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Junior Scientist
Mar. 26th, 2008 11:22 amWe did a cool thing with Casper last night - participated in a scientific study about learning to read in the Psychology & Neurobiology Department.
The study involved doing using a machine that captured eye movements as one looked at a screen. First I read a book to Casper as she looked at the screen and her eye movements were recorded. Then she got to watch the monitor recording my eye movements while I read the same story again. They asked her if she could tell where I was looking, and she said yes, at the words. Then I read a new story and Casper looked at the screen again. I could cheat my eyes sideways and just see the screen recording her eye movements, so I could see that she was not looking at the words as I was reading them - she was looking at the pictures, and specifically at the objects named as I was reading them (the story was about a father who lost things and his daughter who helped him find them.)
At the end I filled out a very brief print questionnaire about our home reading habits, and Casper did a long set of what must be a standard exercise - she had 4 pictures, and the graduate student read a word, and Casper had to point to the right picture. They told me at the end that she went much farther than most kids - apparently they get consistently harder and they stop when you miss X number in a set. Some of the ones she got were surprising to me - picked out a diagram of a heart from a set including lungs and guts and stuff, and there were a lot of complicated verbs illustrated by people doing things.
My unscientific interpretation of the way Casper did the study is that while she is an intelligent, extremely verbal, and understanding child, she just isn't at the place, developmentally, to be reading yet. She knows that people read by looking at words, and words are made up of letters, and letters have sounds. She recognizes some of the letters and some of the sounds, although by no means all of them. But when I read a book, even though she knows I am looking at the words, she doesn't. This despite the fact the we (mostly mr. flea) reads her a very simple and repetitive book as 'homework' nearly every night, using skills we were taught by her teacher - identify capital letters, talk about word groups, identify punctuation, run your finger under each word as you read. We've been doing this since September. If Casper was developmentally ready to read, she'd be reading by now! But she's not, and that is just fine.
At the end, mr. flea asked the graduate student (who is Chinese) if she would write the sounds of Casper's name in characters, since they have been doing some works at school about China. They have one of those polyester screens where you can dip a brush in water and write on it, and they practice writing characters - presumably as a combination of art and fine motor practice. Casper loves it. She was quiet, but I think very pleased at seeing her name written in characters.
The study involved doing using a machine that captured eye movements as one looked at a screen. First I read a book to Casper as she looked at the screen and her eye movements were recorded. Then she got to watch the monitor recording my eye movements while I read the same story again. They asked her if she could tell where I was looking, and she said yes, at the words. Then I read a new story and Casper looked at the screen again. I could cheat my eyes sideways and just see the screen recording her eye movements, so I could see that she was not looking at the words as I was reading them - she was looking at the pictures, and specifically at the objects named as I was reading them (the story was about a father who lost things and his daughter who helped him find them.)
At the end I filled out a very brief print questionnaire about our home reading habits, and Casper did a long set of what must be a standard exercise - she had 4 pictures, and the graduate student read a word, and Casper had to point to the right picture. They told me at the end that she went much farther than most kids - apparently they get consistently harder and they stop when you miss X number in a set. Some of the ones she got were surprising to me - picked out a diagram of a heart from a set including lungs and guts and stuff, and there were a lot of complicated verbs illustrated by people doing things.
My unscientific interpretation of the way Casper did the study is that while she is an intelligent, extremely verbal, and understanding child, she just isn't at the place, developmentally, to be reading yet. She knows that people read by looking at words, and words are made up of letters, and letters have sounds. She recognizes some of the letters and some of the sounds, although by no means all of them. But when I read a book, even though she knows I am looking at the words, she doesn't. This despite the fact the we (mostly mr. flea) reads her a very simple and repetitive book as 'homework' nearly every night, using skills we were taught by her teacher - identify capital letters, talk about word groups, identify punctuation, run your finger under each word as you read. We've been doing this since September. If Casper was developmentally ready to read, she'd be reading by now! But she's not, and that is just fine.
At the end, mr. flea asked the graduate student (who is Chinese) if she would write the sounds of Casper's name in characters, since they have been doing some works at school about China. They have one of those polyester screens where you can dip a brush in water and write on it, and they practice writing characters - presumably as a combination of art and fine motor practice. Casper loves it. She was quiet, but I think very pleased at seeing her name written in characters.
