There’s a whole science behind reading. And researchers from various fields continue to study it. Some want to understand how we make sense of words. Others are looking for new ways of teaching people to read. One of the things they’ve found is that the human brain is not prewired to learn to read naturally. It’s something we are taught or must learn. During reading, various parts of our brain work together to make words come to life - and make sense.
“The ability to read text, process it and understand its meaning,” is how Oxford Owl describes reading comprehension. The University Of Oxford’s homeschooling site breaks it down like this: “It relies on two, interconnected abilities: word reading (being able to decode the symbols on the page) and language comprehension (being able to understand the meaning of the words and sentences).”
The two need to work together like a well-oiled machine. Meaning, if you can decode words, but don’t understand their meaning, you won’t be able to comprehend a text. And if you can understand what the words mean, but you can’t decode them, you also won’t be able to comprehend text.
There are many factors that can impact our ability to understand text. Dyslexia is one of them. The Mayo Clinic defines it as “a learning disorder that involves difficulty reading due to problems identifying speech sounds and learning how they relate to letters and words (decoding).” Researchers have found it’s caused by disruptions in how someone’s brain processes writing so they can understand it.
You are not doomed if you have dyslexia. Some super famous people have revealed they’re dyslexic. Kim Kardashian recently spoke about her daughter North’s diagnosis. She’s one of many to speak out and break the stigma attached to learning disabilities.
Anderson Cooper is an Emmy Award winning news anchor and journalist. A big part of his job involves reading words on a teleprompter. But as a kid, Cooper struggled to read. He’s spoken publicly about his struggles. And said he would carry a book around with him but “would just pretend to read it, because I had trouble reading and making sense of words, in particular, letters.”
Cooper admitted even those who knew him well had no idea he had dyslexia. “I think it’s a sign of probably how well I tried to hide it when I was a little kid,” he said. “I remember at the time being concerned that other people would find out about it.” The news anchor has credited teachers and reading specialists with helping him to overcome his difficulty and excel in his career.
As an actress, Keira Knightley’s job also involves a lot of reading. But she too revealed she once struggled with dyslexia. She told the Guardian that she overcame her reading difficulties with the help of Emma Thompson’s Sense and Sensibility screenplay script.
“My mum, who worked with her on Sense and Sensibility, got me a copy of the screenplay Emma had written," said Knightley. "And I was – am – dyslexic and the way she got me over it was to say: 'If Emma Thompson couldn't read, she'd make sure she'd get over it, so you have to start reading, because that's what Emma Thompson would do'."
