What reading skills
6 Reading Comprehension Skills | Understood
Some people think of the act of reading as a straightforward task that’s easy to master. In reality, reading is a complex process that draws on many different skills. Together, these skills lead to the ultimate goal of reading: reading comprehension, or understanding what’s been read.
Reading comprehension can be challenging for lots of reasons. Whatever the cause, knowing the skills involved, and which ones your child struggles with, can help you get the right support.
Here are six essential skills needed for , and tips on what can help kids improve this skill.
1. Decoding
Decoding is a vital step in the reading process. Kids use this skill to sound out words they’ve heard before but haven’t seen written out. The ability to do that is the foundation for other reading skills.
Decoding relies on an early language skill called phonemic awareness. (This skill is part of an even broader skill called phonological awareness. ) Phonemic awareness lets kids hear individual sounds in words (known as phonemes). It also allows them to “play” with sounds at the word and syllable level.
Explore topics selected by our experts
Reading and writing
Decoding also relies on connecting individual sounds to letters. For instance, to read the word sun, kids must know that the letter s makes the /s/ sound. Grasping the connection between a letter (or group of letters) and the sounds they typically make is an important step toward “sounding out” words.
What can help: Most kids pick up the broad skill of phonological awareness naturally, by being exposed to books, songs, and rhymes. But some kids don’t. In fact, one of the early signs of reading difficulties is trouble with rhyming, counting syllables, or identifying the first sound in a word.
The best way to help kids with these skills is through specific instruction and practice.
Kids have to be taught how to identify and work with sounds. You can also build phonological awareness at home through activities like word games and reading to your child.
2. Fluency
To read fluently, kids need to instantly recognize words, including words they can’t sound out. Fluency speeds up the rate at which they can read and understand text. It’s also important when kids encounter irregular words, like of and the, which can’t be sounded out.
Sounding out or decoding every word can take a lot of effort. Word recognition is the ability to recognize whole words instantly by sight, without sounding them out.
When kids can read quickly and without making too many errors, they are “fluent” readers.
Fluent readers read smoothly at a good pace. They group words together to help with meaning, and they use the proper tone in their voice when reading aloud. Reading fluency is essential for good reading comprehension.
What can help: Word recognition can be a big obstacle for struggling readers.
Average readers need to see a word four to 14 times before it becomes a “sight word” they automatically recognize. Kids with dyslexia, for instance, may need to see it up to 40 times.
Lots of kids struggle with reading fluency. As with other reading skills, kids need lots of specific instruction and practice to improve word recognition.
The main way to help build fluency is through practice reading books. It’s important to pick out books that are at the right level of difficulty for kids.
3. Vocabulary
To understand what you’re reading, you need to understand most of the words in the text. Having a strong vocabulary is a key component of reading comprehension. Students can learn vocabulary through instruction. But they typically learn the meaning of words through everyday experience and also by reading.
What can help: The more words kids are exposed to, the richer their vocabulary becomes. You can help build your child’s vocabulary by having frequent conversations on a variety of topics.
Try to include new words and ideas. Telling jokes and playing word games is a fun way to build this skill.
Reading together every day also helps improve vocabulary. When reading aloud, stop at new words and define them. But also encourage your child to read alone. Even without hearing a definition of a new word, your child can use context to help figure it out.
Teachers can help, too. They can carefully choose interesting words to teach and then give explicit instruction (instruction that is specialized and direct). They can engage students in conversation. And they can make learning vocabulary fun by playing word games in class.
For more ideas, watch as an expert explains how to help struggling readers build their vocabulary.
4. Sentence construction and cohesion
Understanding how sentences are built might seem like a writing skill. So might connecting ideas within and between sentences, which is called cohesion. But these skills are important for reading comprehension as well.
Knowing how ideas link up at the sentence level helps kids get meaning from passages and entire texts. It also leads to something called coherence, or the ability to connect ideas to other ideas in an overall piece of writing.
What can help: Explicit instruction can teach kids the basics of sentence construction. For example, teachers can work with students on connecting two or more thoughts, through both writing and reading.
