How do we learn to read?
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This is But Why, a podcast for curious kids from Vermont Public. I'm Jane Lindholm. On this show, we take questions from curious kids just like you, and we find answers.

Our questions today are all about reading. Hello, my name is Alaska. I live in Colorado Springs, Colorado, and I am 11 years old. And my question is, why do some kids like reading and other kids don't like reading? Wow, that's a great question. And it turns out it's actually really complex. Some kids love reading from the start. Some kids struggle with reading and learn to love it over time. And some kids never really develop a love of reading.

You might not know this, but there's been a lot of conversation and pretty fierce debate over the last few years in adult circles about the best ways to teach kids how to read. That's important stuff for adults to debate. But we thought today we would steer clear of the controversy and focus on what you can tell each other about the joys and challenges of reading and share tips you have for other kids as you all work at becoming better readers.

But I have to warn you, when we asked you to send us your tips, more than 70 of you took us up on the challenge. So this episode is a little long.

You might want to take a break when we take a break about halfway through and listen to the rest tomorrow. Or who knows, maybe you'll blast right through. At any rate, we better get started. Here's what some of you told us about why you love to read. I'm Adelina and I'm 11 and a half years old. I live in San Antonio, Texas. My favorite thing about reading is reading does not cost money when you go to the library.

and it is very entertaining and it keeps you busy for a long time. Hi, my name is Bailey. I'm 10 years old and I live in Birmingham, Alabama. What I love most about reading is you can be able to use different voices and be different characters. You can be an old country grandpa. You can be French. Or you can be a little Australian boy. There's all sorts of different possibilities on what you're able to do. That's why I love reading.

My name is Spencer. I live in Arlington, Massachusetts. I'm six and a half years old, and I love reading because there's so many different types of books. And my favorite book is Jack and Annie and the Magic Treehouse because there's a lot of adventure in it, and my teacher used that book to help us read.

My name is Ethan. I'm seven years old and I love reading, especially when no one is around. I can stretch out on the couch or my bed. It is so relaxing.

Hello, my name is Haru. I am 8 years old, and I live in Bothell, Washington. I love reading because it's fun, adventurous, and gets my imagination going. My favorite series are Geronimo Stilton, Dragon Masters, and Agency Mysteries. Hi, but why? Just reading. Oh, by the way, Harry Potter's just about to curse somebody. Can you wait a second?

Anyway, the great things about reading are that it's like you get transported into another world. And...

You can do it anywhere, which is amazing. I'm Everett, and I'm nine years old, and I live in Huntington Beach, California. Some of you offered tips for the best ways to get better at reading. I'm Sophia. I'm seven years old, and I live in Australia. If you're really struggling on reading particular words, you should have little rhymes like I do.

because I have a really difficult word. It's because, and so I put Betsy eats cake and Uncle sells eggs. I had never heard of that one before. Sophia is saying she uses that phrase to help remember how to spell the word because, B-E-C-A-U-S-E, by remembering the phrase Betsy eats cakes and Uncle sells eggs. The first letter of each of those words spell out because.

That's one tool you can use to remember how to spell tricky words. My name is Yona and I'm seven years old and I live in Forks Township, Pennsylvania. If you're having a hard time reading, try graphic novels. And you might consider getting read to a lot because that helped me when I was learning to read that I got read to so much when I was little.

Graphic novels are a great way to be able to read a little and look at pictures at the same time. My name is Susan. I'm seven years old and I live in France. If you want to know how to read, you can learn your ABC, put the letters together to make a word, and then read it, and then say the letters each time quicker until it makes a word.

Hello, my name is Maria. I'm seven years old. I live in Mexico and I feel reading helps you understand your environment, your language, etc. If you want to read something, ask your adults to pick a book that is simple and they can read one page and you can try to read another. If you need to, your adults can help you. I love how many great tips and ideas you have for each other. I mentioned a few minutes ago that there are a lot of ways to learn to read and

and some of you are helping us with different methods that work for you. But no matter what way you learn, there are some interesting things happening in your brain as you're doing it. So we wanted to talk with a researcher who could help us peer inside our brains and find out what's going on. My name is Femiko Haeft. I am a medical doctor, but I'm also a neuroscientist.

