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LESSON

1 Factors in Learning to Read

OBJECTIVES:
By the end of this Module, the teachers are expected to:
Identify the different factors in learning to read.
Discuss how the significant factors affect learning to read. (Domain 6.1.3.1)
Reflect teachers own views in learning to read.

RECOGNIZE

Mrs. Cruz is a Grade 1 teacher. Her passion is to help every child under her care become a reader. Alt

Why do children struggle to read?

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I am not feeling
well.
I am shy.

I cannot distinguish the letter sound of

I cannot see clearly the words I am b and d.
reading.

Can anyone
help me?

Every child is unique and special in his own way. We can work with and teach
children well if we consider their uniqueness and differences.

What are the factors in

learning to read?

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ELABORATE

Mrs. Cruz, committed and dedicated as she is, continuously searches for an
answer to her question, and through her in-depth studies and researches, she came
across these significant factors in reading she wishes to share.

1.PHYSICAL & PHYSIOLOGICAL

Good health and physical well-being contribute to how well children

will learn and develop and how well they do in school.
Seeing to it that a child has nutritious food, enough exercise and regular
medical care gives him a good start in life and lessens the chances that he will
have serious health problems (e.g. malnutrition, deficiencies) or trouble
learning later on (Anderson,2018).
The idea that healthy children learn better is empirically supported and
well-accepted (Basch, 2010).
Researches found that the brain synapses of physically fit children fired
faster and stronger, and as a result, those children had better language skills.
The more physically fit children were not only better at reading, but they were
also better at reading passages with several grammatical errors.
Furthermore, it is obvious that a child who is ill is not able to do well in
school. Physical inadequacies may result in lowered vitality, depletion of
energy, shower physical development and mental retardation.
Consequently, physiological factors play an important role in the
reading performance of children. Without the presence of the healthy
necessary organs, reading will not take place. Also, if the physical health of a
person is not good, education is very much affected (G.E.Tompkins, 2014)
On the contrary, children who are not physically healthy are weaker,
inactive, and would have greater chances of meeting difficulty in learning to
read.

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ACTIVITY 1

LEARNER’S HEALTH ASSESSMENT

School: _ _ Grade Level: _

Date of Birth: _ Sex: Male: _ Female:
Age: Height (in meter): Weight (in kg.): _

Medical History

1. Do you have any allergies? _YES NO

If Yes, please identify below
Medicine pollens Foods Stinging Insects
Others (pls. specify)

2. Do you have any ongoing medical condition? YES NO

If Yes, please identify below
Error of refraction Asthma Seizure Heart Problem
Anemia Bleeding disorder Hernia (painful bulge in the groin
area) Others: (pls. specify) _ _ _

3. Does anyone in your family have the following conditions?

Tuberculosis Cancer Stroke Diabetes Mellitus
Hypertension Depression Others: (pls. specify)

4. Have you ever had surgery/ hospitalization?

If Yes, please identify below: _

5. Exposure to cigarette/vape smoke at home? YES NO

4Ps Beneficiary YES NO

SBFP Beneficiary YES NO
Deworming YES NO
Iron Supplementation YES NO
Multivitamins Supplementation YES NO

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2. VISUAL AND AUDITORY ACUTENESS

A healthy visual and auditory acuteness to reading development.

Sensory disabilities include low vision, blindness, deafness, and hard of
hearing cause delays in learning to read and in developing comprehension.
Because of these, learners with any of these disabilities show signs of poorer
long-term reading outcomes than children with normal hearing and vision
(Tompkins,2018).
Say, for some students with low vision, or partial sight, standard written
materials are too small to read and small objects are difficult to see.
Other students may see objects only within a specific field of vision, or
see an image with sections missing. Text or objects may appear blurry.
Learning via a visual medium may take longer and may be more
fatiguing for people who have low vision thus, affecting learning to read.
Same is true to some students who are hard of hearing may hear only
specific frequencies or sounds within a certain volume range. Students who
are hard of hearing may have speech impairments due to their inability to
hear their own voices clearly. Being deaf or hard of hearing can affect
students in several ways. They may experience difficulty following lectures
from their teachers.

