MALUF, Maria Regina. The teaching of reading: developments in psychology in the XXI. []. , 35, 89, pp.309-324. ISSN 1415-711X.

The Science of Reading, which incorporates contributions from Cognitive Psychology and Neuroscience, has been formed in the past 40 years and can tell us much about how to teach reading. The earliest writings date back to five thousand years and alphabetic systems of writing to three thousand years B.C. However, much of humanity has not yet mastered the written word and this is associated with living in poverty. Decoding, spelling, fluency and comprehension are the major challenges faced by learners with difficulties. What do these skills have to do with teaching methods, the nature of the writing system, or with something inherent to the child? Debates about these issues occupied much of the twentieth century and are still present these days. What is the best way to teach reading successfully? Although there is no conclusive answer, there is abundant evidence and a huge amount of data to answer this question. Such evidence shows us what helps and what does not, and why. The Science of Reading can tell us much about the nature of reading in alphabetic systems, the peculiarities of different languages and the elements that should make up the foundation of an effective program of teaching the written language. It enables us to understand how the human brain works when exposed to reading and how the structure of the alphabetic code, used to spell the different languages, affects the process of teaching to read and write

: the science of reading; cognitive psychology; literacy.

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