Native Reading

Early Learning Teaching Your Child to Read
1

Can anyone on this forum explain the differences of the Native Reading techniques described in Dr. Kailing’s book with the methods of Doman, YBCR, etc.?

Would anyone be willing to explain the 12 techniques that are used and perhaps elaborate a little on each (like, in another post, jtg mentioned that the way parents typically word-point is distracting. How does Kailing recommend it be done?)

I thought this deserved a thread of its own, if anyone has read the book would be willing to share.

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I’m not the best person to contrast Native Reading with Doman or YBCR, because I haven’t read Doman or used any videos. I first read Native Reading this last spring, and I found this site when searching for sites about early reading.

Someone at brillkids has apparently knows about all of the methods because Kailing is discussed along with Doman and Titzer at some of the pages on this site (for example, on the pagehttp://www.brillbaby.com/teach-baby/why-teach-reading-early.php). Whoever did that can probably compare and contrast them. From reading around this site, and a few others, they share a lot, but there are some differences.

The core of native reading is some simple techniques and games that correlate the spoken language with the written language. I’ll try to find a good short quote.

“To help your child learn to read natively all you need to do is use some simple techniques that consistently correlate the spoken language they are naturally absorbing with the written language that is almost entirely analogous in structure.”

That’s from the second chapter, which is called “The Correlation Method of Native Reading.”

I’ll try to find another quote on text pointing. The idea is pretty important but I don’t quite trust myself to explain it right. Here’s a quote on it from the book:

“When reading to their child nearly all parents point to the text sometimes, but in my experience almost every parent does this inconsistently and explicitly. They point inconsistently, meaning simply that most parents only very occaisionally point at the text. And parents usually point explicitly, meaning that they try to actively turn their child’s attention to the word to which they are pointing, to teach it to them. Then here is how it often goes: because most children would rather look at the pictures, they seem to completely ignore their parent’s pointing, therefore, most parents soon stop pointing because it seems useless. The common sense feeling is that if most of the time your child doesn’t even look at the text you’re pointing at, why bother? And if you point at the text only on occasion pointing probably is a waste of time – especially if you interrupt the story to do so, if you disrupt the natural rhythm of the spoken word that helps hold a child’s focus, or if you try to force children’s attention away from the pictures that they prefer to look at. Done improperly, it could even be counterproductive: inconsistent and explicit text pointing disturbs the attention of a child, it interrupts the cadence of the language, and it ends up making reading more confusing for a child – and a lot less fun. Text pointing improperly like this shows a fundamental misunderstanding because by pointing in this active way an adult is trying to explicitly teach reading to a child, and, in general, young children simply do not learn like this!
To transform text pointing into a useful technique you need to make a subtle but crucial change of method. You need to make text pointing a consistent, accurate, but unobtrusive habit. Pointing in this way, you do not actively teach your child to read; rather, this passive text pointing simply makes the correlation of the spoken and written words consistently apparent for your child, and this is all children really need in order to learn how to read on their own. By this simple change, by making a consistent habit of accurately following the text with your finger as you read in your normal cadence, you take away nothing from your child’s enjoyment in reading books with you. But what you add is tremendously important: your pointing finger dancing along the text in rhythm to your voice makes the correlation between your spoken words and the written words on the page entirely obvious and natural. In a native reading home, children do not need to be explicitly taught this relationship, it will just be a natural and obvious part of their world; they will simply absorb it. Rather than being a complicated new skill they have to struggle with later in childhood, reading is simply a natural extension of language as they have always known it. This sort of text pointing does require patience on the part of the parent, even a kind of faith, because during most of the time you and your child spend reading, your child will not be obviously following the text you are pointing to – which is exactly how it should be!”

That’s kind of a long quote, but I didn’t know where to stop and still capture the idea. Proper implicit pointing is just one of the techniques, though. Like most of them, they don’t really take any extra time, they are just things to do along with normal play and reading and games. The book has lots of examples.

