Word Meaning Blindness
Introduction
It may seem bizarre, but I have sat with children who can read text out loud, without a problem, but have no idea what they have just read. I worked with one child who could read out "red box", but be unable to choose between the red box and the blue box in front of him, until you repeated back "red box", at which point he would immediately point to the red box.
There are also examples of adults who have suffered localised stroke damage and lost the ability to read, while still being able to write. In fact, they can write something down and are then unable to read what they have just written.
This may all seem very odd, but there is a simple explanation.
The Cause of Word Meaning Blindness
In your auditory and linguistic cortex there are two distinct zones called Wernicke's area and Broca's area, after the neurologists who first researched them.
Wernicke's area is focused on comprehension of language, both read and heard. Broca's area is concerned with production of language, both written and spoken.
Therefore if a child is using visual techniques to read, the activity in the cortex can go from visual to frontal cortex and then to Broca's area in the linguistic cortex, without ever activating Wernicke's area. So the child can read aloud, without comprehending the words at all.
That is also possible if the words are being decoded in a conventional auditory way.
The adult who can write but not read after a stroke has suffered damage to Wernicke's area, but not Broca's area.
The Solution to Word Meaning Blindness
Having seen the cause of the problem, the solution now become much more obvious. You have to engage Wernicke's area in the process.
The way we do that in Easyread is first to make sure that the auditory cortex is engaged. There is more information on that in our page on auditory deficit.
Next is to intimately link the comprehension of the word with the processing, while under pressure.
On the whole we try to reduce stress in the reading process, but this is one moment when we actively increase it with time-pressured games. It seems to blast through the blocks when the child is actively engaged in a game.
There are other instances of this. For instance, ski instructors usually teach children with games rather than focusing on technique. If the game is well designed, the blocks that prevent the child from taking up the right position are broken down due to the focus on succeeding at the game.
Horse riding is the same. Any good riding instructor will use games to loosen up the rider in the saddle.
You may think reading has nothing to do with skiing and horse riding, but you would be wrong. Reading is much closer to both of them than say mathematics or geography. Skiing, riding and reading are all skills. Mathematics and geography are full of semantic knowledge.
Also, the emotion centres of the brain stem are very important for developing new synapse pathways. We aim to get the learner in an excited and eager state, which then makes new connections easier to develop.
Without all of this, even quite a small block can prevent progress.
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