5. Reasoning and background knowledge
Most readers relate what they’ve read to what they know. So it’s important for kids to have background or prior knowledge about the world when they read. They also need to be able to “read between the lines” and pull out meaning even when it’s not literally spelled out.
Take this example: A child is reading a story about a poor family in the 1930s. Having knowledge about the Great Depression can provide insight into what’s happening in the story. The child can use that background knowledge to make inferences and draw conclusions.
What can help: Your child can build knowledge through reading, conversations, movies and TV shows, and art. Life experience and hands-on activities also build knowledge.
Expose your child to as much as possible, and talk about what you’ve learned from experiences you’ve had together and separately. Help your child make connections between new knowledge and existing knowledge. And ask open-ended questions that require thinking and explanations.
You can also read a teacher tip on using animated videos to help your child make inferences.
6. Working memory and attention
These two skills are both part of a group of abilities known as executive function. They’re different but closely related.
When kids read, attention allows them to take in information from the text. Working memory allows them to hold on to that information and use it to gain meaning and build knowledge from what they’re reading.
The ability to self-monitor while reading is also tied to that.
Kids need to be able to recognize when they don’t understand something. Then they need to stop, go back, and re-read to clear up any confusion they may have.
What can help: There are many ways you can help improve your child’s working memory. Skillbuilders don’t have to feel like work, either. There are a number of games and everyday activities that can build working memory without kids even knowing it.
To help increase your child’s attention, look for reading material that’s interesting or motivating. For example, some kids may like graphic novels. Encourage your child to stop and re-read when something isn’t clear. And demonstrate how you “think aloud” when you read to make sure what you’re reading makes sense.
More ways to help with reading comprehension
When kids struggle with one or more of these skills, they can have trouble fully understanding what they read. Find out how to tell if your child has difficulty with reading comprehension.
Learn about what can cause trouble with reading in kids.
Keep in mind that having reading difficulties doesn’t mean a child isn’t smart. But some kids need extra support and encouragement to make progress.
Key takeaways
Decoding, fluency, and vocabulary skills are key to reading comprehension.
Being able to connect ideas within and between sentences helps kids understand the whole text.
Reading aloud and talking about experiences can help kids build reading skills.
Related topics
Reading and writing
Types of Reading Skills | PlanetSpark
-
How To Help Your Child Become A Better Reader
Reading is the foundation for success. When children develop reading habit early in their lives, they are more likely to be successful in school, work, and life in general.
That said, learning to read isn’t always an easy task for children, and that’s why it is crucial that you, as a parent, work with your child and encourage the habit of reading early in their lives.
Get Started
Spend time with them to ensure that your child develops the following essential reading skills.
8 Essential Skills for Reading Success
The different types of reading skills are:
Decoding
Decoding is the ability to sound out words children have heard before but haven’t seen written out. This is a vital step in the reading process as it forms the foundation for other reading skills.
Decoding heavily relies on an early language skill called phonemic awareness. Phonemic awareness is the ability to hear and manipulate different sounds into words. Children develop this awareness when learning about syllables, words, and sounds (phonemes).
Phonics
Phonics is the ability to recognize the connection between sounds and letters they make. This process of mapping the sounds in words to written words is a very important reading skill. Children first decode the words into sounds and encode the sounds into words as they write and spell.
Vocabulary
A good vocabulary is a fundamental part of academic success. This reading skill is necessary to understand the meaning of words, their definitions, and their context.
The more words a child knows, the better they are at reading and understanding the texts they read.
Fluency
Fluency is the ability to read aloud with understanding, accuracy, and speed. It is a skill needed for good reading comprehension. Kids fluent in reading know how to read smoothly, at a good pace, using proper tone, and without making too many errors.
Sentence Construction & Cohesion
Sentence construction and cohesion may seem like a writing skill, but it’s an essential reading skill. Connecting ideas between and within the sentences are called cohesion, and these skills are essential for reading comprehension.
Reading Comprehension
Understand the meaning of the text – both in storybooks and information books.
In fiction books, children imagine the characters and share an emotional and adventurous journey with them. In non-fiction books, children gain new information, which deepens their understanding of new topics and concepts. Reading comprehension is a complex skill that requires time and practice to develop fully.Reasoning & Background Knowledge
This skill helps the child use the background knowledge to make inferences and draw conclusions. Most readers can relate what they have read to what they know. They can also read between the lines to pull out the information when it’s not literally spelled out in the text.