I don’t think I could really do justice to all twelve techniques here (my fingers are already aching from typing in the quote about pointing!). Although one of the 12 techniques is easy: Breastfeeding! Kailing is a big breastfeeding advocate, which I really like!

The biggest contrast I see are with Doman methods is that phonetics and whole word skills are BOTH taught, simultaneously – although phonetic rules are taught through games and play where the kids figure them out naturally, and not through the explicit rules and rote exercises that are often used in schools. Kailing really emphasizes making everything fun and interactive and social.

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Thanks for explaining the method with that quote. From what I can tell you basically just follow the text as you read it with your finger all the time?

I am not clued up on this method at all so I know nothing about the 12 steps he uses, however reading this site http://www.nativereading.com/faq.html it appears that it is a method that does not use flashcards etc, but rather points out the written language when speaking it. Another site I read seems to imply that reading is taught by “playing in a text-rich environment” and yet another “Native reading, for example, uses both phonics and whole word techniques, but differs from both in that it emphasizes teaching reading beginning at a very early age, when the human brain is neurodevelopmentally most receptive to learning language. Native readers learn to read as toddlers, starting at the same time they learn to speak, or very soon thereafter.”

This site discusses how the author teaches his own daughter to read purely by reading and pointing at the words: http://www.nativereading.com/introduction.html

I have heard of children learning to read when their parents pointed out words on cereal boxes and street names. I imagine that the author expands on these techniques. Would love to hear from someone who knows more or has used this method on their children. From what I can tell, I am using the method to some extent myself anyway as I am always pointing out words (even on jars of infant formula which my daughter decided to hug in the shop yesterday) but would love to know what the 12 points are.

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jtg: thank you so much for posting those excerpts about word pointing! Karma to you! When you first mentioned in another post how there is a “wrong way” and a “right way” to point, I thought you were referring to something like pointing at words one by one versus just moving your finger from left to right. But the way you explained it makes perfect sense - to point consistently, even if they’re not looking, just to make the connection between the written and the spoken word obvious to them as they see your finger moving to the rhythm of your speech and getting the idea that the text is intricately related and inseparable from what you’re speaking. Isn’t it amazing that little kids can pick up reading all on there own when we just give them the opportunity? Thank you so much for sharing.

When you have time, (and regain your finger strength :wink: ), I would love to hear what the other 12 techniques are. You don’t have to be as detailed with all of them - I know it would be hard if you were trying to tell us the whole book in a forum. But just to give a general outline, a brief idea, of what they are, would be wonderful. Like you mentioned games and songs: how is reading incorporated into this? Like holding up words as you sing and play? Could you give a brief example of how some games are played? I remember once hearing that another technique was to make toys for your baby, like a giant flash card with a picture of Mommy on one side and the word “Mommy” on the other side, and also to do this for all the family members, so that the child is seeing three different ways of representing the concept “Mommy” - a picture, the written word, and the spoken word. Are there any other recommendations that he gives? It would be wonderful if you could share when you have time.

Thank you so much for your input!

5

Hi everyone

Sorry - I happened to go to Thailand the day this thread was started, so have only been able to reply now!

I have read the Native Reading book (and I wrote the articles in the BB reading section that quote from it). The main difference between Kailing and Doman/Titzer (YBCR) is that Kailing does not advocate explicitly teaching reading, whereas with Doman and Titzer, that is what you’re doing. However, what Kailing does share with Doman and Titzer is the belief that the most natural and effortless time for a child to learn to read the written language is at the same time as she is naturally and effortlessly learning the spoken language. For Doman and Titzer, you start teaching at a few months of age. Kailing means between ages one and three. He says that any child can learn to read by age three, and shares the examples of his son and daughter, who showed different facilities for reading. Kailing’s son was always interested in words and books, and learned to read by age two. Kailing’s daughter wasn’t that interested in words and used to toss her books aside, but suddenly one day she yelled at her father, “Daddy! Point!!” because he’d neglected to run his finger under the words of the book he was reading her. That made him realize how much she had been gaining from the practice of text pointing even when he thought she hadn’t been paying attention.