ACTIVITY 2

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Teacher’s Classroom Vision Checklist

Name:_____________________________________Grade Level: _
School: _ _ _
Date of Birth: _ Age: Sex: _

Appearance of the eyes:

□ One eye turns out
□ Reddened eyes or lids
□ Eyes tear often
□ Encrusted eyelids
□ Frequent styes on eyelids
Complaints when using eyes:
□ Headaches
□ Burning or itching eyes
□ Nausea after reading
□ Print blurs or double vision
□ Words move or “swim” on the page
When Student reads:
□ Head movement
□ Loses place often or needs finger to
keep place
□ Omits words frequently
□ Re-reads or skips lines
□ Short attention span
□ Fails to recognize some words
□ Confuses similar words
□ Whispers to self when reading
□ Quickly loses interest when reading
□ Holds book to close to face
When Student writes:

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□ Writes uphill or downhill
□ Repeats letters within words
□ Omits letters, numbers, or phrases
□ Misaligns digits
□ Squints, closes or covers one eye
□ Tilts head
□ Fails to recognize same word when repeated in text
□ Reverses letters & words when writing
□ Fails to visualize
□ Makes mistakes when copying from board
□ Writing poorly spaced and crooked
□ Unable to stay on ruled lines
□ Poor placement of words on page
□ Odd working posture at desk activities
□ Uses hand as “spacer”
□ Holds face too close to desk
Other Problems:
□ Must feel things to understand
□ Repeatedly confuses right and left sides
□ Difficulty with similarities and differences
□ Avoids desk work
□ Blinks, squints, rubs eyes frequently
□ Fatigues easily

If any of the problems listed on the Checklist are noted, the child should
be assessed by a Behavioral Optometrist.

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ACTIVITY 3

AUDITORY CHECKLIST

Name: _ Grade Level: _

School: _ _ _

Date of Birth: _ _ Age: _ Sex: _

□ Disturbed by sounds such as singing and musical instruments
□ Complains that everything/everyone is too loud
□ Speaks with a very loud voice
□ Speaks with an unusually quiet voice
□ Doesn’t seem to hear you
□ Has difficulty filtering out noise and focusing on teacher’s voice
□ Doesn’t seem to hear you
□ Has difficulty filtering out noise and focusing on teacher’s voice
□ Seems to learn more easily in one-on-one situation than in a group
□ Has difficulty filtering out noise and focusing on teacher’s voice
3. PSYCHOSOCIAL DEVELOPMENT
The psychological factors (e.g. emotional problems, personality development, home environment, motivation
The majority of struggling learners do have a psychological dilemma that is motivating the problem.
With this understanding, the students could receive help for these psychological difficulties and could be taug
Having positive attitude, self-efficacy, and motivation do not only reduce their anxiety in comprehension, but
On the other hand, students who have no sense of self-efficacy and positive attitude towards learning are thos

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ACTIVITY 5

Name of Learner: _ Grade Level: _

PSYCHOSOCIAL CHECKLIST

In general, does he or she: (√ one box for each question)

No Sometimes Often
1. Complains of aches/pains without a
physical cause
2. Spends more time alone
3. Tires easily
4. Unable to sit still
5. Has trouble with teachers
6. Less interested in school
7. Acts as if driven by a motor
8. Daydreams too much
9. Distracted easily
10.Afraid of new situations
11. Feels sad, unhappy
12. Is irritable, angry
13.Feels hopeless
14. Has trouble concentrating
15. Less interest in friends
16. Fights with others
17. Absent from school
18.School grades dropping
19. Is down on him or herself
20.Visits doctor with doctor finding
nothing wrong
21. Has trouble sleeping
22. Worries a lot
23. Wants to be with parents more than
before
24. Feels he or she is bad
25. Takes unnecessary risks
26. Gets hurt frequently
27. Seems to be having less fun

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28. Acts younger than children his or

her age
29. Does not listen to rules
30. Does not show feelings
31. Does not understand other people’s
feelings
32. Teases others
33. Blames others for his or her troubles
34. Takes things that do not belong to him
or her
35. Refuses to share

