Dr. Frank Smith, the author of an excellent book titled "Reading Without Nonsense" (required reading by all PhotoReading Instructor candidates) says that children learn to read by reading. That notion creates a strange tautology, but the idea is that you must read to your child.
My kids were read to when they were too young to hold themselves upright. I propped them up on my lap, leaning back on my chest. They could feel and smell my breathing, hear and feel the vibrations of my voice resonating throughout their bodies. The book set before them had color at first, but eventually pictures and words that became increasingly more discernable. They were pattern makers. Connecting all the senses to understand that something on that page was helping to create the experience in which they were participating. As they developed, so did their discrimination of what was happening when we sat down to read.
I developed a habit of reading at least two children’s books and telling a bedtime story to my kids every night. Interestingly, each of them came up to me during their fourth year of age to say, "Hey dad, wanna see me PhotoRead?" They each had an understanding of it! Remarkable. I invited them to participate in the open-enrollment seminar when they reached age 10. My first two boys took the course together when they were 10 and 12 respectively. Then, 4 years later, repeated it when their little brother took the course at age 9. (He begged to take the course and be the youngest certified PhotoReader in the world.)
Consider that PhotoReading was written for age 18 and above. My early premise was that the reader would need "automaticity in word recognition" usually achieved by the 9th grade of school. Now, I suggest that any eager child under that age is welcomed as long as they are mature enough (usually by age 14) to sit for a weekend with a group of adult learners.
Parents should look at PhotoReading as teaching a series of options in reading. Learning to decode and recognize whole words are both important skills taught by traditional reading methods of Phonics and Whole Language approaches. Upside down, backwards, a page per second…all of it is part of engaging the nonconscious mind…the mind NOT traditionally recognized in education. The main thing…enjoy! Never force the development of reading. You are inviting your child into a club. Show them what it is like to be a member.