Working Memory & Attention
These skills are closely related but different and are part of a group of abilities known as executive function. When children read, attention helps them absorb the information from the text, and working memory allows them to retain that information. This helps them gain meaning and build knowledge from what they read.
4 Different Types of Reading Techniques
Skimming
Skimming, sometimes referred to as gist reading, means going through the text to grasp the main idea. Here, the reader doesn’t pronounce each and every word of the text but focuses their attention on the main theme or the core of the text. Examples of skimming are reading magazines or newspapers and searching for a name in a telephone directory.
Scanning
Here, the reader quickly scuttles across sentences to get to a particular piece of information. Scanning involves the technique of rejecting or ignoring irrelevant information from the text to locate a specific piece of information.
Intensive Reading
Intensive reading is far more time-consuming than skimming and scanning as it needs the reader’s attention to detail. It involves close reading that aims at the accuracy of comprehension. Here, the reader has to understand the meaning of each and every word.
Extensive reading
Extensive reading lays more emphasis on fluency and less on accuracy. It usually involves reading for pleasure and is more of an out-of-classroom activity. It is highly unlikely for readers to take up the extensive reading of text they do not like.
4 Common Reading Problems
Issues with decoding
Beginner readers may struggle when they meet new or unfamiliar terms, but typically decoding becomes easier with repeated practice of reading the text out loud. If a child continues to struggle, there may be an underlying difficulty or a physical impairment that does not allow them to hear the sounds or see the letters.
Poor comprehension of reading skills
Some children can read like a pro but may not be able to tell you what they have read. This indicates a problem of incomprehension. These children may find the same difficulty when their teachers or parents read aloud.
Speed
The more children read, the more they expand their vocabulary. They begin to recognize more words by sight, enabling them to read faster. If speed is the issue with your child, slow processing of information could be the problem. Since reading is a cognitively demanding task, it involves holding information in the mind while continuously processing the text. This can exhaust the children with slow processing. Such children may require extra time to complete tasks that require extensive reading.
Mixed reading difficulties
Mixed reading problems in kids include decoding words and difficulty with comprehension. They have challenges when it comes to reading words, retaining information, and understanding the text. These problems could be due to a reading disorder. Although some kids learn slower than others, if you notice any difficulty that affects your child’s daily life, it should be evaluated by a professional.
-
How to Improve Reading Skills of a Child
Whatever reading problems your child is going through, there are always ways to help. Here are some ways you can help your child overcome their reading problems:
- Take note of what you are seeing when your child is reading. When you observe your child, you may start seeing patterns. Talk with your child’s teacher or caregiver to find out if they have observed something similar.
- Work on building reading skills at home. Teach sight words for fluency and quick recall. Use flashcards, point out words on the hoardings, brand names, or store names
- Always remember that if your child is struggling with any skill, it can make them feel inferior, and that can take a toll on their self-esteem. As your child works on their reading skills, make sure you praise their efforts and celebrate their small wins.
- Choose books that contain detailed visual illustrations to help your child connect the text with the scene.
- Get your child enrolled in online classes. PlanetSpark’s programme uses the essential skills for reading success to unlock all aspects of reading focusing on phonics, comprehension, vocabulary, phonemic awareness, and reading for meaning.
5 Key Skills for Reading
Teachers and parents today are fortunate to have access to a wealth of evidence-based research on what works in teaching children to read.
Because of this, we know that teaching children to read, their ability to learn, and their ability to become proficient readers depends on the five key skills that we bring you today.
From birth
The literacy rate of children begins to develop long before the child goes to school. Even the youngest children can begin to be prepared to successfully learn to read. Research has identified skills that are important for literacy development:
-
knowledge of the sound of letters
-
knowledge of letter names
-
speech sound control
-
remembering what was heard
Childhood
From kindergarten through grade 3, young readers actively develop all five key reading skills, from phonemic awareness to reading comprehension.
Studies have shown that learning to read during this period requires a certain combination of techniques and strategies. Teachers and parents must understand how children learn and must adapt teaching methods to the individual student's abilities.
