Do you know that we have 5 components of reading. Knowing your child’s or pupils’ strengths and weaknesses in each of these components will accurately determine the exact reading problem pattern of your child.
1. Phonemic Awareness
Your child or your pupils’ understanding of how phonemes form syllables and words. I guess you’re wondering: “What’s this jargon”? (Teachers know what I’m talking about already.) It’s not jargon. Phonemes are just sounds that we combine to form words, e.g., shop (sh + o +p). Should it be that your child keeps pronouncing shop as ‘sop,’ your child is hearing ‘sh’ as ‘s’, the closest sound to ‘sh’ since ‘sh’ is not present in his native language.
Songs and poems with rhymes and repetition can be used to teach phonemic awareness.
2. Word Decoding and Phonics
“Letter A sounds ‘ah’ as in ‘arm,’ letter B sounds ‘buh’ as in ‘ball.’ You’ve probably heard your child recite this several times. As teachers, we may also say my pupils recite this everyday. Yet, your child and some of your pupils cannot seem to match a letter or a combination of letters (graphemes) to their phonemes when reading.
DO THIS!
Occasionally, point to letters and ask your child or pupils to identify them.
The BEM toolkit has these grapheme tiles to help your child match sounds to their letters or letter combinations.
Are your pupils struggling with phonics?
Join my Phonics Training Class.
3. Fluent Text reading
Fluent Text reading is your child’s ability to read naturally as though he were talking to someone.
It involves reading aloud effortlessly and with expression.
Does your child read fluently?
Watch this video:
4. Vocabulary
Your child’s vocabulary is your child’s knowledge of words in pronunciation, in meaning, and in use in sentences.
Your child cannot understand a sentence if he cannot understand most of the words used in the sentence. In addition, your child may be able to read the words without comprehending the words. So, how does your child build his or her vocabulary? We have said this countless number of times: “The quality of English your child speaks is determined by the quality of English you speak to them.” The same rule applies to your child’s vocabulary. The words you use in talking to your child is what your child will use to build his vocabulary. What happens then if you don’t even engage your child in a simple conversation? If you do, what about words that you don’t use in everyday conversation in the home? Do you just make your pupils sit and watch educational cartoons? Educational cartoons are good, but do you engage your pupils? As parents and teachers, we can engage our children in conversations and read to them to help them build their vocabulary.
5. Listening Comprehension
Your child has to hear you say ‘food’ before he can understand it as ‘something you can eat’, then he can proceed to say it, read it, or write it.
Want to get help with your child or pupils’ reading struggles?
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