ABSTRACT
The fluent reader forgets about the process of reading, and concentrates on the rewards of reading. Even in difficult passages the awareness of difficulty resides in what the text means, or tries to mean, rather than in the negotiations with graphemes. But many children, caught in that gap between the learning of the specific skill, and the use made of that skill, have the uneasy tendency to revert to the consciousness of the act of reading, like a person suddenly self-conscious about driving a car. It is this subconscious memory of the difficulties of the task that can make some people unwilling to read anything but the least demanding material, and that can make some people suffer from ‘word blindness’. A truly fluent reader has become so accustomed to the uses of reading, that, like driving a car, they take it for granted. The fluent reader remains in constant practice.