And I study the brain science, neuroscience of dyslexia, learning how kids learn, how children's brain develop. I am also interested in social-emotional aspects of mental health. Fumiko Haft is a professor at the University of Connecticut and at the University of California, San Francisco. She runs a brain imaging research program and a research lab called Brain Lens.

and we gave her some of the questions you've been sending us about learning to read. My name is Menla. I am five years old. I live in Hendersonville, Tennessee. How does your brain know how to read? Hi, my name is Sophie. I'm five years old. I live in Burlington, Vermont. What is going on in my brain when I'm learning a new thing? One example is, how did I learn to read?

So the brain actually does not know entirely well how to read. You're not born knowing how to read because the brain is not built that way. Reading is a new invention that was invented 5 or 6,000 years ago. Wait, stop. That's really interesting. Reading isn't something we're wired to do as humans, like make noises to communicate or learn to walk. Reading is different.

Hi, my name is Ben. Three years old. Why do people read books? My name is Kate, and I'm four years old. Why do people read? Amazingly, writing, and being able to read that writing, only appears to have developed a little more than 5,000 years ago. So in the scope of human history, reading and writing are really new skills.

lots of people are still trying to figure out exactly how and why humans started doing these things. It looks like it's a combination of our physical ability to make very intricate and precise marks or drawings, and to do them the same way again and again, along with our brains being able to decode complicated symbols and marks and remember what they mean, and to figure out what they might mean when different marks or symbols are put together in an order.

There is a lot more to learn about that. But it's safe to say that these days, in most human societies and cultures, reading and writing are critical skills that help you be able to know what's going on around you. Like reading signs on streets and buildings. Or to share information. Or to be able to communicate with one another. Here's how Wyatt puts it. Reading is a good skill for a lifetime. And you need that skill constantly.

I live in Phoenix, Arizona. I am six and one quarter. But how exactly are humans able to read?

Let's go back to Fumiko Haft. The latest thinking, it goes back and forth and it's constantly changing, but the latest thinking about how we learn to read is that there's something called the conductor part of the brain, frontal parietal network, front and back part or top part of the brain. And it's like a musical conductor or executive sort of in a way that tells people, oh, now we're going to start to learn about something. And so we need different parts of the brain to kind of

move together and create some music. Since reading is not something we are able to do just naturally as human beings, it's really hard to learn. And we're leaning on parts of our brain that help us learn new things when we read. Fumiko talked about the conductor, which helps bring different parts of our brain to work on something. The conductor has a more official name too. It's

So people call it the frontal parietal network, and some people call it the executive control network in the prefrontal cortex, frontal part of the brain, and then the parietal cortex, which is above your ear and a little bit behind your ear top and behind your ear. And that network that connects between those and these areas seems to be important for

sending commands to other more lower level or attention or other networks and saying we need your networks and it tries to recruit it and then it they help them kind of work more efficiently together.

Thinking of it like a conductor is probably easier. Like the conductor of an orchestra who stands in front of all the musicians and helps make sure they're all playing the right thing at the right time at the right pace. And so it could be something like the hearing part or the listening speech part of the brain.

and then more of the visual part of the brain related to seeing things, but it's not just purely seeing things black and white, but it's more about seeing objects. So you don't see cars as just a tire and windows and those things. You see it as a car. You see faces as a face.

