Elaine Funnell – författare

Learning to Read: Psychology in the Classroom is an informative and stimulating book for all those involved in the study of reading and the teaching of reading skills. This lively book links the study of cognitive processes involved in reading with the reading skills acquired by the learning child, and with the practical need of teachers. Throughout, the importance of applying a scientific approach to the study and teaching of reading is emphasized.Early chapters appraise current educational practices in the teaching of reading and relate these to our present understanding of what it is that children learn when they begin to read. As a central theme, the normal pattern of reading development is compared with disturbed reading development. Later chapters discuss methods of assessing reading ability in individual children out in the classroom with gourps of poor readers. Finally, the book addresses the problems of children who may master the mechanics of reading but fail to understand what they read. The chapters are written in a readable style by internationally known academic researchers, and the editors have provided introductory and linking pieces for each chapter.

Each chapter represents a personal account of a reading disorder through which details of the features of the disorder, methods used for testing, and theoretical accounts are illustrated. Controversies are explained, theories evaluated and anomalies pointed out.From this emerges a picture of the central properties of each disorder and the contribution of each to our understanding of the reading system as a whole. However, the picture is not complete: loose threads tantalise, some findings are hard to explain, and some newly controversial theories are put forward. The intention is to provide information that will help to equip the reader with the knowledge and expertise necessary to take the study of these reading disorders forward.