Text pointing is one of the most important techniques - and yes, it is the difference between pointing at one word in a manner of: “Look - that’s the word ‘television’” - because you want to draw your child’s attention to something difficult/interesting, versus running your finger under the words so that your child unconsciously begins seeing the correlations between the letters and the sounds they make. Actually this is quite similar to Titzer’s belief in a child’s ability to deduce the rules of phonics without being taught them (Titzer’s daughter Aleka did this before the age of 18 months). And similarly, Doman reminds us that children figure out the rules of grammar without being taught them - because children are linguistic geniuses. Kailing seems to share Doman’s belief that most children do not learn to read at the optimum time simply because we parents don’t give them enough exposure to the kind of text that they can understand. Doman says, “Mothers instinctually speak to their children in a loud, clear, repeated voice,” and just as the “loud, clear, repeated voice” facilitates learning of the spoken language, so “large, clear, repeated words” (not words as they appear in commercial books) facilitate learning of the written language.

Kailing doesn’t advocate the systematic teaching of reading - you don’t show certain words a certain number of times per day. But you make letters and words a part of everyday life - and crucially, play - from the earliest age. Besides text pointing, I would say that playing with letters and words is the most important technique in Kailing’s book. I’m sure a lot of Doman and Titzer parents do this kind of thing too; it’s just that we’re not explicitly told to do so by Doman or Titzer. Titzer is, however, seen playing games that teach reading in a video with his daughter Keelin: he has a pile of toy animals and shows Keelin a word, then asks her to find the appropriate animal. And of course, Elizabeth is doing this kind of thing all the time with Hunter. And not just with reading - the Math Lion is a great example of this.

Here are the 12 Native Reading techniques:

1. Play with individual letters, consistently, from an early age

  • If you engage in letter play just about every day, even for just a few minutes, you will make the fundamental units of written language a recognizable and fun part of your child’s world; letters will be familiar at a deep neurological level.
  • You can start by simply singing [your baby] the alphabet song while pointing to each letter of a brightly colored alphabet as you do it.
  • Another good game is building towers with alphabet blocks, naming the letters your child sees as you build the tower up.
  • If bath time becomes a favorite time for your child, those floating, sticking bath letters are a great way to do letter play.
  • Play hide and seek with letters. Let your child choose letters to put onto a model train for rides around the track. Toss soft play letters for the family dog to retrieve. In all of these activities, be sure to name the letters for your child as you play.
  • As soon as children are able to grab things, using 3D letters they can manipulate is the best.

2. Play with words, consistently, from an early age

  • Go ahead and introduce whole words and read them to your child as soon as he or she is at all interested. A set of magnetic words that you put on your refrigerator is an easy way to do this; just make sure that they are big enough that your child can’t eat them! It’s even better if you can also find kitchen magnets that have pictures of the things named by the words magnets.
  • As always, much of the word play should be interactive, because children use your interest and enthusiasm to learn what is interesting and important in their world. But soon your child will also enjoy playing with these magnets, or other manipulatable word toys, entirely on their own.
  • [Children] may sometimes seem to spend word-play time mostly making a mess of things, scattering their literate toys about the kitchen floor. You will probably have the urge to “correct” this apparently random behavior - for example, to make your child turn the words right side up - but you should generally resist this urge. Remember that teaching children to read natively is fundamentally different from teaching them non-natively at a later age… When children learn to read natively they will do a written-word version of many of the same things they do when they learn to speak. They will “babble” with their toys, they will enjoy nonsense words, they will, to an adult eye, spend a lot of time goofing around. This is not only all right, this is actually essential.
    [Note from Maddy: I have noticed that my DD Naimah always looks at her books upside down. Thanks to reading Kailing, I’m convinced that this an important developmental stage in her learning to read.]

