IMPROVED READING INCREASES ONE’S LITERACY

THELMA T. SAGUYOD

Learning to read early has an effect on one’s intelligence later. This finding was confirmed in studies conducted by Robert Plomin, an American psychologist professor.

In the paper “Does Learning to Read Improve Intelligence,” Prof. Plomin together with Stuart Richie and Timothy Bates concluded that kids who learned to read earlier have the possibility to have better general cognitive abilities.

The study showed that there is a link between early reading and one’s intelligence. It stated, “The present study provided compelling evidence that improvements in reading ability, themselves caused purely by the nonshared environments may result in improvements in both verbal and nonverbal cognitive ability… Early remediation of reading problems might not only aid in the growth of literacy, but may also improve more general cognitive abilities that are of critical importance across the life span.”

This is the reason why our country which enjoys a high literacy rate of 96.3% is ranked 21st in the IQ world ranking as per CIA World Factbook compared to our Asian neighbors Singapore 96.8% and Hong Kong 93.5% which are ranked among the top five.

This means that while our country registers a high literacy rate of 96.3 %, it does not necessarily translate to high intelligence rates. And this points to the sad reality that among many Filipinos, the habit of reading does not exist or our reading ways are flawed. Thus, for us educators much can be done to improve on this aspect to increase the literacy of our students.

One of these is the adoption of effective tools of reading assessments and improvement interventions such as oral reading verification (Phil-Iri). Improving the reading proficiency of students would certainly augment the literacy of our students.

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The author is OIC Head Teacher III at Victoria National High School, Victoria, Tarlac