Can you raed tihs?

* Is this message easy for you to read?*

* If you can raed tihs, plaese rpley.

* Can you raed tihs? ….

* I cdnuolt blveiee taht I cluod aulaclty uesdnatnrd waht I was rdanieg. The phaonmneal pweor of the hmuan mnid! Aoccdrnig to rscheearch, in Egilsnh and aslo oehtr lungageas, it dseno’t mtaetr waht oerdr the ltteres of a wrod are in–otfen the msot iproamtnt tihng is taht the frsit and lsat ltteer of ecah wrod be in the rghit pclae. The rset can oeftn be a taotl mses and you can sitll raed it whotuit a pboerlm. Tihs is bcuseae the huamn mnid deos not raed ervey lteter by istlef, but inatsed raeds the wrod as a wlohe. Azanmig huh? Yaeh, and I awlyas tghuhot slpeling was ipmorantt!

Paris in the….

Look at the words immediately above and say them aloud. (Above is the correct format for this demonstration for adults.)

Look at the words again, and say them aloud.

Did you notice anything strange about those words?

Did you read them as: PARIS IN THE THE SPRING (five words) ?

OR did you read them as: PARIS IN THE SPRING (four words)?

Almost all people when asked to read those words for the first time, in the adult demonstration format, will read them as “Paris in the Spring” & will continue to re-read them the same way (the 5 words as 4 words) until asked to point to each word as they read it. With about 100 more witnesses, I recently saw a well educated young woman repeat them the wrong way four times in succession until asked to “Come up and point to each word on the blackboard as you read it” .

COMPREHENSION THEORY: How reading-windows help

A Reading-window can cause, even more reliably than pointing to each word, a focus on individual words, and eliminate this type of error. However, consistent, exact, precise reading would be much, much too slow for the quantity of stuff we read daily!! So we also need to teach children, after they’ve learned how to use a 4-sided window, when to use the faster 2-sided or one-sided window instead, & even when it’s best to omit using a window altogether except to hold in one’s hand ready to use upon seeing a difficult word or sentence.

In fact, I make a point of accepting — worthy of an earned sticker — Johnny’s reading “Let’s go to my house” instead of “Let’s go to my home” or vice versa! Unless he’s reading for a school test,  I submit that comprehension is more important than the right word. Another exception to when comprehension is most important, is if the last word needs to rhyme with either “mouse” or “comb”, in which case, Johnny gets introduced to the fact that in poetry, words often need to rhyme, like “house” with “mouse” or “home” with “comb”.

But rhymes are worth a whole chapter of their own.