Reading Before Reading

What is considered fluent reading? Well, reading fluency consists of three components including: 1. high degree of accuracy, 2. speed and 3. prosody. It is true that a reader who demonstrates two of these three components will leave their listener lacking and unable to fully comprehend what was read. A fluent reader will make few decoding mistakes and this skill is often the most recognized and praised amongst beginning readers while speed or rate of reading is not far behind on the list of importance. However, a reader can read with accuracy and speed and not comprehend the text. Prosody, the true act of freely reading and appreciating textural language, happens when decoding and comprehension come together. Prosody is the goal of reading. It is reading with proper pauses, intonations, rhythm - all thing that demonstrate ease of text as well as comprehension of text. Hence, there are three components to fluent reading.

Now that we know what a fluent reader is, what can we do to help our readers who are not yet reading become fluent? Let me makes some suggestions.
  • Model fluent reading. Read aloud to your reader and love doing it. It is recommended you read up to two grade levels above your readers independent reading level is when reading aloud.
  • Echo reading. You read something and your child echos your words. Remember to never force children to echo back. A great book for echo reading: I Went Walking by Sue William or Dinosaur Roar.
  • Paired reading. Read the text together at the same time. Choose a book with a repetitive phrase with strong rhythm. A great book for paired reading: Brown Bear Brown Bear by Eric Carle.
  • Choral reading. This is when a group or class read the text together. The teacher, or better reader, sets the pace. This is a good way to learn sight words.

  • Chants. Chant is the rhythmic speaking or singing of words or sounds on one or two pitches such as a melody with only one or two notes. Chants are often repetitive but can have highly complex musical structures. By turning a simple sentence into a chant (keeping the same words) you are adding a musical component giving your soon-to-be reader an additional learning strategy.

  • Read along with audio disc. When you read along with an audio disc, you are listening to fluent reading - reading with accuracy, proper speed, and prosody - all the while you are watching the words and looking at the pictures. This is a great way to assist comprehension.
  • Poetry. Poetry has been described before as the highest form of literature. Poetry adds elements to reading comprehension by offering more meaning than is explained or given to the reader. Poetry contains diverse levels of complexity but almost always is some implication and interpretation of the text required to get meaning from its words and sentences. A child who is introduced to age-appropriate poetry while still young will be better equipped to interpret and get meaning from various kinds of texts.

Read to your child everyday. You cannot do more to prepare your child for a lifetime of learning than to develop in them a love for reading. Let them participate in reading in various ways including echo reading, paired reading, or chants. Give them lots of examples and kinds of texts to love including poetry. Read what they can understand. Read. And then they too will read.

Late talker? Get Barking!

It's interesting to see the differences between parents' of late talkers. Some worry early, some don't worry at all because after all, Einstein didn't talk until he was three years old, right?  Well, that may be so, but I think it is safe to say that Einstein was not typical!  On the other hand, many children don't pop those words right out right just when their parents want them too, or when their siblings did, and that's okay too.

For the parent of a late talker, I would absolutely recommend getting their child tested by a speech language pathologist.  It doesn't hurt to know where your kid is at, and you can always decide how you want to handle it. Any state in the United States currently has free services for getting a child under three tested, and depending on the results, possibly free services.  This is due to the fact that early intervention is often effective.  It is much better to take care of things sooner rather than later!  In the meantime, what can you do to help that slow talker?  For those who are pretty quiet and say very little at all, here's one simple tip that may help get them going: Imitation.

Notice if your child imitates you either vocally or physically.  This is a good thing! Try to make a game out of imitation.  If your child will imitate sounds you make, encourage this.  Start with simple sounds, even just a vowel sound, like /a/.  If he makes a sound on his own, repeat that sound and look at him expectantly to see if he will repeat you back.  If she touches your hand, touch her hand back and look expectantly to see if  she will touch your hand back.  Imitation is a foundation of speech, it is how we all learn to talk, by listening and imitating others.  If your child imitates words this could be even better--perhaps they would use these words on their own at some point.

Another fun way to imitate is with animal sounds.  Many kids are interested in animals and so this can be quite motivating.  Kids also may view animal sounds less as "talking" and so may feel less pressure to try it out. If your child says animal sounds this is GREAT, it's a good opportunity for them to develop the same speech sounds that occur in words! Practicing imitating things others say is important for developing speech and language and can be practiced in many ways, including imitating vocalizations, gestures, or animal sounds.  What ways can you think of to get your child to play copycat?  Don't forget to have FUN!