3. Assemble words from letters, to make clear how words are made from letters

  • In the course of your letter play with your child, now and again you should make a point to conspicuously assemble simple words from play letters and then read them aloud to your child.
  • Your child will learn that written language, like spoken language, is not just something that you observe passively. You child will learn that language can be something you create, and that it is possible to come up with novel combinations of letters and words that you’ve never seen before.
  • As always, making something of a production of this word assembly will make it much more fun and engaging for children. Name the letters and search around for each of them… As soon as children know their first few letters, you should deputize them to search for letters… When they return triumphantly with the requested letter, give them an enthusiastic “Thank you!”… A surefire hit is to surreptitiously sit on the last letter needed for the word, and get mock-frustrated at your inability to find it.
  • In their first attempts [children] may apparently pick letters at random, they may place them upside down or sideways, or even in an unorganized pile, and then repeat the last word you demonstrated. A child might place “MGQZAF” down very seriously, point at it and then say with enthusiasm, even with authority, “Cat!” You should not jump to correct a child when this happens, because this is one of those very special “mistakes” which are actually important signs of a child’s progress and interest… The fact that a child has learned that letters can be assembled into a word, and that this group of symbols, jumbled or not, can correspond to a known spoken word - that is a truly momentous breakthrough. At this early point, the fact that a child might not know which word is really an unimportant detail.
  • As their understanding becomes more sophisticated, children are likely to enjoy extending word-assembly play to the creation of nonsense words - that is, intentionally creating words which they know to be nonsense… Both of my children went through a stage where they loved to assemble random sequences of letters and try to make me pronounce them… By persevering in making my best attempt to accurately pronounce these random words, I helped my children learn two very profound things…
  1. When they added a letter or two to the end of their written “word,” which only changed the end of it, it was only the end of what I pronounced that changed, too…
  2. The length of the written word correlates (sometimes quite hilariously) with the length of the word when it is spoken…
    Of course, they also got a great deal of practice in observing which sound each letter added to the spoken word, although I never belabored the point with particular phonic emphasis which would have held up the pace of the fun.

4. Read books to your child nearly every day

  • It may seem strange but - even for the express purpose of fostering reading - some of the books that you read to your child can be, and should be, books with only pictures! If your child’s favorite book is a picture book, do not by any means discourage that interest, and do not try to force text-filled books on your child… Even if your child’s first favorites are picture books, the important point is that he or she is still learning to enjoy books generally.

5. Point to the words, nearly all the time, when you read to your child
[jtg has already supplied the relevant details - thanks jtg!]

6. Point, consistently, from the word for a thing to a picture of a thing, while saying that same word

  • By consistently pointing from a picture to its corresponding word and saying the word both times, you are creating an environment for your child where the idea comes naturally that the abstract written word is a label both for the spoken word and for the more concrete visual depiction. Of course, you should also apply this same technique to the actual things themselves, not only to pictures of things.

7. Label things from an early age

  • Labeling is another way of doing what the pointing of Technique 6 does: explicitly associating a written word with its object, and with the corresponding spoken word.
  • If your child’s first word is “Mama,” go ahead and stick a Post-It note that says “MAMA” on the appropriate forehead.
  • When your child is playing with bath letters in the tub, go ahead and spell “BATH” right there, while they are in the midst of it. Another easy way to incorporate labels is to make a game of putting nametags on all their favorite stuffed animals, perhaps on the formal occasion of a stuffed animal tea party.

8. Show your child his or her own name in letters

  • Children have a natural interest in their own name, so when playing with words (Technique 2), assembling words (Technique 3), and using labels (Technique 7), be sure to include your child’s own name in the play.
  • Children are likely to be fascinated with the names of their family members and close friends, too. So… you should also introduce your child to [these] words… Because your child is so familiar and fluent with the spoken form of these words, these are likely to be the first words for which your child really “gets” the correlation with the written form of the word.

9. Introduce uppercase and lowercase letters

  • The earlier [children] become familiar with quirks of written language like capitalization the more natural they will seem. At the same time, there is no need to go out of your way to introduce cases; rather, just allow the introduction to come naturally.

