of Learning Disabilities, 12(1), 43-50. https://doi.org/10.1080/19404150709546829 

 

Written by: Claire

Edited by: Michelle & Phoebe

What comes to mind when we think of a library? A building or room filled with shelves of books? A place where people go to when they want to read? Over the years, new libraries have been built across Singapore, alongside others that were revamped to provide better quality books and environments for library users (Ho, 2020). Libraries in Singapore house more than just reading materials and are now places that draw the community together. We recommend the following three libraries (in no particular order) for children and teenagers. 

1. Library@Harbourfront 

  Photograph of Library@Harbourfront’s Tinker Truck (National Library Board, n.d.). 

Located in VivoCity Mall, Library@Harbourfront offers more than 200,000 books and other educational materials (HoneyKids Asia, 2023). This is a coastal-themed library that spans 3000 square meters – making it the largest shopping mall library in the country! Library@Harbourfront has a remarkable Children’s Zone with novel activities for children to explore – Augmented Reality books covering topics such as Space and Animals are also available here and can create an interesting immersive reading experience for young children (Cheekiemonkies, 2019). Aside from reading, children can head to Tinker Truck children’s maker space and engage in DIY crafting activities or play word puzzles (HoneyKids Asia, 2023). Finally, the library’s main attraction is the serene view of Sentosa and the sea which library users can admire while reading. 

Photograph of the view of Sentosa and the sea that Library@Harbourfront offers (Cheekiemonkies, 2019). 

2. Jurong Regional Library 

Photograph of Jurong Regional Library’s Early Literacy Library (National Library Board, n.d.). 

Located in the West of Singapore, Jurong Regional Library is a spot worth visiting for many. This library offers Singapore’s first library service dedicated to teenagers–Verging All Teens, which was founded by teenagers to inspire their peers (HoneyKids Asia, 2023). It offers a vast selection of comics and graphic novels and provides opportunities for teenagers to participate in drama performances and more. For younger children, they can explore the Early Literacy Library which has many amazing child-friendly books available in Singapore’s four official languages.  

3. Punggol Regional Library 

 Photograph of Punggol Regional Library’s Spark!LabTM (National Library Board, n.d.). 

Punggol Regional Library is Singapore’s newest library that fully opened in April 2023. It is a well-equipped, child-friendly reading venue designed for the young ones to explore and satisfy their curiosity. This library has a unique section known as the “World and Us Zone”, which hosts a collection of books from around the world, including ones that were donated by foreign embassies (National Library Board, 2023). Children aged 7 to 12 can also visit Spark!LabTM, which was set up in collaboration with Smithsonian Institution from the United States of America (National Library Board, 2023). Here, children can work with their parents, or independently, to formulate creative solutions addressing hands-on problems. Another valuable feature of Punggol Regional Library is TinkerTots, which caters for children aged 6 years and below. In this section, children can play with educational toys, such as puppets and costumes while discovering more about the world through simple activities (National Library Board, 2023; Teo, 2023).  

Libraries provide a good variety of reading resources that are free to borrow and read at your child’s own pace either in the library or at home. If you are not able to visit the library, the National Library Board (NLB) Singapore allows users to access over two million eBooks that are free to download (HoneyKids Asia, 2023). Check out the eBooks here. Alternatively, you can also check out the NLB Mobile application. While these online platforms provide a good amount of resources conveniently, a greater variety of reading materials and activities await you and your child at the libraries! Visit the NLB website to find your nearest library and their upcoming events for the June Holidays. 

 

References 

Cheekiemonkies. (2019, January 6). Kids will love the Interactive Room while Parents will look the sea views at library@harbourfront! CheekieMonkies. https://www.cheekiemonkie.net/2019/01/library-at-harbourfront-vivocity-review.html 

HoneyKids Asia. (2023, February 1). The best libraries for kids in Singapore: our favourite public libraries for all ages. HoneyKids Asia. https://honeykidsasia.com/the-best-libraries-for-kids-in-singapore/ 

Olivia, H. (2020, March 3). Parliament: NLB to revamp 8 libraries, including Central, and open new Punggol Regional Library. The Straits Times. https://www.straitstimes.com/singapore/nlb-to-revamp-8-libraries-including-central-and-open-new-punggol-regional-library 