And for the same reason, you start seeing words as words as you're learning to read. And so this visual part is very important. So when you're starting to learn to read, then this conductor will stand up and say, now we're going to start learning to read. And so we need the auditory part of your brain, the visual part of your brain, and your learning part of the brain or the attention part of the brain. And all these pieces need to work together. And so that's how you start kind of

conducting in your brain and moving together. When they move together and fire together, then they wire together, and that's how you learn to read. And as you probably know if you're in school, not everyone has an easy time learning to read. While it comes naturally for some, for other kids it can take a lot of work. And a few of you have been wondering about some of these challenges.

My name is Helen, I'm 10 years old, I live in Brooklyn, New York City, and my question is: Why do people learn so differently and why do some people have learning disabilities? A large portion of that is what people think or call as the biology in the brain.

So even if I wanted to be an athlete, I ran every day for miles and miles and I love it and I'm motivated. I might not be an Olympic athlete or I might not break the world record. And in real life, I will never do that because I'm not a very fast runner. But so sometimes you love it and you practice so hard, but you don't you can't you'll be a good runner, but you won't be on the Guinness Book of World Records.

And that is because our biology is different. It could be, in this case, running. It could be the muscles that are different, but also the genes and others that control some of these will be different. What we mean by biology here is kind of like the recipe that goes into making your body, including your brain. Some of that comes from your biological parents, the inherited pattern of your genes.

But there's more to it than that. When people talk about genes, it's like, oh, I'm going to go and yell at my parents because they gave me all the bad genes. And but so it's not always the ones that you inherit. There's all different kinds of genes. It could be new kind of mutations. It could be the proteins that are expressed from the genes. So there's all different kinds of when we say biology or genetics, but it could be the biological mechanisms.

So even if you want to learn to read, and you have lots of books available to you and great teachers, it can still be really hard just because of the way your brain works. For most of you, that doesn't mean you can't learn to read. But you also shouldn't feel bad if it's hard or frustrating. My name is Hexa, and I'm nine years old.

I live in England, Buckinghamshire, near Tame. My question is, why do people have dyslexia? My name is Max. I live in Chicago. I'm seven. Why do some people have dyslexia? My name is Zoe. I'm from America. I live in Abu Dhabi. My question is, why do people have dyslexia? And maybe you could start by explaining what dyslexia is and then why some people have it.

Challenges in reading. That is what dyslexia is and it's fairly specific to learning to read. They might be skilled in many other things, but they have fairly specific problems learning to read and challenges around this. So that's what dyslexia is.

People don't know the exact cause of dyslexia except for they say that it's due to a neurobiological condition. So again, it goes back to biology. There's a large component that is thought to be some kind of genetics. Again, we talked about genetics not being just something that you get from your parents, but different kinds of genetics or biological pieces.

that could be impacting. It's not due to the environment, for example, bad teaching or not having any books at home, but of course if you don't have any books at home and don't have the opportunity to read or don't have a best

kind of communications with your teacher or teachers don't have the best strategies, for example, to teach you, then you might struggle even more than you would otherwise. So again, it is thought to be biological, but there's some interactions with environment that could make it even more challenging than not. Your parents may remember a time when dyslexia was described as an issue where you see letters flipped in the wrong order when you're trying to read.

But Fumiko says that's not really what it is. She says some kids with dyslexia do have trouble grouping letters together and sometimes working on spacing can help. But no matter what your challenge in reading is, Fumiko says one key thing is to start working on reading and writing skills early on.

Not only is it helpful to get comfortable with these skills, but if you are having trouble, adults can start helping you out as early as possible. But one thing to note is that it's never too late to receive good instructions on learning to read, and everyone has the ability to read and read fluently, even though it might take a longer path to get to where you want to get to. While adults are thinking hard about what good instruction in learning to read looks like,

you all have your own ideas about the best way to push through the challenges. Let's hear some more of them. My name is Hugo. I am six years old, and I live in New Orleans. And my tip is ask a grown-up if it's a trick word or not, because if it's not a trick word, all you have to do is sound it out. My name is Izzy. I'm six years old, and I'm from Tiffin, Ohio.

