ABSTRACT
Children learn to read from the moment that they make sense of language, for reading brings together the abilities of visual and auditory discrimination that children explore from birth, and the sense of meaning that language engenders. Any form of learning combines a variety of skills, abilities and definitions; the learning of language, in which reading is subsumed, is more complex than most. But because reading is a task so vital to so many others, and because it is so central to what takes place in schools, there have been many attempts to reduce the sense of complexity into a simple process, by means of teaching strategies that do not take into account all we know about the power of the mind to discriminate and to retain information. It is important to place the learning of reading in the wider context of learning, and recognize that it is more than a battleground between different approaches to the teaching of skills. This recognition of the importance of understanding the process of learning to read is both hopeful and liberating; it shows how important is the role of the parent as well as the teacher, and accepts that there are many things that can be done to help, most of which are not very technical or complicated.
