Developing Fluency in Young Children
by Nicole Brekelbaum
Fluency in reading and talking can come at
different stages for different children. It is important when that
milestone is reached that parents encourage their children to improve
their literacy skills. Here is a step-by-step guide to developing your
young child's language and reading fluency.
Step 1: Does Your Child have the Ability to
Link Letters and Sounds Together?
We all know that letters of the alphabet form words and that learning
letters and sounds is usually the predecessor to developing fluency in
young children. But how can we stimulate an early interest in the
alphabet? To keep a child’s mind engaged in the learning process, it is
a good idea to use fun, exciting hands-on games. Many parents have had
success arranging magnetic letters on their kitchen refrigerator and
allowing children to touch, manipulate and sound out the letters.
Another variation is to work with one letter a week starting, for
instance, with the letter A. Place only the letter A on the
refrigerator and then do a weeklong lesson that focuses on the letter
A. At the end of the week place three more letters on the refrigerator.
Ask your child to distinguish the letter A from the group, make the
sound of the letter A, and pronounce two or three words that begin with
the letter A. Continue this learning technique for 25 more weeks until
your child begins to recognize and sound out each of the 26 letters of
the alphabet easily. A home-schooling mom who has had remarkable
success with developing fluency in her kids has created a useful online
resource that teaches children a letter a week. This free curriculum
can be found at Brightly Beaming Resources -
http://www.letteroftheweek.com/.
Step 2: Is Your Child Familiar with Words
that Form Opposites?
Most kids enjoy learning about opposites since it encourages sensory
and motor development while at the same time developing their literacy
skills. Children can recognize the difference between sweet and sour by
taste, hard and soft by touch, slow and fast by adjusting their motor
play, and loud and quiet by altering their voice pitch. This
interactive approach is not only enjoyed by toddlers and preschoolers
but also provides a great foundation for the development of literacy
skills later on in life.
Step 3: Can Your Child Build New Words from a
Single Core Word?
An important way to develop fluency is to provide children with a rich
variety of words. One approach is to a take a familiar core word and
build a web of related words around it. For example, using the word bat
as a core word help children find other related words such as baseball,
base, batsman, catcher and umpire. Discuss the word bat further using a
completely different approach and inspire children to find new words
such as nocturnal, caves, wing span and habitat. As children become
familiar with related words they gain the self-confidence needed to
read aloud and to decode new words.
Step 4: Can Your Child Sound Out Rhyming
Words?
Rhyming words have sound appeal to kids. Listening to nursery rhymes
and poems allows children to appreciate the beautiful yet comprehensive
forms of the spoken language. Encourage your child to sound out rhyming
words, making sure to praise him even if the words he creates may not
necessarily be real words. The idea is that he has mastered the
listening technique that is required to reproduce similar sounds.
Step 5: Has Your Child Learnt about Compound
Words?
Learning about compound words is a great way to introduce word-building
skills to children. Start off by giving your child two very familiar
words and then ask him to join the words together and read the
composite word out loud. There is a 50% chance that he may not create a
compound word on his first try. If he is unsuccessful be patient and
allow his natural hunger to learn inspire him to manipulate the words
correctly. Soon he will be making some typical compound words such as
batman, baseball, and bookworm.
Step 6: Can Your Child Build Words using
Ending Clusters?
It is a good idea to introduce words with ending clusters to kids
around first or second grade, or when you believe that they are
developmentally ready for this challenge. Examining the ending clusters
for a whole group of words is a big step towards fluency. This step
should be approached with patience and care. Take a word, for example,
like light. The ending cluster here is “ight”. Remove the letter “l”
and substitute the letter “s” instead. Now you have the word sight.
Continue in this manner until your child begins to recognize and
pronounce words on his own such as might, fight, fright and bright.
Introduce other ending clusters to him and help him become familiar
with manipulating words.
Step 7: Is Your Child Familiar with Beginning
Blends?
Beginning blends are great ways for children to sound out words that
are unfamiliar to them. Take the beginning blend “ST” for instance. If
a child understands how to pronounce the words star and start, then
unfamiliar words such as stand, stop, stamp and stall become easier to
pronounce with practice. Over time children begin to decode words one
at a time and can soon read a whole sentence. Encouraging your child to
read a familiar text can also build fluency and comprehension. An
excellent easy reader is the “Dick and Jane” series. It allows children
to sound out familiar three and four letter words in repetitive
sentences thus giving them the self-confidence they need to master
difficult pronunciations.
Step 8: Have You Encouraged Independent
Reading?
Visit your local library to see what programs are available that
encourages reading. Usually children can join their library’s book
club, gain school credit from reading a number of library books and
sometimes win small prizes after attaining reading milestones.
Encourage your child to search the library bookshelves for books that
are of interest to him and that are also appropriate for his age. On
occasion encourage him to read aloud to you so that you can diagnose
any difficulties in his phonic skills such as slow reading and poor
comprehension. Oftentimes poor readers have a slow word per minute
count and have difficulty decoding words, which may in turn lead to
poor comprehension of the text.
Step 9: Do You Read Books?
One very important way to develop fluency in kids is to read books
yourself. When children see adults reading they understand firsthand
the benefits of improving their literacy skills. Discuss books that you
have read together, expand on a particular lesson or theme seen in a
book, and encourage your child to develop a love for reading.
Nicole Brekelbaum is a published author, the
director of Young Achievers
Inc. in Pflugerville, Texas, and founder of Pflugerville Childcare Online.
Visit her company's website at http://www.youngachieversinc.com.
Nicole Brekelbaum may be contacted at http://www.youngachieversinc.com
|
