Reading and writing: more than just unite letters

The learning of reading and writing is a process directly related to the culture that depends on language development (Cook, 2010). In this sense, the brain does not include them in the packages of evolutionary learning necessary for the preservation of the species (Dehaene, 2009). This is unlike the language and the concept of number has to be learned from the interaction with the environment.

An usual   mistake of of formal education  is to believe that children can naturally link the sounds of language  with letters. The process can be compared with a trip to the moon: a little effort for an adult, a huge step for a preschool child.

This is because children learn to listen to whole words and eventually sentences, with a process that is modulated, even before birth and with broad cultural tools, even before the newborn leaves the warmth of the womb, and is able to hear the sounds of language (Dzib Goodin, 2011).

In contrast, both reading and writing, usually begin with small steps, where the task is to differentiate visually outlines of letters that children only have heard and because reading and writing are two different processes, reading uses the visual system mainly and is linked with motor actions, while writing adopted by the motor action and linked with visual skills. Hence the task is not only see and distinguish the letters of an alphabet, it also usually has at least uppercase and lowercase letters, but in the case of Russian language, also have to write letters to hand writing and  press words , which implies that they must learn 4 alphabets. Of course, I do not want to forget ideographic scripts that will surely become even more complex.

That's why to have a system ready to learn, children will have to relate graphemes (letters) to phonemes (sounds) and this will require separate the words they already know, like mom and dad into phonemes and then represent them with graphemes.

While at writing level, this must be considered as a cultural invention evolutionarily more recent that language, which consists not only of letters, but of specific grammatical rules because, unlike the language person - person where if part of speech becomes incomprehensible is possible to ask questions to the speaker, while at the reading is not possible to interact with the writer (Bates and Goodman, 1997).

And when a child is learning native language is allowed to make mistakes, of which adults take notice and will become the story of the childhood of their children, which allows them to repeat, redo, and play with wrong words spoken or compound sentences in a vague way, and it's socially accepted that the child is learning. And unlike behaviorism point of view that  explains children's language as a copy of the adult language,   recent studies show that children's speech modulate brain maturation depending the use and handling that makes the words depending on the cultural richness of the environment, which benefits the cognitive development (Hartshorne, 2009).

But the learning of reading and writing develops in a much less fun situation, where mistakes are not accepted and it moves away from the natural way the brain learns, as formal education is based on mindless repetition, which can even force the brain to make mistakes when performing tasks for which is not ready and this can slow the learning success (Tullis, 2011).

The brain learns by playing, trying new things at their own pace, changing the skills they already know. Taking the example of language, enjoy trying new sounds and phrases, and correcting mistakes slowly, slowly, in part, because the language is a need for interaction with others, takes the principle of cultural need.

In contrast, the writing does not have the opportunity to be enjoyable, and socially is not a need, but a school obligation. This produces that brain recognizes it as a cognitive challenge, adjust the look to a space defined, recognize characteristics of each of the different graphemes, and associate the sound to everyone, even those that do not sound like S at the end of a word, but that grammar should be considered. Shape and cadence to every word, and then form sentences, adjust the hand movement to the eye, learn the proper use of the writing instrument. Working in a sheet with a space that is usually only seen in school. When have you seen a book written into squares? Unless a textbook, it is not usual half of writing, it reads the text in white sheets ... visually squares are weird, but the preschool children have to learn to make marks in that finite space, the line must have cadence, and everything must be done clean and tidy ...

In the case of reading, children learn first by association and their first efforts are widely praised. Children who dare to read the signs on the billboards or the names of the brands. These early efforts, seen from parents as early symptom of superior intelligence, are necessary to play, to enjoy reading, and it will be until they start impositions and letters and logos will be exchanged for signs to be recognized one by one, correctly and effectively. That's when it gives way to read for pleasure reading for obligation.

For the brain, the requirement is a mature visual system to achieve and differentiate pattern recognition, size, distance, space, capable to produce a oculomotor movement with cadence that allows reading from left to right and top to bottom, a memory system that allows remembering what was read and allow contextualization of ideas. Of course it will take a vocabulary sufficient to understand words and will be added to the formula reading motivation, and that this activity be used and seen as culturally and personally significant (Vygotsky, 1995; Forget, Buiatti and Dehaene, 2009).

