People who don’t read well usually don’t feel very good about their intellectual abilities. They don’t know that perfectly, wonderful, charming, clever, intelligent, adults sometimes have reading problems. In our society, if someone isn’t good at math, they can approach someone with a “cutesy attitude” and say that they can’t figure something out, everyone chuckles, and works out the problem. But we have little tolerance for someone approaching us with help in filling out a job application because of poor reading abilities. Reading struggles are taken personally, with low self-esteem as an added struggle.

 

The good news is that it isn’t just kids that can get the help they need. If you’ve heard the old saying, “you can’t teach an old dog new tricks,” you can forget it. Research has proven over and over again that people really can change! We all build neural pathways (instruction sheets) for the different processes we learn over our lifetimes. When the pathway for reading is less than 100% correct, we generate less than successful reading. However, if put in a situation where a brain is compelled to comfortably read and understand a variety of text over and over, there will come a time when the brain recognizes and acknowledges that “there is a better way to do this, and I’m capable.” The brain will then continue experimenting trying to find the strategies that were used during the intervention in order to eventually internalize the best strategies. There is actually a physiological change in the neural pathway that was originally incorrectly built by the well-intentioned brain.

 

The changes are internal and implicit, and occur over time. Given the appropriate materials and methodology, the principles of Process Learning Theory and Reading Theory can be applied along with an integrated assessment tool so that adults can become successful readers at virtually any age!