10. Play rhyming games, with both spoken and written words

  • When children play around with rhymes, they are intuitively acting very much like rigorous scientists of language… By holding the end of the word constant and varying only the beginning, children can isolate and focus their attention on just the part of the word that changes.
  • Rhyming books are, like rhyming play in general, a favorite of children for the same good reasons… Rhyming books also serve as a wonderful way to get creative word play started… For example, you might start a story with the title character of Dr Seuss’s The Cat in the Hat, but then tell your own new story where the Cat meets a Rat with a Bat who ate the Cat’s Hat and, as a result, became rather Fat… and so on… Along the way you should encourage your children to come up with a rhyming word of their own and then see in what ridiculous directions it takes the story.
  • The effectiveness of this play is greatly enhanced… if you use your child’s play letters to assemble the rhyming words in written form.
  • Alliteration… is also a very effective basis for this sort of word play.
  • There are some potential confusions that may arise in the course of rhyming and alliterative games. For example, not only do “huff” and “puff” rhyme, but so does “rough.” And “not,” “knight,” and “gnome” all start with the same sound… In general I believe you should not avoid these complications… As with capitalization, I believe that a fairly “neutral” approach is the best course of action: don’t exaggerate complexity, but don’t oversimplify either. If children encounter the exceptions and complications of language in a natural manner, at the same rate they will actually encounter them throughout their life, they will learn these complexities most instinctively. These exceptions, just like the many common irregular verbs in speech, will become deeply familiar to them.

11. Use music and song to aid early reading

  • The simple fact that nearly all children love to sing is the main advantage of incorporating music into your play whenever you can. It’s also important because music clearly helps structure memory. Many children who have difficulty memorizing phrases, or even short poems, nevertheless can recall many classic children’s songs in their entirety, once they get going. Music has a momentum that is similar to the momentum children must learn to generate themselves in order to read complex sentences with fluency and comprehension.
  • [Besides singing the ABC song during letter play,] you can play a similar game with Old McDonald had a Farm by pointing at pictures of each animal as you sing it with your child the first time through, then, during the encore performance, you can point at the written words for each animal as you sing each name out.
  • If your child has a recording of favorite children’s songs, print out the lyrics so that you and your child can sit in a comfortable chair and read along, with text pointing, while you listen to the music.

12. If at all possible, breastfeed your child
I am not saying that a formula-fed baby cannot become a native reader; what I am saying is that it is biologically and medically clear that the best environment to promote native reading, as with all other cognitive development, includes being breastfed.

That’s it! If you have any questions about the Native Reading techniques, feel free to ask me!

Maddy

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Thanks a lot MAddy !! that was great ! :slight_smile:

I was wondering, should you go through the games cronologically? as in, start with letters, then words, then books etc… or just mix them up? In some cases it would make sense to mix them of course such as labelling while doing letter games, but for example making words from letters should be done later?

Also, what ages do you think would enjoy these games? they seem to be very wide-spread to me… I mean some are more advanced and I think they might need the baby to be at least talking a little to play them, right?

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Hi Noha

You don’t need to follow the games chronologically, no. Kailing’s whole philosophy is that learning to read should be a natural, effortless process. He says that none of the games should replace your child’s normal play - but rather, they should just be additions to play. They should fit in naturally and become incorporated into your daily routine. That means that you should play them whenever it feels natural.

As mentioned, Kailing sees the learning to read process as taking place mainly between ages one and three. So he really means these games for children between those ages. Of course, when it comes to asking your child to find a letter you’ve hidden, or make a word out of letters, your child will probably need to be closer to two than one.

So far, with my 12.5-month-old, the only thing I do from Kailing is the text pointing (oh, and breastfeeding - but I don’t really consider that to be from him ;)). Naimah doesn’t walk yet (nearly there!), and she’s still at the stage of eating her toys, so we’re not ready to play Scrabble yet!

