Old Information

New Information

• Learning potential is what you are born with.

• Learning and IQ are not static.  Intelligence potential can be nurtured and developed.

• The brain’s ability to learn decreases as children get older.

• Healthy body-healthy environment results in healthy brain development and learning throughout life.  Early childhood is a time of peak development.

• Competency of subject matter is what prepares children for success. 

• Developing brain pathways of alertness/attention, memory, sensory, motor, speech, language, mood, social, and executive/planning-thinking functions are fundamental to all learning.  This prepares children for success at home, school, and beyond.

• Learning based on fear of failure is what motivates children to learn.

• Optimal learning requires high challenge-low threat.  Esteem is a great motivator.

• Learning to read is effortless for most children.  Most children, before school begins, can develop the understanding that letters on a page can be sounded out to make words and can recall the visual formation of letters from memory.

• Only about 5% of our nation’s children learn to read before they enter school. About 30% learn to read easily once exposed to formal instruction.  The majority of our nation’s children are challenged with reading.  (US Senate Committee Report on Human Resources)

• Reading doesn’t significantly improve other subjects. 

• Reading is a major avenue to learning about other people, history, social studies, language arts, science, math, general knowledge, spelling, writing, vocabulary…

• Teachers in the US are well prepared to teach the process of reading.

• Teachers receive little formal instruction regarding the process of reading development/reading disorders during undergraduate and/or graduate studies.  Teachers are often presented with a “one size fits all”  skills-based philosophy regarding reading instruction.