In the case of writing, this has been linked to language and reading. Of course the first step is simply to copy letters, a task that is not recognized as a real writing, because  it is said that this process aims to convey his own ideas to others. Although the debate can be extensive, but children and parents feel proud when, after a few tries, children can write their own names. Recognize the graphemes that represent the sounds of their name is a huge step. This requires as already mentioned, oculo-motor maturation proper recognition of the space where you type, maturity of laterality (Dehaene, Nakamura, Jobert, Kuroki, Ogawa and Cohen, 2009), recognition of sounds and of course the need to write, because this produce a cultural need to repeat the action.

Hence, to get to reading books and writing articles there are some extra steps, especially again to be a fun activity as necessary and possible. Studies conducted with families of successful readers and writers show that the environment plays an important role in the development of these skills (Wasik & Slavin, 1993).

Summing up the ideas, writing and reading are processes that go hand in hand, which shares the brain processes visual, auditory, speech and language, they are dependent of  motor skills, but they are more at the expense of cultural stimulation to open the door to learning in general development. Touch the foundations of mathematics, seen as a distinct language to natural language and require patience and stimulating environment to develop. Although there are precocious children, children are not born reading and writing, this will be the attraction and passion for both of them to push someone to the pleasure of knowledge.

Unlike the traditional idea that the child doesn't learn to read because is lazy, neurocognitive vision proposes that the brain can create unstable or immature neural networks that can be re set up with the right strategies, based on what the child knows and wants to know.

Can we have readers and writers?. I have no doubt that it is possible, if they are allowed to make their own mistakes and discover their capabilities. Miles away from the vision of what is right or wrong, because this attitude makes students come to college without writing a single sentence of their own. The copy (now cut and paste) that fills pages and pages that make teachers think they know something, far from helping, away from the initial idea of writing: students need to communicate ideas. And of course deny the possibility of enjoying reading, whatever, if it takes someone to learn something new, useful or just kill time.

In this sense, it's not possible to ignore technological advances, as the child learns to send short but informative messages either by a chat or a sms those forces to convey an idea in just few words. Certainly this may distort the language, because children begin to use pseudo-words, but it’s a way to use writing as a means of communication necessary. On the other hand, tablets and Internet browsing, accesses to hyperlinks that a subject relates to another. While it is true that you can not ignore traditional forms of reading and writing, as countries do not yet cover 100% internet access, not all social strata have the tools. It's just another modality.

Reading and writing habits  will have an important role in the development of cognitive processes of learning. How long and when they should apply?. Unlike the language and sensory processing there is a not critical moment. Clearly, there are adults that have adapted to the environment without having to read and write, just as children between 2 and 3 exhibit precocious abilities in some cases are so high that they will open the doors of academic success, while in other cases, society will destroy them  intellectually and eventually will be hampered their academic progress.

Alma Dzib Goodin

If you would like to know more about my writing you can visit my web site:
http://www.almadzib.com

References

Bates, E. and Goodman, JC. (1997)  On the inseparability of grammar and the lexicon: evidence from adquisition, aphasia and real time processing. Language and cognitive processes. 12 (5) 507-584.

Cook, G. (2010) The brain and the written word. Scientific American Mind. 21 (1) 62-65.

Dehaene, S., Nakamura, K., Jobert, A., Kuroki, C., Ogawa, S. and Cohen, L. (2009) Why do children make mirror errors in reading? Neural correlates of mirror invariance in the visual word form area. Neuroimage. doi:10.1016/j.neuroimage.2009.09.024

Dehaene, S. (2009) Reading in the brain: The science and evolution of a human invention. Viking Adult: Penguin Group. USA.

Dehaene, S. (1999) The number sense: how mind creates mathematics. Oxford University Press. USA.

Dzib Goodin, A. (2011) Introducción a los proceso neurocognitivos del aprendizaje: leguaje, lectura, escritura y matemáticas. En prensa. Servicios Editoriales Balám. México.

Forget, J., Buiatti, M. and Dehaene, S. (2009) Temporal integration in visual word recognition. Journal of cognitive neuroscience. 1 (2) 1-15.

Hartshorne, J. (2009) Why don’t babies talk like adults? Scientific American Mind. 20 (5) 59 – 61.

Tullis, P. (2011) Preeschool tests take time away from play and learning. Scientific American Mind. 22 (6) 26-29.