Don't ask for help right away. Share something in your mouth before you ask for help. My name is Amelia, and I'm from Pennsylvania, Philadelphia, and I'm five years old. And how I'm learning how to read is memorizing words like yes, no, from, to, love. I'm Abby. I live in Stillwater, Minnesota. I'm nine years old.

And reading was hard for me, so I do finger tapping. I tap my first finger, then my second finger to the word. My name is Leon, and I'm seven years old, and I live in College Grove, Oregon. And my tip for reading is try and sound out the words. My name is Kai. I live in Cambridge, Massachusetts. I'm almost seven.

to practice the sounds of the diagraphs, the bonus letters, and the vowels. Also practice the normal sounds of letters and buddy letters. Hi, my name is Ava Rose. I live in Vancouver, BC, Canada. I am seven years old.

I think you should keep on reading and not stop because when you get it, it is so fun. Hi, my name is Paloma.

I live in Mill Valley, California. I'm eight years old. You want to find a book that you're interested, that you like, and that's your right level. My name is Adel. I am five years old and I live in Lyon, France. My teacher explains letters, has a gesture. Every time I see a letter, I...

At the same time, I made a gesture and I read the letter. Hi, my name is Lincoln. I'm from Andover, Kansas. I'm six years old and I have a tip. Some words you can sound out actually, but some you can't. You just have to blend them together.

And don't forget there's some digraphs out there. A couple people now have mentioned that word digraph. In case you haven't come across it before, a digraph is when two letters combine to make one sound. So, for example, if you see a P with an H right after it, that is probably going to make the sound pho, as in phone, P-H-O-N-E, phone.

Other common digraphs are ch, which sounds like ch, or th, which usually makes the sound th, as in, this is really hard, isn't it? My name is Ileana. I'm 16 years old. I'm from New South Wales, Foster, Australia. And you split up the words to 80 pieces, and then you say it all at once.

My name is Alexi. I am seven and a half years old. I live in Hebron, Botswana. And my tip about reading is make the sound of the letter that you know it makes. My name is Samantha and I'm seven. I live in Rockville Center, New York.

I find reading tough and I want to give tips to other kids. If you don't like the books that you're reading, find a book that you like to read and then you read it.

Hello, my name is Mallory. I'm 10 years old. I live in Bourbonnet, Illinois and my tip for reading is that you should find things that you like to read because if you're reading stuff you enjoy then you'll want to read more. My name is Quinn. I'm six years old. I live in Canada. Separating the words

and then say it all together. My name is Juno. I am four years old. I live in Amherst, Massachusetts. You should look at the letters if you can think of what it actually makes, and then you sound out the word that you hear.

Hi, my name is Tim and I'm from Toronto, Ontario. Sound the words out and use the letters you know to help you get the whole entire word. My name is Will and I'm six years old and I live in White Bear Lake, Minnesota. Just sound out the letters. I'm six years old and I live in West Virginia Island. By practicing

My name is Johnny. I live in Portland, Oregon. I'm seven years old. Find a book that's your reading level. My name is Aislinn. I am nine years old. I live in Illinois and my tip for reading is breaking it up. My name is Blaze and I live in Gaithersburg, Maryland. I'm six years old.

And what helped me read was by reading little books with like little words and then doing bigger books with bigger words later. My name is Olivia and I'm eight years old and live in Dobsbury, New York. My tip is that if it's your first time reading, you can always read with a parent.

Hi, my name is Leah. I'm six years old. I live in Dabstow, New York. If you're first learning to read, it's okay to skip a word.

Hi, my name is Clara and I'm six years old and I live in Grand Rapids, Michigan. Here's a tip for reading. Sound out the alphabet and learn the alphabet like letters and then like in the noises. Then you can figure out like when you're looking at a book or something, you can see the letters and with the sounds you can just combine them and then it's word. Hello, my name is Margo. I am seven years old. I am from Wannaputte, Ontario, Canada.