Maddy

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Thank you, Maddy, for the detailed explanation of native reading method. It was very useful. I’ve never heard of Kailing method, but it sounds really interesting and reasonable.
I am so happy that I’ve found this forum and you all, guys. Here in Ukraine it is hard to find the translation of the books we are discussing here. I still cannot find any of Doman’s books translated into Ukrainian or Russian in my town. :frowning:
Anyway, today I tried pointing while reading Bozhena’s favorite books. But she pushed my finger away. Every time I put my finger on any word, she pushed it away and when I continued pointing she got upset. She enjoys looking at the picture while reading and my finger just hindered her. I think that she just need more time to get used to it. Did anyone have the same problem? :slight_smile:

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That’s why Doman’s books (eg., “Enough, Inigo, Enough”) are always done such that the words and pictures are on different pages. If there are pictures and words on the same page, it’s v difficult for words to compete for attention. That’s why programs like YBCR and LR are designed to separate words from pictures too.

Perhaps start with books that are done in the ‘separated’ style so that Bozhena will have a habit of looking at words and seeing you point to them.

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Hi there, what wonderful information, I too have never heard of Dr Kailings methods. The 12 points really apeal to me and we have basically taken the same approach with our son. We started with letters when he was two and a half. We did a letter of the alphabet each week. We had magnet letters on the fridge. Letter tracing of both Upper and lowercase was started right away. One thing though that we haven’t really tried is pointing out the words so that it flows. And perhaps we need to start making words with the letters. He can pick out any letter and can spell his name. We too have so enjoyed Little Reader and he surprised me today when I wrote the words on and off, he said them straight away. It’s such fun and gives so much joy watching our little ones progress. So thanks for sharing.

TABS

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You’re all very welcome, and glad I could help. :slight_smile:

Diana, do you run your finger under the text unobtrusively? I think the problem with the phrase “text pointing” is that it makes it sound like you should point out specific words, when actually that’s the last thing you should do. It sounds from your description like your daughter senses that you’re trying to teach her something all of a sudden - and she resents that, as she just wants to enjoy her books the way she’s used to. (My daughter doesn’t mind my text pointing, but then she has never known any different!)

Or maybe it is just that you are blocking the pictures! If you’re running your finger under the words in a subtle way - not pausing or stopping over any particular word - and Bozhena is still pushing your finger away, then I agree with KL that you may indeed need to switch to books with the pictures and words on separate pages.

Don’t worry if, when you get the new books, your daughter appears to pay no attention to the words you’re reading. The whole point about Kailing’s method is that children are absorbing the correlations between the written and spoken forms of language subconsciously. And one day… when you least expect it… your daughter may suddenly get cross if you don’t point to the text! :happy:

TABS, it sounds like your son is ready to start building words. What wonderful progress he is making - congratulations!

Maddy

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Hello, girls.
Thank you for your advice. It seems to me that after the first “shock” :wink: Bozhena is getting used to my pointing. lol Sometimes she seems to be even interesting in what I am doing to her books. Sometimes she still push my finger away (especially when there is a frog in it. She likes pictures of frogs :slight_smile: )
But I do agree, I should try books with pictures and words on different pages. (but don’t you think it won’t be “natural reading” anymore?). The problem is that it is next to impossible to buy such books here, I’ll have to make them. But with my drawing skills Bozhena won’t like to see the pictures anymore. lol

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Thanks Maddy for all the effort in explaining it to us.

I did start doing the text pointing with my daughter when this post first came out. To prevent covering up the picture or getting her upset we sometimes talk about the picture first and I point out things in the picture and then read the words on teh page afterwards - that way I can read any book to her.

If you are making her books perhaps cut pictures out of magazines or even print out colour photos.

I think this method is basically about making the printed word available for your child in any way. I have started pointing out words in the supermarket to my baby (“tea”, “milk” etc) - I think people think I am nuts when we talk about mooing cows when passing the boxed milk section, but it makes for more interesting shopping. This is one way of introducing capital letters too as many of the items in shops are labelled in capitals and it is quite hard to find words written in small letters.

