ABSTRACT
Children are taught to read. They have to be taught about the alphabet and they have to be shown how to use it because the whole system of linking words and sounds to written symbols is an arbitrary one. Of course, teaching is not everything. As we have seen children make their own considerable contribution: they “invent” spelling with great ingenuity and they make inferences about the spelling patterns of quite unfamiliar words. Nevertheless, teaching is clearly an important part of learning to read.
