systems theory - 1 Humpty Dumpty and Scarborough’s Stink’n Rope Andy Johnson, Ph.D. Minnesota State University www.teaching-reading.com *This is an excerpt from my book, ‘Understanding the Science of Reading: Context Matters’ published by Guildford. It will be out sometime in 2025. THE LIMITATION OF ROPES The SoR is based on the simple view of reading (Cervettie, et. al, 2020; Duke & Cartwright, 2021; Hoffman, 2017). According to this theory, skilled reading is a result of decoding and language comprehension (Gough & Tunmer, 1986) (see Figure 9.1). In other words, you decode each word (sound it out) and then listen to the decoding occurring in your head. What could be simpler than this? Yes? Figure 9.1. The simple view of reading. Later iterations of this theory would change it slightly. Scarborough (2001) created his now famous reading rope based on this theory (see Figure 9.2). According to this theoretical model, skilled reading is like a rope comprised of two sets of strands. Figure 9.2. Scarborough’ stink’n rope Word recognition strands. The word recognition strands represent three low level skills related to: (a) phonological awareness (syllables, phonemes, etc.), (b) decoding (alphabetic