14

We are make progress on native reading. Now Bozhena starts pointing for me:biggrin: When she wants me to read something, she orders “tai” (which is the last syllable of the Ukrainian for “read”) and then she points at the extract she is interested in :wink: and slides along the lines with her little finger. It is so cute. I am happy that she understands that mother reads the text under the pictures and not just making up the stories :slight_smile:

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Wow Diana! That’s amazing progress - congratulations!! :biggrin:

Our latest development with Naimah is that she points out the objects mentioned in the story (I used to point them out for her; now she does it herself :)). I can’t imagine her pointing to the text, but I know babies change a lot between 14 and 18 months.

In fact, recently I met a woman and her daughter and was shocked to learn that the child was 18 months old - she just seemed so much more grown-up than Nim. At this age we really need to cherish every moment - they change so fast!

Well done Bozhena!

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Thank you very much, Maddy.
I think that your little cutie is doing great. Bozhena is pointing at the pictures as well. and yesterday I was pleased to know that she realizes that the written words designate real objects. I usually stick some cards with words to the wall and we read those words from time to time. And yesterday she pointed at the words “Bozhena”, say “Be” (that’s how she pronounces her name, little lazybone lol ) and then patted herself on the chest. :slight_smile: Then she did the same with the word “Hunter” (that’s the name of our cat) She pointed at the word, said “hah” and then pointed at the cat. :slight_smile:

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It’s sweet how children pronounce names - like my brother used to call me Mah-lin (for Madeleine).

Nim has just learned to say her own name - but she says “Mim”! She also just learned to say “me,” so she’ll sit there going, “Mim, Mim, Mim, Mim, me, me, me, me…” Very cute!

Her little friend, Eryn - who’s 7 months older - can’t say Naimah but instead says “Mama” whenever she sees Nim, which is also pretty hilarious. And she pronounces Maria (her helper’s name) Ma-my-ah.

Another cute thing Eryn said was because her Mommy told her she has to go to work every day to earn money. Now, if you ask E where her Mommy is on a weekday, she’ll say very authoritatively, “Money!”

18

Dear All,

I have been intrigued with many topics and threads on this site.

When reading about the whole word/phonics debate, it reminded me of how easy the Arabic language is compared to the English language. In Arabic, every letter has a name and corresponding sound. And it is written the way it is pronounced and vice versa. There are some more complicated rules for reading the Holy Qur’an (Muslim’s holy book that is classical Arabic text and is the of Modern Standard Arabic and the more water downed versions of dialects/colloquial Arabic) that take time to learn. However, it is logical based on the articulation points in the mouth that are very exact when orally reciting the Holy Qur’an, and less so when just speaking the Arabic language. As they say, there is a method to the madness. :slight_smile:

When teaching children how to visually read and orally recite the Holy Qur’an, the names of the letters and sounds of the letters are learned first. Once they have mastered it is when the names and sounds of the short vowels (a, i, u) and the long vowels (aa, ii, uu) and two diphthongs (ai, au), are added in a systematic way.

Also, the pointing consistently is interesting, because when learning to visually read and orally recite the Holy Qur’an, the teacher and student always follow along the text with their finger rhythmically. Once they learn the rhthm and can follow along without pointing, it is used as needed. And when the child is old enough, they write the text to help memorize it.

And when listening to a professional reciter of the Qur’an, it is a heart moving experience; especially if you understand the words and the deeper meanings. Although there are medical studies have even shown that even if you do not understand the Arabic language, just listening to the Holy Qur’an recited actually lowers blood pressure and has an overall relaxing effect on the body. Amazing.

There are millions of people around the world that memorize the entire Holy Qur’an and many are children as young as 5. Memorizing means perfectly and without any mistakes - zero. Once children memorize the Holy Qur’an, then they will then study the meanings, both literal and very deep over time as their intellect develops. And then they will also study grammatical rules since comprehension and grammar affect how and when some of the rules of recitation are applied. When adults are learning to memorize the Holy Qur’an, the approach is different because the older you are, the more difficult is to memorize (compared to a child), but comprehension is better than that of a child.

Nonetheless, there are many adults who memorize 624 pages (Arabic only print edition from the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia - there are various printing houses around the world and some use different scripts that affect the number of lines and total number of pages) from about 2 years to 5 years; some more and some less.

