Reading Fluency - the Key Link!

The key outcome for your child when they read is comprehension. 

But without reading fluently your child will struggle with comprehension,

One of the key foundation skills for fluency is decoding.

Good decoding allows fluency and comprehension.

On the other hand, if your child decodes slowly e.g, taking time to to sound out a word like  "CAT" then they cannot engage their working memory efficiently to absorb the word and the meaning.

Very often parents and teachers tell us that their child spent ages trying to make out a word and eventually did "get it".

But when the word was presented to them again in the next sentence, paragraph or page it was as if they had never seen it before.

Your child needs cognitive skills such as memory and attention in order to decode the written word. 

***The speed and accuracy of decoding needs to be automatic.***  

This is essential in order to be a fluent reader. 

If your child is taking too long to decode a word it means that their focus is going into the mechanics of reading and not into the absorption of what they are reading,

Which negatively affects their understanding of what they read.

Which also means they are less inclined to read and their learning is negatively affected.

Remember in primary school they “learn to read”. And in secondary school they “read to learn”

Your child needs to master the foundation skills such as phonics, decoding, memory etc. 

Then they can focus on building reading fluency i.e. the number of words they can read per minute...correctly.

Then they can put their energy into comprehending and using what they have read.

How is your child’s reading fluency and comprehension?

Regards

Joyce

PS We still have some places on our Neuron Learning Course for Reading starting in November.

Hit reply and put "November" in the headline if you would like to see the details.