[Photograph of Jurong Regional Library’s Early Literacy Library]. (n.d.). https://www.nlb.gov.sg/main/visit-us/our-libraries-and-locations/libraries/jurong-regional-library  

[Photograph of Library@Harboufront’s Tinker Truck]. (n.d.). https://www.nlb.gov.sg/main/visit-us/our-libraries-and-locations/libraries/library-harbourfront  

[Photograph of Punggol Regional Library’s Spark!LabTM]. (n.d.). https://www.nlb.gov.sg/main/visit-us/our-libraries-and-locations/libraries/punggol-regional-library/library-services  

[Photograph of the view of Sentosa and the sea that Library@Harboufront offers]. (n.d.). https://www.cheekiemonkie.net/2019/01/library-at-harbourfront-vivocity-review.html  

Punggol Regional Library Opens First Two Floors for Children to Read and Learn in New and Fun Ways. (2023, January 30). National Library Board. https://www.nlb.gov.sg/main/about-us/press-room-and-publications/media-releases/2023/Punggol-Regional-Library-Opens-First-Two-Floors-for-Children-to-Read-and-Learn-in-New-and-Fun-Ways 

Teo, J. (2023, January 31). New Punggol library encourages tinkering and storytelling, including for children with disabilities. The Straits Times. https://www.straitstimes.com/singapore/new-punggol-library-encourages-tinkering-and-storytelling-including-for-children-with-disabilities 

 

Drafted by: Kah Xuan

Edited by: Michelle, Phoebe

Reviewed by: Joyce

Part of our pursuit in understanding reading development lies in identifying the neural brain networks used during reading activities. To do so, some of our projects make use of a brain imaging technique called Magnetic Resonance Imaging (MRI). MRI is preferred in research as it is non-invasive and is able to create highly detailed images of the brain in real-time (Hoyos et al., 2019). Unlike X-rays, MRI does not use radiation and no long-term harmful effects are implicated in MRI scans (National Neuroscience Institute, 2021). Rather, MRI has a strong magnetic field and uses magnetic pulses to capture images. Thus, it is important to remove any metallic objects (e.g., braces, jewellery, clothing with metallic materials) from your body before entering an MRI scanner.

Figure 1: Photograph of a Mock Scanner

During an MRI brain scan, you will lie down on the MRI bed that will be moved into the scanner headfirst since the brain is being scanned. A head coil may be placed over the head and acts like an antenna that receive signals emitted from your brain during the scan. Sometimes, you may get to play some games while you are in the scanner! During the scanning process, you may hear some loud knocking noises. These sounds are created due to the constant switching-on-and-off of the many magnets in the machine – you can think of them as the shutter sounds of a large camera! Earplugs or headphones are provided to protect the ears. To prevent fuzzy or blurry pictures, it is important to stay as still as possible during the scanning process. Some helpful tips to stay still could be to regulate your breathing and to wiggle your fingers and toes. If you have any concerns about the MRI scan, it is best to clarify with the on-site radiographers and researchers before you begin your scan!

Figure 2: Key rules to follow to make MRI scanning a safe and fruitful procedure.

 

Drafted by: Serena

Edited by: Michelle, Phoebe

References

Hoyos, P. M., Kim, N. Y., & Kastner, S. (2019). How is magnetic resonance imaging used to learn about the brain?. Frontiers for young minds, 7(86).https://doi.org/10.3389/frym.2019.00086

National Neuroscience Institute. (2021, January 29). Must-remember information about MRI. Singhealth.https://www.nni.com.sg/news/patient-care/must-remember-information-about-mri

Reading is an important skill in learning how to use a language. However, reading abilities may differ across individuals, even for children. Books need to be challenging enough for one to learn from and be interested in, but not to the extent that it discourages one from trying to read! How might we find this balance? The five-finger rule is one method  parents can use to select appropriate books for their child.

Try it out by following the steps in the image below!

According to the five-finger rule (above), books that get 1-3 fingers raised are appropriate for your child, while books that receive 4-5 raised fingers may be too challenging – parents may choose to switch to an easier book for your child to read. However, if your child is very interested in the topic despite the number of difficult vocabulary, you can read the book together with your child (Scholastic, 2022) and help them learn new words!