Vygostky, L. (1995) Pensamiento y lenguaje. Paidos. España

Wasik, BA. and Salvin, RE. (1993) Preventing early reading failure with one to one tutoring: a review of five programs. Reading research quaterly. 28 (2) 178-200.

Thinking about education: the school of the future

I've never had one of those ideas that worth a million dollars, but if one day I have one, I guess it would begin to build it with what I want to sell or share. That's why if one day the experts of education and learning will be seated to build a new paradigm, I think the first step would be to find out what everyone has in common, that,  can make successful the new paradigm globally.

I think if I want my educational idea succeed, I would try to cover a large market, in this case I want the whole world (literally, the world) can have the opportunity to learn without discrimination, without being labeled as stupid or genius. I think those labels, instead of helping, kill futures CEOs . I want the children can have happy childhoods and become successful adults. It's a simple goal, right?.

So I would sit down to analyze everything what I learned with so many discussion groups about education. The most reactionary group and I think with best proposals is Learning without Frontiers, the group advocates for a education with no walls based on technology and innovation. But something is missing.

First, think: what's what around the world all people have in common?

It is neither money nor technology, for example  Latin American countries are far from economic competition (World Economic Forum, 2011), and in more than one occasion I said that education does not require money or speeches, so I wish to continue being consistent with my ideals.

The technology comes sometimes with a delay of years to countries with less recourses, and it is natural for families to think first to feed their children than in a technological toy that will open the door of education.

Certainly there is a cultural barrier, provided by the history of each place, customs and culture and must be added the language barrier that makes some have more advantages over others. Since children of 6 years old who have never taken a pencil, to children who born with the remote in their hand.

So if we continue to thinking a little, so that all human beings around the world have in common is a brain.

And it's not necessary a brain with high capacities, ultimately education seeks to provide that window of opportunity. Besides the exposure to the environment (including cultural influences) that creates cytoarchitectural differences, and are those cytoarchitectural differences which allow each person to be more suitable for certain tasks (Dzib Goodin, 2011a).

Perhaps the only complication that could impede to learn are those syndromes that are involved in the process of memory, because  is known that are memory and learning are closely linked, but beyond that, all brains, even those effected development disorders can be adapted, but learn in different ways.

From the evolutionary point of view, learning is necessary for the survival of the species and is present in all of them, under the principle of survival of the fittest, so it depends on environmental adaptation and vice versa.

Understanding the brain processes in education, helps to define what and how to teach (Dzib Goodin, 2011b), and allows to see the learner from a different perspective.

So based on this basic principle, including the brain in education, it is possible to set out the principles that shape learning.

In a text written for teachers and parents, I listed how the brain learns, from which it can be said that the brain has the urge to learn. Learning regulates systems even before birth, it's not necessary a school or office hours to learn because this allows adaptation to the needs of the environment and ensures that each generation continue developing with new evolutionary advantages (Dzib Goodin, 2011c).

Learning allows the strengthening of neural networks that permit perpetual motion of new learning. Unlike what many psychologists claimed, only a few systems could have critical moments, such as language, movement, and perhaps to a lesser degree vision and hearing (Roman Carboni, Del Rio Grande, Chapel Maestu and Ortiz, 2006; Gage, 2007, Dehaene, Nakamura, Jobert, Kuroki, Ogawa, and Cohen, 2009), but even for these processes should be considered brain plasticity, which will later accept the creation of new networks that delayed repair functions (Cook, 2010).

If you look at the babies, it is obvious that they make several attempts before achieving perfection of movements or language (Hartshorne, 2009), this is something that has forgotten the formal school, but let us see the fun of learning and the need for repetition. Nothing is more gratifying to see the kids doing the same actions over and over again, and as adult e can get  bored, while children ask: do it again and again!, And have you noticed how much children  enjoy doing things?, that's why I think this is another principle of the brain: repetition and joy.

In addition, the brain learns from mistakes, if taught how, of course, even if the mistake is trying to solve an addition, collapsing a multi-million dollar company or mislead the recipient of an email, parses the string of events held, going about our steps and seeks to correct mistakes by learning from them (Roediger III, and Finn, 2010).

And once the brain learns something, will enjoy it and that will cause pleasure or reward immediate as possible, it will to do it again and again and again. This is how persons develop the skill or talent, the continued development of an activity, which will make a super specialized neural network (Forget, Buiatti and Dehaene, 2009). But remember that the geniuses in any area not done in a day, the real experts need many years.

