Volume 3, Issue 7, page 7

OU By ARTHUR
J
JC! !LDM
12. GIANA CAN'T STOP READING THINGS
~IANA WAS brougHt to the CHild Development Center for a most unusual reason.

She couldn't stop reading. Her parents
agonized over her. They didn't teacn
her to read. Nouody did. Giana didn't even
teach nerself. She just began reading. Tnis is
the most inexplainaole ching. Her parents aren't quite sure just where and wnen it began.
One thing seems certain, from the first of her
records: Sne oelongs to tae Child Development
Center, not in any puolic scnool classroom.
Sne is eight years old. She is a neat little
urunette witH wide eyes that seem filled witn
questions.

When sHe first came to the Center last October, her parents were frantic. Giana read so
much. Sne would oe walking, clinging to ner
mother's nand, or ner fatner's, or she would
oe riding in a car or oils, and her eyes would
move to all the signs wnich are found everywnere mat modern civilization touches. Giana's
voice is very low, so low that sHe is difficult to near. If she snouted what she read, it
mignt be unendurable. It is almost unendurable
now. Giana reads:
"Where will you spend eternity?"
Her mother shudders. But should sne not oe
pleased? No cnild as young as Giana knows sucn
words, or can read tnem wnile passing in a car
traveling 50 miles an nour.
"Get Burma Shave!" Giana reads.

What the parents particularly notice is
tHis: Giana's pronunciation is always correct.
Sne doesn't break words, even long ones, up
into syllaoles. She seems to know the words
just on sight.
"Get Pennsupreme ice cream, made witH homogenized milk!"
How does Giana, whose I. Q. can't be very
nign, know where to accent any word? As the
visitor nears tne story of Giana, ne is astounded, knowing that no other cHild at the
Center can pronounce a word like "homogenized"
even if carefully taken tnrougn it syllable oy
syllable, repeatedly, day after day, for weeks,
Giana pronounces it correctly tne first time
sae sees the word.
the mother of Giana doesn't say too much
about ner. Sae orings ner to tae Center. The
teachers there know that diana is different or
sHe wouldn't oe brougHt to tnem. The mother
says that Giana reads anything at all, out tae
teacners do not take this too seriously. Mothers are easily deluded oy their "special"
children, or too easily exasperated, or frustrated.
"Do you think we mignt try her first with a
First Grade Reader?" the teacher asks the
mother.

Giana is given a First Grade Reader. A page
at random is snown her. In her soft, say voice,
which even those near Or must strain to hear,
Giana reads. She reads without hesitation, She
doesn't point at the words. Sne reads them
more readily than any first graders the teacner can recall at the moment. She reads quickly, correctly.
. BURKS What ' Be Sane
maut die genetic itaged a2
This is a continuation of the series in which Mr. . Burks analyzes
life in the Child Guidance Center,
Lancaster, Penn. These are only a
few of the estimated 4,00you --
IF.!72 'genetic tragedies", one or more
of whom could De next door to you