Top-down model of reading

A system of reading instruction in which children learn the meanings of entire words by sight—by recognizing the distinctive shape and context of each word in a sentence. Top-down reading instruction contrasts with the BOTTOM-UP MODEL, which depends on piecing together small parts, or phonic sounds, to form letter, syllabic and eventually word sounds. In the top-down model, children learn the whole word first, then take it apart to learn each letter and its individual sound. Most children instinctively use both methods in learning to read, and few teachers rely entirely on one approach in reading instruction. Most preschoolers, for example, have already used the top-down model in learning to read, but not spell, such words as “CORN FLAKES,” which they have seen on signs and A system of reading instruction in which children learn the meanings of entire words by sight—by recognizing the distinctive shape and context of each word in a sentence. Top-down reading instruction contrasts with the BOTTOM-UP MODEL, which depends on piecing together small parts, or phonic sounds, to form letter, syllabic and eventually word sounds. In the top-down model, children learn the whole word first, then take it apart to learn each letter and its individual sound. Most children instinctively use both methods in learning to read, and few teachers rely entirely on one approach in reading instruction. Most preschoolers, for example, have already used the top-down model in learning to read, but not spell, such words as “CORN FLAKES,” which they have seen on signs and packages since infancy. Developmental, and perhaps hereditary, differences often see some children more adaptable to one model than the other. Many children are almost incapable of learning from the top down and are almost totally dependent on “sounding out” words, letter by letter, from the bottom up.