And the result is that when children (and adults) memorize the Holy Qur’an, they perform better in school than their peers and are better linguistically as adults. Again this is because the Holy Qur’an is a classical Arabic text and the Modern Standard is based upon it - although adapted for our times. Essentially they are learning the most difficult form of the language and all lower forms are simple at that point.

Contrasting this to American methods of learning, I once read that rote memorization was how children learned poems, songs, books, and speeches in school on a regular basis. A lot of memorization. And one of the reasons was to help form the basis of understanding the rules of grammar without having the rules explained to them. At some point, this method of rote memorization was phased out in the system.

At any rate, I am glad to have read this topic because I now realize that the Qur’anic Arabic teaching/learning methods are essentially the same as some of the Native Reading techniques and can be used for both Arabic and English with my children.

Thank you so much for sharing this valuable information.

Sincerely,
Ayesha

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Karma to you, Ayesha! Thanks for that detailed info. :slight_smile:

You’ve raised a very interesting topic - about the value of rote memorization. It’s true: learning by rote was traditionally an important part of Western education, but in more recent times has been criticized for failing to encourage creativity. As it is generally considered more important for children to think creatively and imaginatively - rather than know a lot of facts - the trend has been for less and less rote memorization, less and less learning of facts.

It seems that the US education system has gone too far in the other direction though, with children knowing too few facts (having barely any grasp of geography is a prime example). And as you mention, there are other valuable aspects to learning things by rote. Just like with music, the rhythm of language can be calming and soothing - as well as aiding memorization (I’m sure if there was not such a rhythm to the Qur’an, it would be nearly impossible to memorize the whole book!). Increasing a child’s exposure to language at an early age so that he/she can intuit the rules of language him/herself is something that is advocated by Glenn Doman, Robert Titzer and Timothy Kailing.

Since my last post to this thread, we have published a Native Reading Method article on BrillBaby, so do check it out for more details about the method. Go to: http://www.brillbaby.com/teach-baby/native-reading-method.php

Maddy

PS You have a beautiful name! It was actually my first choice of girl’s name for my baby, but we eventually settled on Naimah… :slight_smile: (My husband and I are not Muslim; we just like Arabic names!)

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Dear Maddy & All,

Thank you for expounding on the importance and role of rote memorization in the learning process. I agree with the various threads on this site that we should be use a multi-disciplinarian approach when teaching our children about the process of learning.

It is interesting that you and your husband like Arabic names. And my mother also liked the Arabic name “Ayesha” and decided to name me “Ayesha Nicole” (double first name) at birth, when my father was abroad. When father returned from his travels, and he was furious to discover that she did not name me Adina Nicole as they had agreed upon. So my family and friends always called me Nikki, and then when I was older, I preferred to be called by Nicole.

Decades later, I learned about the origin and historical significance of my name when I met Palestinian refugees. Being curious by nature, I then began to study about Islam and the more I learned the more I wanted to know, and then eventually converted. It is common, although unnecessary from a religious perspective, for converts to change their names. And I have also met many people with Arabic/Islamic based names that are not of the Islamic faith, just as you mentioned. My daughters names are Sarah (Baby A) and Salma (Baby B). Ohhh - what we went through on the name selection. The girls were called Baby A and Baby B for two weeks after their birth until we could decide and agree upon a set of complimentary names.

My husband and I both wanted names that were religiously significant and common in Arabic, but easily spelled and properly pronounced in English. And he also wanted to have the same number of letters in both names for both languages (Arabic = 4 letters and English = 5 letters). And both names had to have one common letter between them in both languages, such as the letter “S”. It was a little maddening to say the least, yet it was worth it. Sarah is a pre-Judaic name and the name of one of the wives of Ibrahim/Abraham; and linguistically means “pleasure, happiness, joyous”. And Salma is a derivative of the word “Islam” which linguistically means “peace”.

  • Ayesha :wink:

Thanks again.
Ayesha