My idea of education see it as try to install a software on any gadget, if the software does not match the system requirements, it is likely that this may not work properly, this has happened to educational models prevailing as it has been said at many educational forums. I think that formal education has pushed their applications regardless of what the system itself can do. Above all, has not taken into account that the system itself is regulated and is able to improve any program.

It is therefore in this sense that the software can not be used in the same way in all alike, every brain is different connections, some more specialized than others (Haier, 2009), but if you want all the same opportunities , you should look at that as an advantage, and then create a flexible software. As well as creating applications for various devices, versions 1, 2, N and N +1 ... Why not create flexible educational proposals?, Especially taking into account the culture, technological advances and innovations. In less than a decade we have moved from laptops to tablets and books to read hypertext. Culture evolves, brain evolves; why is education so boring?.

If you want to create an application of this magnitude, then I think I should ask the question: what is the goal of this application?. It certainly is not the speech that was sold to my generation: if you go to school will be a successful professional and you can make money and be better than your parents. Evolutionarily each new generation will be better than their ancestors (Fox, 2011).

What do we wish at the end of so many years of education?, Do we wish everyone thinking exactly the same?, Well, if you look at successful people, it seems a famous is anyone who dares to break the mold, and all admire him or her for doing things that nobody else can not do, a baseball player, a painter, a musician, a computer whiz or business ... all of them went beyond and against the system.

Then school needs to be creative and diversify. Each educational system is good for a limited group of people that fit the same, but there's a group that does not, and they need another program (Barber and Mourshed, 2007).

Formal education can call them stupid or odd, in a sense they are, but there are examples which show an extraordinary talent that was misunderstood. This is because creativity is an important ingredient in education (Robinson, 2006).

And be creative applies to use  tools, specially talking  about the current  technological age and the worldwide commitment to the use of tablets and Smartphone, but we can not forget the economic and cultural differences. What is the advantage of these tools? They are intuitive. Does not take much to learn to use and each generation of devices are based on brain function, and I think here can mention only some of its features:

They are based on visual processing, are increasingly attractive, sharper images, sound better, more friendly, and do not need a course of 40 hours to use a tablet, as soon as you open the box,  and it jumps almost saying, use me, let's work and learn!.

They are visuopropioceptives, where I put my finger I have what I want, they are lightweight and do not I have to get home to work, technically they in in my pocket... I carry it everywhere, just like any brain, goes everywhere with me, and also have very good ability to memory.

The advantage of technological tools moreover, it's adding the fact  you no longer dependent on a special platform to teach, the most commonly used, Facebook is great for teaching on line and now has built Skype; Google +  allows the use of multiple cameras for video conferences, it have enough room for internet use while you are giving a class ... if education of the future will use more and more often these items it will be excited, but at the same time, it can be a  bet IF think about use  only gadgets and it would be closing the door to creativity and only turning  the current coin.

First, we must think about the economic and language barrier, that is why gadgets can not be considered as the only options, and it makes sense to use the tools that each brain has at hand from the culture, and thus will be more creative, successful and adapted. more experiences, more neural networks. Simple!.

So, we can not forget the environment, because that is where decisions are made, they learn ethical systems (Blanchette and Richards, 2010), is the civilization where the brain has evolved, and is ultimately who we want to teach (Dehaene, 2009).

And now here we come: what to teach?. I am convinced that it is possible to teach anything with the right strategy, from quantum physics to how to get to the moon or being the best driver of the world. Education should not only bet on science, or formal education, the brain learns from everywhere, learn how to break security systems, or  the law, IF it is assumed that this is not learned in school, how is that someone manages to construct an algorithm for something so complex?, because the brain is much more intelligent than the school has believed.

Like learning math, that persons  think is one of the  more complex learning so far, with  a special language, and it has been able to create a specific space in the brain (Dehaene, 1999), the brain can reconnect existing networks and to continue learning, and creating and modifying them. It is able to create a triangular circle, or a colorful painting in black and white. It is creative and likes to be. There is nothing better than when someone call us the best at something, anything, from the best runner, even the best in physics, or the best craftsman. That makes us feel good!.

I think the goal of education should be to help each one to find for that which every one is good, the younger that goal is reached, the better value is the talent and will be more helpful to society.

