"Now I have the tools with [this] book to make [my students] more confident and love the language."--Keith Bauman, honors English teacher, The Villages Charter High School, The Villages, Florida.

A renowned cognitive neuroscientist?s fascinating and highly informative account of how the brain acquires reading How can a few black marks on a white page evoke an entire universe of sounds and meanings? In this riveting investigation, Stanislas Dehaene provides an accessible account of the brain circuitry of reading and explores what he calls the ?reading paradox?: Our cortex is the product of millions of years of evolution in a world without writing, so how did it adapt to recognize words? Reading in the Brain describes pioneering research on how we process language, revealing the hidden logic of spelling and the existence of powerful unconscious mechanisms for decoding words of any size, case, or font. Dehaene?s research will fascinate not only readers interested in science and culture, but also educators concerned with debates on how we learn to read, and who wrestle with pathologies such as dyslexia. Like Steven Pinker, Dehaene argues that the mind is not a blank slate: Writing systems across all cultures rely on the same brain circuits, and reading is only possible insofar as it fits within the limits of a primate brain. Setting cutting-edge science in the context of cultural debate, Reading in the Brain is an unparalleled guide to a uniquely human ability.

Have you ever wished you could improve your reading, writing, spelling, maths, and your memory and learning skills? This title takes you through a series of simple logical steps which build on each other to enable you or your children to visualise your way to success, developing skills you already possess.

Why is there an 'h' in ghost? William Caxton, inventor of the printing press and his Flemish employees are to blame: without a dictionary or style guide to hand in fifteenth century Bruges, the typesetters simply spelled it the way it sounded to their foreign ears, and it stuck. Seventy-five per cent of English spelling is regular but twenty-five per cent is complicated, and in Spell It Out our foremost linguistics expert David Crystal extends a helping hand to the confused and curious alike. He unearths the stories behind the rogue words that confound us, and explains why these peculiarities entered the mainstream, in an epic journey taking in sixth century monks, French and Latin upstarts, the Industrial Revolution and the internet. By learning the history and the principles, Crystal shows how the spellings that break all the rules become easier to get right.

“Wolf restores our awe of the human brain—its adaptability, its creativity, and its ability to connect with other minds through a procession of silly squiggles.” — San Francisco Chronicle How do people learn to read and write—and how has the development of these skills transformed the brain and the world itself ? Neuropsychologist and child development expert Maryann Wolf answers these questions in this ambitious and provocative book that chronicles the remarkable journey of written language not only throughout our evolution but also over the course of a single child’s life, showing why a growing percentage have difficulty mastering these abilities. With fascinating down-to-earth examples and lively personal anecdotes, Wolf asserts that the brain that examined the tiny clay tablets of the Sumerians is a very different brain from the one that is immersed in today’s technology-driven literacy, in which visual images on the screen are paving the way for a reduced need for written language—with potentially profound consequences for our future.

Understanding and honoring the natural learning path for right-brained children

"Gentry and Ouellette are cannonballing into the reading research pool, they're making waves, and these waves are moving the field of reading forward." —From the foreword by Mark Weakland, Super Spellers "In this second edition, the authors have written a practical and fascinating resource that helps connect the theory and research of the neurological reading circuitry to classroom practice." —Molly Ness, teacher educator, author, consultant A lot has changed since the original publication of Brain Words. The first edition was very much a call for change, and change has indeed happened! While the science of reading has made real and substantive change within education, there unfortunately remain too many misunderstandings and misinterpretations of what the science of reading is, and stubborn resistance to all it has to offer. Now more than ever it is vital that we work towards an understanding of the science of reading and what it has to say about teaching our students how to read. Written for beginning or seasoned teachers, homeschoolers, teacher educators, as well as parents who want to fully engage in their child’s literacy development, this updated and highly readable new edition presents brain science, reading research, and theory in ways that can be understood and directly applied in teaching, ultimately leading to efficacious science of reading based literacy instruction. Gentry and Ouellette show how an understanding of the science of reading can shape teaching to help make all students literate. Building on their science of reading based framework of “brain words”—dictionaries in the brain where students store and access word spelling, pronunciation, and meaning—the authors offer a wealth of information to transform your thinking and practice. They offer: an updated review of models of reading, developmental theory, and brain research that help explain the reading brain a new exploration of how oral language provides the foundation for learning to read and write, and how elements of oral language directly contribute to literacy learning throughout the school years an evolving critique of classroom practices that aren't as effective as once believed explicit guidance on how spelling can be used to teach the critical skill of word reading a deepened understanding of dyslexia through the lens of the science of reading With the insights and strategies in Brain Words, you can meet your students where they are and ensure that more of them read well, think well, and write well.

"Gentry and Ouellette are cannonballing into the reading research pool, they're making waves, and these waves are moving the field of reading forward." --From the foreword by Mark Weakland, Super Spellers The past two decades have brought giant leaps in our understanding of how the brain works. But these discoveries--and all their exciting implications--have yet to make their way into most classrooms. With the concise and readable BrainWords, you will learn how children's brains develop as they become readers and discover ways you can take concrete steps to promote this critical developmental passage. Introducing their original, research-based framework of "brain words"--dictionaries in the brain where students store and automatically access sounds, spellings, and meanings--the authors offer a wealth of information that will transform your thinking and practice: Up-to-date knowledge about reading and neurological circuitry, including evidence that spelling is at the core of the reading brain Tools to recognize what works, what doesn't, and why Practical classroom activities for daily teaching and student assessment Insights about what brain research tells us about whole language and phonics-first movements Deepened understanding of dyslexia through the enhanced lens of brain science With the insights and strategies of BrainWords, you can meet your students where they are and ensure that more of them read well, think well, and write well.

Neuropsychology of Language, Reading, and Spelling explores the many neural systems and subsystems that contribute to the production and comprehension of oral and written language. This book is organized into five parts encompassing 12 chapters that emerged from the 1980 International Conference on the Neuropsychology of Language, Reading, and Spelling, sponsored by the Program in Neurosciences and Education at Teachers College, Columbia University. This conference highlights the neurological and behavioral interrelatedness of language, reading, and spelling. After briefly dealing with the cognitive and language development, as well as learning to read and to spell as instances of acquiring skill, this book goes on discussing the activity of the learner in the development skill, the influence of interacting forces in the developing nervous systems, and the role of peripheral mechanisms in the development of speech and language. A chapter examines the central integrative mechanisms, specifically the electrophysiological research with infants on the dependence of language perception on multidimensional, complexes processes, and not solely as a left- or right-hemisphere task. This chapter also provides evidence of discrete localization of language processes within the dominant hemisphere at both cortical and subcortical levels. The final four chapters are devoted to an analysis of developmental disorders from the varied perspectives of neurology, linguistics, neuropsychology, and education. This book will be of value to neuropsychologists and developmental biologists.