Writing begins within oneself, with one’s own thoughts. The writer thinks of what they want to say, drawing on words they already know. They listen for the sounds in each word, and string together the symbols (letters) for those sounds.
Reading is the interpretation of someone else’s thoughts. In order to read, one must know each letter sound, fuse the letters together to make a word, attach a meaning to each word, and string the words together for context.
Reading requires both analysis and synthesis, and is a more complex mental process than writing.
The reader does not know what message the author is trying to convey. A written passage is a puzzle to be decoded sound by sound, word by word, and then interpreted as a whole.
Dr. Montessori observed that when taught before reading, writing becomes a joyous activity of self-expression for the young child. By waiting until the child can write, a similar explosion into reading will occur spontaneously and naturally.
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