Language at the speed of sight How we read, why so many can't, and what can be done about it

Cognitive neuroscientist Seidenberg digs deep into the science of reading to reveal the ways human beings learn how to read and process language. After describing how humans adapted to form writing, speech, and languages, Seidenberg explores current research into dyslexia and other literacy problems, especially as they pertain to the challenges facing the American education system. Progress in reading is inexorably tied to achievement gaps and differences in socioeconomic status, but Seidenberg circles back to the biological connections among spoken language, dyslexia, and general reading ability. Poverty alone cannot account for the U.S.'s "mediocre showing" in multinational assessments, he says. His major criticism of national reading progress lies in the "culture of education" or the way teachers are trained to approach teaching. Seidenberg turns against the trend of natural "discovery" learning, where he says nothing is really taught, and argues that direct instruction by tested methods is the best way to ensure students consistently learn to read. Seidenberg's analysis is backed up by numerous studies and tables of data. His approach is pragmatic, myth-destroying, and rooted in science-and his writing makes for powerful reading. (Jan.) © Copyright PWxyz, LLC. All rights reserved.

Johnny can't readand too often his teachers can only guess why.Reading is something that we almost always do at a subconscious level: we do not think about it, and for good reason, since we need to concentrate on the resultthe content of what we have been reading, that isand not the process. Still, the fact that there is this subconscious work going on requires a science of reading to describe what Seidenberg (Psychology/Univ. of Wisconsin) calls a complex skill that operates "at levels that intuition cannot easily penetrate." One way of looking at reading is to examine where it doesn't quite work out as expected. Much of the author's research, and a sizable portion of this book, concerns dyslexia, a phenomenon that turns on anatomical properties of the brain in which "signal propagation between and within regions seems to benoisier," which in turn affects "the modification of neuronal responses and their retention." The neuroscience underlying these findings is complex, of course, but Seidenberg does not often fall into thickets of technicality; for the most part, his discussions are clear and accessible, if of most compelling interest to a small audience of reading specialists. The author counters on that score that reading should be a matter of larger interest to teachers especially, given the discouraging levels of literacy across the world; he argues that teacher training should involve a curriculum embracing reading science, child development, and cognition, among other areas. Broader familiarity with the science of reading, he suggests, would be of use at the policy level as well, since so much of it is based on assumptions concerning problems of social engineeringpoverty, household makeup, and so forth. A worthy primer on the science of comprehending language at the visible, symbolic level of print, a place that requires plenty of brain power and years of practice to navigate. Copyright Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.