Who's Pointing A Finger?
Did you ever see a young child--or perhaps not so young a child--using an index finger to point at the words while reading? Oftentimes, children do this because this practice is encouraged in school. Unfortunately, it's not a wise suggestion since effective reading requires us to use eye movements if we are to effectively scan lines of print. Finger pointing can delay this development.
While it's not the best practice, many children spontaneously go beyond what they are told and make the necessary shift so that they are scanning the lines of print with their eyes and not with their fingers.
Many others, however, do not. Their visual scanning is so weak that finger pointing is the only way they have of scanning a line of print without losing their place. Is this a problem? Yes! Is this seen as a problem? Rarely.
Visual scanning is one of the many visual-motor skills that play a significant role in successful reading. However, conventional wisdom focuses almost exclusively on phonics and sounding out skills as THE route to reading. As a result, visual scanning --like many other vital skills -- rarely receives the attention it deserves.
But no child need wait for teaching practice to change. There are simple practices you can use to put things right. In one technique, you have the child read a short segment while you hold a blank, white card under each line that the child reads. You steadily move the card along as the child finishes a line. It might be necessary as well to gently hold the child's hand to prevent it from creeping up and going under the words. Then, once the segment has been completed, you ask the child to read it again--–this time with the card removed. Of course, if necessary, continue to hold the child's hand if he or she starts to move it up under the words.
You can complete three or four segments in this fashion. (The length of the segments will depend on the child's reading level, but generally the entire session will cover about three to four pages. In a book for a first grader, the amount of print on three to four pages will naturally be much less than that in a book for a third grader.) There should be about four to five sessions a week.
Once the child is comfortable with reading while the card is under one line, you modify the technique so that the card is placed to expose two lines of print. Then when the child is smooth at that level, you move to showing three lines of print. Generally you do not have to go beyond three lines to get the child's scanning to a satisfactory level.
How long should you use this technique? Generally it will take about two to three months for visual scanning to become smooth and automatic. However, as with all Phonics Plus Five techniques, it all depends on the child's performance. You continue to offer the support until you see that clear progress has been achieved and the child readily accomplishes effective scanning without your help and without resorting to finger pointing.
