Reading fluency refers to the ability to read quickly, accurately, and with expression. When your child reads with fluency, their reading is smooth rather than choppy. Instead of spending all their mental energy decoding unknown words, fluent readers can focus on understanding what they read.
When your child first starts reading, each word takes mental energy to decode. Your child may use phonics skills to sound out each letter within a word, then blend them together to figure out what that word is. This is a magical stage of development where your learner is unlocking the power of the written word, but it also can be hard work! When listening to your child read aloud word-by-word and sound-by-sound, you’ll notice their voice sounds stilted and unnatural because they are focused on the process of decoding. As your child’s skills grow, their reading flows together and sounds more like natural speech. These stronger decoding skills allow them to focus on improving reading fluency.
Gaining meaning from the text, of course, is the goal of reading. But how does your child switch from sounding out individual words to reading words automatically? It’s through a process called orthographic mapping..
Reading fluency happens as your child develops orthographic mapping skills. Orthographic mapping is the process our brains use to store and retrieve words in our long-term memories based on the words’ visual representation, or orthography. During orthographic mapping, our brains automatically connect words’ pronunciation, spelling, and meaning. This process helps us to understand how children read fluently, spell correctly, and learn vocabulary.
Even as adults, our brains use orthographic mapping. For example, let’s say the word orthographic was a new one to you. As an adult reader, your brain may have broken that word down into two parts—ortho and graphic—or even into recognizable syllables: or-tho-graph-ic. Regardless, once you started reading the word over and over in this paragraph, your brain began mapping the word. It mapped the word’s spelling and its meaning so that you could recognize the word automatically. (Don’t worry, there won’t be a test later.)
When children gain automaticity in reading—when they recognize the words they read automatically, without sounding them out—that is orthographic mapping at work. To reach this stage, children need to have a strong knowledge of the alphabetic principle, phonemic awareness, letter-sound relationships, and parts of words. Reading development starts by using knowledge of phonetics to recognize individual sounds in words and then blending those sounds together. As students become fluent, they recognize words automatically.
It’s this process that makes fluent reading possible.
Fluency makes reading fun! Fluent readers no longer struggle to sound out every word, so they have an easier time understanding what they are reading.
When your child becomes a fluent reader and they’re reading about something they enjoy, reading becomes a pleasurable activity rather than work. It may take longer for some children to reach this stage, but guided help for struggling readers can help them foster a love of books and reading.
In addition to making reading quicker and more joyful, reading fluency also improves reading comprehension. Fluent readers can focus on understanding what they read by retelling, inferring, and making connections to the text. So even if they’re reading about a subject that they don’t find particularly interesting, they’ll still be able to understand and learn from the information on the page. This will aid their learning in all kinds of subjects and promote academic success in the future.
Becoming a fluent reader doesn’t happen overnight. But there are strategies you can use to help your child develop reading fluency. Try using a variety of these approaches with your child.
To help children develop fluency skills, start by modeling fluent reading. Read aloud to your child regularly so that they can get a sense of what fluent reading sounds like. Put on your playacting hat and show your child how to read with expression by using different voices for characters. Take a moment to point out punctuation and explain how it changes what you’re expressing.
Repeated reading encourages children to read the same passage or text multiple times. By reading the same text repeatedly, children can develop fluency because they are mapping the words to their memory. When supporting your child with repeated reading, have them read a passage or text aloud to you. During the first reading of the text, encourage them to focus on accurately decoding the words. Encourage them to read the text again, but to focus on reading more quickly while still maintaining accuracy. As children can read with more ease, they can focus their next readings on using expression and correct intonation so that their reading sounds more like natural speech.
Echo reading is another strategy you can use to model reading fluency. Start by reading aloud a sentence with expression, then having your child read the same sentence with expression. Move on to larger chunks of text, with the goal of you reading one page of text, and then having your child read the same page after you.
While echo reading involves children reading the same text immediately after you, you can also have them read at the same time as you. Encourage your child to chorally read with you by reading the same text at the same time. You can also use this strategy with an e-book or audiobook. As your child listens to the text, they should say the words along with the recorded voice.
As your child becomes an independent reader, they will develop accuracy, speed, and automaticity through practice. Encourage your child to read aloud to you and note their use of expression. Ask your child questions about the text they read aloud to confirm their comprehension.
Act out short scripts or plays with your child. This can be a great way to practice reading with expression using different character’s voices. Reading the script multiple times helps your child get experience with repeated reading and develop fluency.
As reading skills grow, your child will switch from focusing on decoding each sound in words to reading fluently. Fluency is about way more than just reading quickly—it encompasses reading fluidly with expression and proper intonation. The best way to support your child’s reading fluency development is to read with them regularly (both reading aloud and having your child read aloud to you) and to talk about what you’ve read together. As children develop reading fluency skills, they not only become proficient readers but also develop an appreciation for the joy of reading.
One way to help children develop fluency is to increase the number of words they can recognize by sight, especially words that don’t follow typical phonetic patterns. These are known as sight words. As children develop orthographic mapping skills, they will recognize many words automatically. So, in a sense, all words are sight words. But the term generally refers to tough-to-decode words taught explicitly for children to recognize and read by sight.
The term high-frequency words is sometimes used interchangeably with sight words, but they have slightly different meanings. Sight words often have irregular spelling and/or do not follow phonetic rules. High-frequency words are words that appear often in texts. Some high-frequency words are sight words, but others can be sounded out. The more words children can decode independently, the better, so it can be helpful to focus on both high-frequency words and sight words.
Engaging in fluency-building activities with your child, whether it’s reading a sight word poem together or playing a word game, can make a real difference in their reading progress. As their fluency improves, be sure to look for books that are not too difficult but still challenge them slightly, so that they continue to use their decoding skills. Most of all, keep making reading time a priority!
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Reading is an essential skill that lets us unlock meaning from written words.
The ability to identify and work with the smallest units of sound in spoken words.
Phonics teaches children how letters in print represent individual sounds in spoken language.
The ability to understand and use a variety of words is one of the keys to reading success.
Phonics skills can also help readers translate speech to print.
Understanding the meaning of what is written on the page is the goal of every reader.
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