Now, I'm not trying to brag about how well I could read, but to give some background into why it never occurred to me that other people could not read as well and did not enjoy reading. As I got older I would hear people say that they didn't like to read and I would wonder how anyone could NOT like it. Mainly because, for me, the words would melt away and I would be immersed in the story to the point that all I saw was the images forming in my head and playing out like watching a movie. I knew what the characters looked like, their surroundings, even their voices were something that I heard. It was wonderful, an escape from reality whenever I wanted and a chance to experience other places and meet other people on a regular basis.
On the other hand, my Dear Husband does not like to read. We've known each other close to 25 years now and I've not known him to willingly read a book. He's always claimed they bore him and he gets nothing out of them. That just astounded me. He couldn't even get through one for his classes at college unless I read them outloud to him while he would close his eyes and just listen. He'd always remember the stories so I knew he was paying attention. In class I would take copious amounts of notes, but then rarely need to refer back to them as I'd remember them from the writings. He would take almost no notes, but just lean back and listen with his eyes half closed, and he'd remember everything just as well as I did. So, I thought it was just the whole different ways of learning thing - auditory, visual, kinetic, etc.
Then we had children. Our oldest has had problems with reading from the first. Not that she can't read. She can read very well. She can tell you all the words, and even read with good expression in her voice. However, she hated reading books herself and always wanted me to read them to her, or get them as books on CD for her to listen to. I talked to her 2nd grade teacher, which is when they started really pressing the children to read a minimum number of minutes per day, etc. She said it was fine if I read them to her, or if she listened to an audio book. She would allow them to count towards the goal. That helped a lot. There was more pressure as she got older, but we'd work with the teachers and manage to work things out each year. Now, in middle school, they don't have the daily required minutes but they do still stress for the children to read as much as possible. They have to have a library (or personal) book with them at all times to read during any down time. It has been increasingly an issue for us. Which led to more discussions, first with my DH, then with my daughter, and now I'm doing some research via friends and family.
What I have found in talking to them is that there are people who love to read "for fun" and the consensus is that they lose themselves in the story and picture it much as they would a movie. It's hard for them (and me) to read a book then see the movie as it never matches our mental image and can almost be painful to watch. The characters don't match up and the voices are all wrong, etc. My husband said he imagines from talking to me about it that it would be like the Duke cousins, Coy and Vance, being passed off as the actual Duke cousins, Bo and Luke. You'd know it was all wrong, no matter what people tried to convince you of. I retorted that for him to really get the point he'd have to imagine the Wiggles being dressed up and singing Van Halen songs. Completely and utterly wrong!!! This was especially hard for me a few years ago when they made the movie Sahara based on the Clive Cussler book. I've been reading those books since I was about 8 years old and as much as I like McConahey and Zahn, they were NOT Dirk and Al. If I know they are making a movie based on a book, I avoid the book like the plague until after I see the movie (like I did with all the Harry Potter books).
Anyway, I found out from my DH, then my daughter, that when they read they see words. Just words. No mental images while they are reading the words. My daughter said if she reads a few paragraphs, then stops and closes her eyes, she can sort of make herself visualize what she read. But not at all while she's reading the page. However, she loves books that have images, like Garfield, Baby Blues, graphic novels, etc. and I think it's because then she doesn't have to make that mental transition from words to pictures. It's there for her so she can just enjoy reading the words and seeing the pictures. I have talked to reading teachers and librarians and they seemed totally surprised that anyone would have that sort of a problem. Which led me to wonder even more about it.
Then last night, while attending the parent night at the elementary school, one of the kids teachers made the comment that she asked how many of the kids love to read and they all raised their hands. Then she said "be honest" and asked again. About a third put their hands down. Then she said "how many would rather go to the dentist than read a book" and said several actually raised their hands. Now, this was very interesting. Then she basically said that they would work with the kids on finding books in their interests and their reading range to help them learn to enjoy reading more.
The problem I see with that is if they are like my DH and my daughter, it wouldn't matter if it was their favorite subject in the whole world, READING about it would not do a thing for them. So, I came home, discussed it again with both of them, then started researching the web. All the articles I could find that were even close just talked about people who say they can't visualize and teaching them that everyone can visualize. My DH and daughter both have very vivid, lively imaginations. Visualizations in general are NOT the problem. They can visualize things, just not WHILE they are reading.
This morning I started asking friends and family, and asking them to then ask other friends and family (I have one friend that is a teacher and she is going to ask her students) the following questions, and I will keep you posted on the answers that I get:
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