4.LITERACY AND LANGUAGE SKILLS

The learner’s reading performance is highly affected by his success

with the five fundamental literacy skills- phonemic awareness, alphabetic
principle, fluency, vocabulary, and comprehension. By understanding and
nurturing these five fundamental skills, parents and teachers can better
encourage successful reading performance (Unknown Author, 2020).
For example, phonemic awareness is the ability to hear the letter sounds
and orally manipulate the individual sounds that make a word. Students with
strong phonemic awareness are better prepared to sound out words while
reading and more likely to become fluent, proficient readers compared to
those students whose phonemic awareness are not strong and established.
Same is true with the other language skills like alphabetic principle,
fluency, vocabulary and comprehension.

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ACTIVITY 5

LITERACY CHECKLIST
Check the skill evident to the child. Write remarks accordingly.
First Second Third Fourth
Skills Remarks
Quarter Quarter Quarter Quarter
Identifies sounds
corresponding to
vowels and
consonants
Reads single-syllable
words by blending
sounds, including
consonant blends
Reads sight words
Reads first-grade texts
with fluency
Can retell a story
including character,
setting, and plot.
Answer questions
about a text accurately
Reads accurately and
shows signs of self-
monitoring
Applies strategies to
decode unknown
words
Writes a complete
sentence
independently
Uses punctuation
appropriately
Writing is neat and
legible. Letters are
formed correctly

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Begins sentence with

a capital letter
Spells some sight
words correctly in
writing
Uses known spelling
patterns while writing
Spelling (test)

Why is it important to know the different factors in learning to read?

How these factors affect reading
development of a child?
How would we know that a learner is exhibiting these factors?

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WRAP IT UP!

Factors in Learning to Read

Factors in Learning to Psychosocial Development

Visual and Auditory Acuteness
Physical and Physiological Literacy & Language Skills

Farsightedness/ Nearsighted-ness
Shyness Poor Retention
Malnourished

Physically Hard of Phonological

Inattentiveness
Weak Hearing Disorder

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APPLY

How can I identify the factors affecting my learner’s ability to read?

ACTIVITY 6

To know the learners’ reading ability, the tool below may be used for assessment.
READING ASSESSMENT TOOL
Factors Affecting Assessment Results Remarks/
Reading Tool (Date) Recommendation
I: Physical and
Physiological
II: Visual and Auditory
Acuteness
III: Psychosocial
Development
IV: Literacy and
Language Skills

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DEPLOY

ACITIVITY 7

Reading Readiness Checklist

Name of Learner: __ _
School:_ LRN.: _
Grade Level: Age: _

Mark with √ the criteria a learner demonstrated in each quarter.

CRITERIA 1st 2nd 3rd 4th

Quarter Quarter Quarter Quarter
I. PHYSICAL AND
PHYSIOLOGICAL
1. Holds a book with two hands
2. Flip chosen books.
3. Stands straight and sits
properly while reading.
4. Reads her/his own name
5. Reads clearly.
II. VISUAL AND AUDITORY
ACUTENESS
1. Reads from left to right.

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2. Hears sounds clearly.

3. Self -correct errors.
4. Repeats the words heard
correctly.
III. PSYCHOSOCIAL
DEVELOPMENT
1. Reads with confidence.
2. Expresses his/her own
opinion.
3. Reads when others pay
attention to him/her.
4. Reads well with peers.
5. Accepts correction from
his/her mistake positively.
6. Shows interest in reading.
IV. LITERACY AND LANGUAGE
SKILLS
1. Understands that text has
meaning.
2. Can recite the alphabet
3. Can identify and name some
or all the letters.
4.Can correspond some or all
letters to their correct sounds.

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ACITIVITY 8

REFERENCE:

https://robi673614566.wordpress.com/2018/05/16/factors-affecting-reading/
Source:https://www.acbo.org.au/images/About_Vision/Teachers_Classroom_
Vision_Checklist_-_A4-Veronicas_pc.pdf
Source: https://www.pinterest.ph/pin/2885187247866171
https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s40894-016-0027-y
Source: https://www.pinterest.ph/pin/332703491198783203/

Module C | Lesson 1: Factors in Learning to Read