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Learning to read: an unnatural act

Learning to read: an unnatural act Philip B. Gough and Michael L. Hillinger University of Texas at Austin Consider the child of six on the threshold of elementary school. The first thing one notices is his size: he stands only 45 inches (115 cm.), and he weighs only 45 pounds (20 kg.). But atop that small body rests a large head: its diameter of 53 cm. is nearly 95 percent of its adult size (Tanner 1978), and within it resides a brain containing a remarkable collection of skills and abilities. The six-year-old's sight is as good as the adult's (Amigo 1972), and his hearing is nearly so (Elliott and Katz 1980). The child has an excellent memory (Mandler, in press), and his learning ability is remarkable. Even a conservative estimate of the size of his vocabulary will show that he must have learned, on average, more than four new words every day since his first birthday (Carey 1978). He has already learned to speak and understand his native language with remarkable fluency. The average American six-year-old can already produce and recognize more than a dozen vowels and nearly 30 consonants of English. He can produce and understand literally thousands of different words, and he can http://www.deepdyve.com/assets/images/DeepDyve-Logo-lg.png Annals of Dyslexia Springer Journals

Learning to read: an unnatural act

Gough, Philip B.; Hillinger, Michael L.
Annals of Dyslexia , Volume 30 (1): 18 – Jan 1, 1980
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References (53)

Publisher
Springer Journals
Copyright
1980 The Orton Society, Inc
ISSN
0736-9387
eISSN
1934-7243
DOI
10.1007/BF02653717
Publisher site
See Article on Publisher Site

Abstract

Philip B. Gough and Michael L. Hillinger University of Texas at Austin Consider the child of six on the threshold of elementary school. The first thing one notices is his size: he stands only 45 inches (115 cm.), and he weighs only 45 pounds (20 kg.). But atop that small body rests a large head: its diameter of 53 cm. is nearly 95 percent of its adult size (Tanner 1978), and within it resides a brain containing a remarkable collection of skills and abilities. The six-year-old's sight is as good as the adult's (Amigo 1972), and his hearing is nearly so (Elliott and Katz 1980). The child has an excellent memory (Mandler, in press), and his learning ability is remarkable. Even a conservative estimate of the size of his vocabulary will show that he must have learned, on average, more than four new words every day since his first birthday (Carey 1978). He has already learned to speak and understand his native language with remarkable fluency. The average American six-year-old can already produce and recognize more than a dozen vowels and nearly 30 consonants of English. He can produce and understand literally thousands of different words, and he can

Journal

Annals of Dyslexia – Springer Journals

Published: Jan 1, 1980

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