Accept that there are other talents and tell to each child: YES, YOU CAN!, I hope it can be the way to school in the future, even when the system itself can have flawed. Finally accept that not everyone can learn the same way, it will open doors to children that every day work hard trying to adapt their skills to the demands of school (Fisher, 2010).

Finally, if we see how  other species and children learn before going to school, open our eyes to accept that learning is enjoyable, and that the more is seen as a game, is better accepted (Tullis, 2011). Hence it is explained why videogames can capture children minds, but if we look closely, they are teaching things that do matter for the school.

For example, the relationship visuospatial, visuo motor process for reading and writing, teaching strategies, metacognitive processes, and I can easily go on and on ...

The school of the future should recognize that the first point is to understand the brain, which provides its services for everything and, it will find a cure for brain diseases for future generations, it will reorganize the world economy or, it will let me see a movie from the comfort of my home, with just one click

And of course, no everyone can be famous actors or musicians, but if you enjoy doing what is being done, that is natural and then it lets exploit the full potential of each person, would not be worth it to educate?.

Alma Dzib Goodin

If you would like to know more about my writing you can visit my web site:
http://www.almadzib.com

Image 3D: Juan Conde Tovany

REFERENCES

Barber, M. and Mourshed, M. (2007) How the world’s best performance school system come out on top. McKinsey & Company. USA.

Blanchette, I. and Richards, A. (2010) The influence of affect o higher level cognition: A review of research on interpretation, judgment, decision making and reasoning. Cognition & Emotion. 24 (4) 561-595.

Carboni Román, A., Del Rio Grande, D., Capilla, A., Maestú, F. y  Ortíz, T. (2006) Bases neurobiológicas de las dificultades de aprendizaje. Rev Neurol. 42 (Supl 2) S171-S175.

Cook, G. (2010) The brain and the written word. Scientific American Mind. 21 (1) 62-65.

Dehaene, S. (1999) The number sense: how mind creates mathematics. Oxford University Press. USA.

Dehaene, S. (2009) Reading in the brain: The science and evolution of a human invention. Viking Adult: Penguin Group. USA.

Dehaene, S., Nakamura, K., Jobert, A., Kuroki, C., Ogawa, S. and Cohen, L. (2009) Why do children make mirror errors in reading? Neural correlates of mirror invariance in the visual word form area. Neuroimage. doi:10.1016/j.neuroimage.2009.09.024

Dzib Goodin, A (2011c) How do we learn?.  Disponible en red: http://education50.com/blog/black-list-of-colors/how-do-we-learn.

Dzib Goodin, A. (2011a) The search for talent: the Holy Grial disponible en red: http://talkingaboutneurocognitionandlearning.blogspot.com/.

Dzib Goodin, A. (2011b) Brain differences: the black hole of formal education. Disponible en red: http://talkingaboutneurocognitionandlearning.blogspot.com/2011/09/brain-differences-black-hole-of-formal.html.

Fisher, B. (2010) A sensory fix for problems in school. Scientific American Mind. 21 (1) 32-37.

Forget, J., Buiatti, M. and Dehaene, S. (2009) Temporal integration in visual word recognition. Journal of cognitive neuroscience. 1 (2) 1-15.

Fox, D. (2011) The limits of intelligence. Scientific American. 305 (1) 36- 43.

Gage, FH. (2007) Brain, repair yourself. En Floyd  E, Bloom. The best of the brain from Scientif American: Mind matter and tomorrow’s brain. Dana Press. US.

Haier, R. (2009) What does a smart brain look like?. Scientific American Mind. 20 (6) 26-33.

Hartshorne, J. (2009) Why don’t babies talk like adults? Scientific American Mind. 20 (5) 59 – 61.

http://www.learningwithoutfrontiers.com/

Robinson, K. (2006) TED: Schools and creativity. Disponible en red: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nPB-41q97zg&context=C3d21048ADOEgsToPDskLALkSRPqGf5rRgHmuJPYd2

Roediger III, HL. and Finn, B. (2010) The pluses of getting wrong.  Scientific American Mind. 21 (1) 38-41.

Tullis, P. (2011) Preeschool tests take time away from play and learning. Scientific American Mind. 22 (6) 26-29.

World Economic Forum (2011) Latin American economies still lag behind in leveraging ICT despite making progress, according to new global technology report. Disponible en red: http://www.weforum.org/news/latin-american-economies-still-lag-behind-leveraging-ict-despite-making-progress-according-new.