Practical school-level implications of cognitive processing and cognitive load

The research base on cognitive processing is proliferating exponentially on topics such as short-term and working memory, executive function and cognitive processing. This situation creates the need for practical school-level applications from this useful knowledge. Students in nations with highly regular orthographies (e.g., Finland and Estonia) experience very low cognitive load across literacy development, and consequently are less dependent on effective cognitive processing. With English an extremely complex orthography, Anglophone beginning readers experience very high cognitive load across early word-reading, spelling and literacy development. This makes effective cognitive processing extremely important, particularly for at-risk readers. Using cognitive processing and crosslinguistic perspectives, this chapter considers the characteristics and needs of Anglophone struggling readers; teachers’ needs in supporting their instruction; and how ongoing Reading Wars divisiveness about word-reading creates the need for research to establish the differing skills and instructional needs of high-progress and low-progress readers. This chapter explores a wide range of cognitive processing areas relevant to optimising reading instruction for at-risk children, many of which currently have had minimal research. These include impacts of high as opposed to low cognitive load in literacy development; and the cognitive processing benefits of regular orthographies. It highlights the value of cognitive-processing research being increasingly focused on school and reading development issues.