The “sight Reading” Method of Teaching Reading, as a Source of Reading Disability

I feel some trepidation in offering criticism in a field somewhat outside of that of my own endeavor but a very considerable part of my attention for the past four years has been given to the study of reading disability from the standpoint of cerebral physiology. This work has now extended over a comparatively large series of cases from many different schools and both the theory which has directed this work and the observations gained therefrom seem to bear with sufficient directness on certain teaching methods in reading to warrant critical suggestions which otherwise might be considered overbold. I wish to emphasize at the beginning that the strictures which I have to offer here do not apply to the use of the sight method of teaching reading as a whole but only to its effect on a restricted group of children for whom, as I think we can show, this technique is not only not adapted but often proves an actual obstacle to reading progress, and moreover I believe that this group is one of considerable educational importance both because of its size and because here faulty teaching methods may not only prevent the acquisition of academic education by children of average capacity but may also give rise to far reaching damage to their emotional life. The sight reading method (or “look and say” of the English) has been credited with giving much faster progress in the acquisition of reading facility than its precursors and this statement I will not challenge if the measure of accomplishment be the average progress of a group or class. Average progress of large numerical units, however, makes no allowance for the study of effect in individual, particularly if certain of them deviate to some degree from the others in their methods of acquisition and therefore in their teaching requirements. To the mental hygienist whose interest is focused on the individual and his problems rather than on group progress the results as determined by average accomplishment are of little value whereas the effect of a given method on the individual child is all important. Outstanding cases of so-called “congenital word blindness”—a complete inability to learn to read—have been recognized and studied for a number of years at first chiefly by physicians. It has also been recognized by teachers and