And I like reading because if you get a test, you can just do it super, super fast. And like, it's really like handy. Hi, my name is Ira. I am six years old and I live in Toronto, Canada. My tip is to use your finger to read along.

I'm Charlotte. I'm eight years old and I live in Grand Rapids, Michigan. And today I'm going to tell you guys a tip on learning how to read. When I started to learn how to read, what really helped me was to sound things out. For example, dog, d, and I sounded out a lot of other words. Words that didn't sound right or that didn't make sense, like live, v, e, because of the e,

I would ask a parent if they were available or I would think that's not right. So what could be right or what would make sense?

My name is Timothy, and I'm four years old. I live in Milwaukee, and my tip for reading is that it takes a lot of practice. I'm so grateful to all of you who were willing to share your struggles and what works best for you. If you're listening and you've been feeling bad about reading, you can certainly see you're not alone. It takes a lot of practice to become a good reader, and it's not easy.

You can do that practice in a school, but it helps to read at home, too. Even just a few minutes a day can make a big difference. Still not convinced? Coming up, we'll hear from kids about why they love reading. This is But Why, a podcast for curious kids. I'm Jane Lindholm, and today we're learning about reading and why kids like or don't like to read. We're also poking around inside our heads with a brain researcher named Fumiko Haeft. She's a doctor, professor, and researcher and runs a lab called BrainLens.

We asked her a question from Audrey about why, when you read a book, there are sometimes voices other than your normal voice that you make when you read, even if you're not reading aloud. Characters in your own head. Audrey explained in her email, "...when the main character is a boy, the voice is normal, and when the main character is a girl, it sounds like my voice in my head or a high-pitched or low voice."

So we asked Dr. Haeft, what's going on there? I'm thinking about sort of this voice in your head. And some people might, researchers might call it covert articulation as opposed to over-articulation. Over-articulation is me doing this right now, speaking out loud and so on.

And people think that either kinds of articulation, whether it's in your head or whether it's reading, is very important. And it helps you when you're, especially when you're a child learning to read. So these kinds of articulation, it's a natural kind of way of making yourself a better reader and learner. And

Typically, you lose that because you become more automatic and it's much faster to do it that way without covertly or overtly articulating. So you lose that over time. But some adults, especially if you have dyslexia, that may be they're

Some adults continue to use that strategy to try to learn to read better. That's pretty complicated science. And there's a lot more that we could go into about how our brains work as we're learning. But really, the thing that's most important is the joy of reading. So many of you love to read. And we got a ton of notes from you about why. So sit back and let this wash over you.

I'm Owais. I'm eight years old. I'm from Green Bay and I like reading because it has an adventure. My name is Kirpa and I'm 10 years old and I live in Vancouver, BC, Canada.

Why I love to read is because it improves my knowledge and my vocabulary. My name is Abby. I'm nine years old. My name is Maddie. I'm seven years old. We live in Fuquiverina, North Carolina. I like to read because I like to learn new things. I like to read so when people give me notes, I can read them. My name is Diego. I am seven years old. I live in Mexico and

And what I like about reading is that there are a lot of funny stories. My name is Naomi. I'm seven years old. I live in Everett, Washington. And if you know how to read, you can see what your parents are reading. I like about reading is that...

You get to hear awesome things and I just like doing it because there's cool pictures, there are cool words, and you get to hear them and you get to do it. My name is Cassidy. Hi, I'm Gwen. I live in Tulsa, Oklahoma and I'm 10. One of the things that I enjoy about reading is that it makes me imagine and some of the books, they're really creative by the author.

I'm 4 years old and I live in Lexington, Massachusetts. How I like to is listening to somebody read or listening to a book on tape. Hello, my name is Elina. I'm from Hobart, Tasmania, Australia. I'm 10 years old and my thing I like about reading is that you can imagine everything in your head. Like you can go in this whole world of reading and imagination, imagining what's happening in the book.