Ultimately, the five-figure rule is a guideline for selecting books for children and it can be a good starting point for parents to encourage good reading habits in their child (Reading Eggs, 2017).

 

References

Reading Eggs. (2017, April 7). Five Finger Rule: Finding Just Right Books for Your Child. Readingeggs.com.au; Reading Eggs. https://readingeggs.com.au/articles/2017/04/07/just-right-books/

Scholastic. (2022, August 8).  The Five Finger Rule for Reading Will Help Your Child Find a ‘Just-Right’ Book. Scholastic.com; Scholastic. https://www.scholastic.com/parents/books-and-reading/raise-a-reader-blog/five-finger-rule.html

 

Drafted by: Keval, Szandra, Sharon, and Yi Ting

Edited by: Michelle and Phoebe

Reviewed by: Annabel and Joyce

Reading is important for children’s language growth and development. In contrast to children who read less, children who are avid and frequent readers not only receive higher reading proficiency scores, but they also have greater opportunities for lifelong learning and good mental health (Sun et al., 2021). 

Given this, how can we motivate our children to read more and reap the benefits? According to a report by NIE (2021), it was found that children would be more motivated to read if they had (1) more time to read and (2) more enjoyment in reading. Furthermore, if the books were catered to their interests, they were more likely to engage in reading activities.  

In light of these findings, it is recommended for parents to set aside time for their children to read, in any language – perhaps 30 to 60 minutes on the weekend (or as appropriate). To foster enjoyment for reading, parents need to understand their child’s evolving preferences and look for books that their children might be interested in. In other words, parents also play a critical role in cultivating a child’s initial interest in reading. 

Beyond encouraging your child to read more, it is also useful to note that children prefer reading print material as compared to digital content (Sun et al., 2021). Some technological challenges that children face include unfamiliarity with online sites, desired books being unavailable online, and difficulty in gauging age-appropriate books online (Sun et al., 2021). As such, parents can source for physical books for their children and encourage them to visit the library or bookstore to increase their motivation to reading. 

 

Fig. 1: Parents reading with their children in a library in Singapore (Tan, n.d.). This is a good way of getting to know your child’s reading preferences and boosting enjoyment.

 

Reading capability can also affect a child’s reading frequency. One way to improve children’s reading capability, in any language, is to expand their vocabulary (Baumann, 2009). According to the National Reading Panel, vocabulary can be taught in a variety of ways including explicitly teaching new vocabulary as well as exposing the child to many new words (n.d.). For example, parents can encourage their children to read more in their Mother Tongue by engaging in vocabulary instruction in that language (Duke & Block, 2012). With an increased vocabulary, the child would be able to understand their reading material better, which can lead to increased interest in reading more books.  

 

Fig. 2: Components of vocabulary instruction (non-exhaustive) (IRIS Centre, n.d.).

 

Drafted by: Claire 

Edited by: Phoebe, Michelle, Joyce

 

References:

Baumann, J. F. (2009). Vocabulary and reading comprehension: The nexus of meaning. In S. E. Israel & G. G. Duffy (Eds.) Handbook of research on reading comprehension (pp. 323-346). Routledge. https://doi.org/10.4324/9781315759609

Duke, N. K., & Block, M. K. (2012). Improving reading in the primary grades. The Future of Children, 22(2), 55-72. https://doi.org/10.1353/foc.2012.0017

IRIS Centre. (n.d.). What should content-area teachers know about vocabulary instruction? https://iris.peabody.vanderbilt.edu/module/sec-rdng/cresource/q2/p02/

National Reading Panel (n.d.). Teaching children to read: An evidence-based assessment of scientific research literature on reading and its implications for reading instruction. Eunice Kennedy Shriver National Institute of Child Health and Human Development. https://www.nichd.nih.gov/sites/default/files/publications/pubs/nrp/Documents/report.pdf

Sun, B., Loh, C E., & O’Brien, B. A. (2021). Report on the reading habits of bilingual children in Singapore 2021. National Institute of Education Singapore. https://www.nie.edu.sg/docs/default-source/oer/report-on-the-reading.pdf?sfvrsn=cbb06553_2

Tan, Y. J. (n.d.). Child-friendly libraries in Singapore. The New Age Parents. https://thenewageparents.com/child-friendly-libraries-singapore/