Achieving widespread positive changes in literacy challenges seems to be informed by many different views. Wouldn’t it be great if there was a simple view of reading!

Well, guess what? There is!

In 1986, psychologists Gough and Tunmer theorised the Simple View of Reading. The theory still gives excellent explanation of what happens when people read. And recent evidence about the way reading is acquired also fits with it.

The Simple View of Reading illustrates two big foundational requirements for efficient reading using both a horizontal, and a vertical, continuum.

On the horizontal continuum is the ability to ‘decode’. The letters are a type of visual code. The visual code represents the auditory speech sounds that make-up words. We use the visual code to figure out which speech sounds we need to utter in order to say (pronounce) a word. Of course, we might choose to ‘say’ the word in our mind rather than always saying it aloud.

On the vertical continuum is the ability to ‘comprehend’. Words and sentences have meaning. Either we can comprehend that meaning or we cannot.

The reason to read is to get meaning. Reading is all about meaning.

But to get at the meaning in a text, you have to be able to 1) figure out how to say the words (decode – horizontal axis); and then you have to 2) know what the words mean (comprehend – vertical axis). You need to effortlessly do both 1) and 2) to extract meaning from a text.

If you’ve got a problem with 1) – you won’t get the meaning. If you’ve got a problem with 2) – you won’t get the meaning.

Here’s the 1) problem: read this:

!@#$%  ^@#  $&*(  )  -#+  @{  +()?

It’s a perfectly good and easy English sentence. But you got no meaning from it. Why? Because you couldn’t decode it. I used punctuation symbols to simulate a 1) problem.

Here’s the 2) problem: read this:

Bula dokaiviti – vinaka au sa vakayagataka na vosa vaka viti.

You can decode it – you can say the words. But chances are you didn’t get meaning. Why? Because you cannot comprehend the words. You don’t know what they mean. I used Fijian language to simulate a 2) problem. (Fijian readers will be ROTFL about my grammar.)

Broadly, the 1) problem – decoding – is dyslexia.

A big shout-out to people with dyslexia! It’s hard going. Dyslexic brains are wired up differently, making decoding difficult. It’s not their fault. English letters are experienced like random symbols to them. This is because they cannot easily link the symbols to the sounds of the spoken language. If you intentionally studied the relationships between the sounds of English and the symbols I have used in the 1) sentence, you could figure out how to decode it. And people with dyslexia can learn to decode written English too – but they need extra, intentional, systematic, tailored help to get good at it – and fluent at it. It’s not their fault. They got landed with an extra mountain to climb in life.

Broadly, the 2) problem – comprehending – is a language problem.

For you, in the 2) example, it’s just that you don’t know Fijian language. If you wanted to, you could learn it. You’d have to be intentional and put in effort. But for many people, language skills are reduced because of a childhood deprived of rich language experiences. Not the person’s fault. Probably not their parents’ fault either. There’s almost always inequitable social structure tangling that situation. For others – in fact for 1 in every 14 children –Developmental Language Disorder (DLD) is the root of comprehension problems.

A big shout-out to people with DLD! DLD is not their fault. DLD brains are wired differently; they can’t attach meaning to symbols (words – spoken, signed or written) quickly and easily. But people with DLD can be supported to build their language skills. Like you tackling Fijian language, they will need to be intentional and put in a lot of effort. But children don’t get intentional about really hard things unless they also receive extra, systematic, tailored help that supports them with the skills and the motivation to keep going. That’s what equitable education must deliver. Or it’s not equitable. These people got stuck with an extra mountain to climb.

You might give up learning Fijian. You could create great reasons not to put in that effort: it’s not a common language; it’s only spoken in Fiji; your future doesn’t depend on it. The child having to put in the same kind of effort to master their mother tongue has no such luxury. Their future does depend on it. But they don’t have an adult perspective about this. So, we’ve got to help them.

Gough and Tunmer’s two continua intersect. People with reading challenges will be on the lower end of one or other, but more commonly there is some mix of both. To help, we need to be analytic, scientific, patient, compassionate, engaging and steadfast. Kids and adults with dyslexia and DLD can learn to read!

Rosalie Martin is a Hobart-based speech pathologist. She was 2017 Tasmanian of the Year. Here she writes for the Connect42 Colleagues @ The Heart of Literacy initiative. This article was first published 4 February 2021 in the Mercury Newspaper. Find more at connect42.org.