My name's Judah. I'm 11 years old, and I live in Pennsylvania. I love reading because it's fun, and I learn a lot. I'm Charlie. I live in Renner, South Dakota. I'm 6 years old. I like reading because it helps you learn. I'm Dorothy. I live in Melbourne, Australia, and I'm 8 years old. And I think that reading is good because you get to go on an adventure and let the books suck you in.

My name is Naomi. I am eight years old and I live in Carlisle, Pennsylvania. I like reading because when you're bored, it gives you something really interesting to do. I especially like chapter books. My name is Avery. I am nine years old and I live in Springfield, Missouri. What I think is so great about reading is that it keeps me from being bored. I just really like to read. Hi, my name is Emery. I'm 16.

Reading is good because you can learn new things, you can take new places. Brianna, I'm seven and a half years old. I live

Illinois and I like reading because it takes me on adventures that can't happen in real life. My name is Kayla and I'm from Cincinnati, Ohio and I'm seven years old and I like books that are funny and mystery and I like reading because it's fun and challenging.

My name is Gabby. I'm six years old and I'm from Miami, Florida. Reading is great. I enjoy reading to my dad different stories before bedtime. I also enjoy reading menus at restaurants because I get to order whatever I want. My name is Juliet and I'm five years old and I live in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. And I think a degree about reading is when you're

Five and older, you are able to read all by yourself. My name is Isabel. I live in Washington, D.C. I'm four years old. And my favorite thing about reading is that I read to my baby sister. My name's Lucy. I'm nine years old, and I live in Portland, Oregon.

When I'm really into a book, it's like so exciting and interesting and it's like you just want to keep on reading and reading and reading. My name is Abe. I'm seven years old. I live in Charlottesville, Virginia. I think reading is great because it just like takes you to like another world and you can like read about anything. My name is Kiva. I'm nine years old and I live in Dublin, Ireland.

I like reading because it is magic. It can transport you to anywhere in the world at any time. You can experience any different type of adventure and all within the pages of a book. My name is Emmy and I live in Middlebury, Vermont. And I like reading because I like learning new words.

My name's Hallie and I'm three years old and I love to read. Hi, my name is Ryan and I'm eight years old and I live in Warrington, Pennsylvania. Reading is great because there's something exciting or there is a problem or mystery. In my opinion, fiction chapter books are great, but when they have mysteries, they're way better. I'm Addison.

I am eight years old and I live in Gilbert, Arizona. I like reading because it helps entertain your brain and if it's not a picture book, you can just picture it in your head.

And it's kind of like a movie just playing in your head. I'm Charlotte. I'm eight years old, and I live in California. I love reading because it's fun just to fall into the words of a book and just go into your own little world and become one with the book. What I love about reading is that I get to drown myself in a book and get away from my family for a little bit. That last book lover was named Michaela. And hey, speaking of book lovers...

Do you know a very cool vocabulary word that means book lover that you could use to impress your friends and adults? Bibliophile. So the next time someone asks you if you like to read, you can say, me? Oh yeah, I'm a bibliophile. In the meantime, all of you sending in your tips and tricks for reading and why you love it has made me want to finish this episode and go straight to the library. What about you?

Maybe your whole household could come up with a special time every day where everyone sits down, puts away phones or screens, and spends some time reading. You could take turns reading aloud, or everyone could sit quietly and read to themselves. And then maybe you'll discuss what you read. That's it for this episode. If you have a question about anything, have an adult record it. It's easy to do on a smartphone voice recording app. Then email the file to questions at butwhykids.org.

We can't answer every question we get, but we do listen to all of them, and we love hearing what's on your mind. But Why is produced by Melody Beaudet and me, Jane Lindholm, at Vermont Public. Our team also includes Kiana Haskin. Our show is distributed by PRX, and our theme music is by Luke Reynolds. We'll be back in two weeks with an all-new episode. Until then, stay curious. From PRX.