Cognitive clarity theory of learning to read

Professor John Downing, an educational psychologist, proposed the cognitive clarity theory of learning to read in a paper which he presented to the annual meeting of the United Kingdom Literacy Association between the 23rd and 28th of July, 1971.

The theory rejected the common-place notions of the time that learning to read utilised some special or unique traits from human evolution.

[2] Downing later accredited his time as visiting professor (1967-68) to the University of California, Berkeley, as when those previous insights were crystallised into an outline of a theory.

The theory postulated that the degree of success in learning to read was dependent on factors such as: - language, dialects, orthographies, teaching cultures etc.

[18] - [1.2] Written Language: - any previous knowledge of the nature of written language and its purposes[18] [2.0] Extraneous Stimuli - [2.1] Schooling: - the level of experience of the teachers, support from parents, the teaching methods & reading materials used[19] - [2.2] State of Mind: - the emotional state of the child from their home life[19] [3.0] Literate Expectations - [3.1] Orthography: - the regularity, simplicity and consistency of the orthography being learn't.

To this end, his model explained how children who start learning using the initial teaching alphabet often became better readers in English traditional orthography (t.o.)

Prior to this, Downing had published several key papers which laid the foundations for his theory: - 1970 - Children's concepts of language in learning to read.

[40] Additionally, Downing published an extensive set of papers on the initial teaching alphabet, which sowed the seeds of his theory.