This is especially important when it comes to children who have difficulty learning to read.
1. Phonemic perception is the ability to perceive a word as a sequence of phonemes - the smallest units of sound that affect the meaning of words. Phonemes are speech sounds represented by the letters of the alphabet.
2. Phoneme decoding - the ability to identify new words by rebuilding groups of letters back into the sounds they represent, link them into a word and learn its meaning.
As challenging as reading is, thanks to advances in neuroscience and technology, we can now target key learning centers in the brain and identify areas and neural pathways that the brain uses to read.
Not only do we understand why experienced readers read well and novice readers struggle with reading, but we can also help any reader on the journey from early language acquisition to reading and reading comprehension - it all happens in the brain.
Adolescence
Even though the child has already mastered the skills of phonemic perception and decoding, reading comprehension difficulties can often arise at this age. In middle and high school, literacy is formed not only in the language sphere, but also in the development of other disciplines.
In order to prepare a student for high school, teachers and parents need to focus on developing the three skills necessary for reading: vocabulary, fluent reading, and reading comprehension.
Skills needed to understand the meaning of what is read:
3. Vocabulary - understanding words in a text, including the meaning of words depending on the context.
4. Fluent reading is the ability to read text easily and accurately in such a way that attention is focused on understanding the meaning of what is read, and not on reading technique.
5. Reading comprehension - the ability to analyze the meaning of each part of the text, building an understanding of the whole text, and the ability to reason about its meaning and message.
Retrieved
If you notice your child is having trouble reading, they may need extra help. Created by eminent neuroscientists, FAST FORWORD will quickly and permanently help your child develop all of the above skills and overcome reading and learning difficulties.
Don't delay helping your child! Learn more about the methodology and sign up for trial online classes, because it costs nothing!
Ask for details
Useful material? Share with friends!
Building Reading Skills in Primary School Children
1. INTRODUCTION
“PUT YOUR HEART IN READING” is a saying of Khordi, an Egyptian who lived more than 5,500,000 years ago.
Throughout the history of the development of our society, it is reading that has invariably attracted the best minds of mankind. Descartes, Voltaire, Schiller, Goethe, Dostoevsky, Pushkin, Tolstoy and many others were not only great writers, but also great readers. Their work has become an invaluable contribution to world culture, while at the same time forming a love of reading among ordinary readers.
Today, sociologists around the world believe that modern society is faced with an acute problem - people do not want to read! And an important role in solving this issue, in my opinion, is given to teachers.
People under whose professional and sensitive guidance the child masters the first reading skills.
2. THE CONCEPT OF READING.
Reading is a rather complicated psychophysiological process. It involves visual, speech and auditory analyzers. What is reading? To many, this question will seem rather stupid ... And yet, any teacher who teaches children to read should start with this very question.
In modern pedagogy and psychology, the ability to read is divided into four main interrelated levels:
- At the first (elementary) level, a child learns to recognize letters, put them into syllables, and then into words.
- On the second read aloud.
- At the third, he learns to read "to himself."
- On the fourth, react to what you have read, analyze and think critically.
In order to teach a child to read, you need to go through all these levels with him, professionally applying certain methods and teaching certain skills.
Perhaps the most important task of an elementary school teacher is to develop a child's reading skills, which will later become the foundation for further education.
3. THE CONCEPT OF READING SKILL.
Probably, there is no teacher who would not dream of teaching all his students to read well! If a child fully masters all the reading skills, he will receive a stable base for learning not only in the primary grades, but also in the future. He can easily master the program material at all stages of training.
For the formation of reading skills in younger preschoolers, you need to remember four of its components:
- Correctness - smooth reading without distortions that affect the meaning of what is being read.
- Fluency Reading speed or technique in relation to reading comprehension. This speed is measured by the number of printed characters read per unit of time (usually the number of words per minute).
- Consciousness - first of all, an understanding of the author's idea, his intention, an understanding of artistic techniques that help in the implementation of this idea, and an understanding of one's own attitude to what is read.
- Expressiveness is the ability to convey the main idea of the work, as well as personal attitude to it, by means of oral speech. The main signs of mastering the skill of expressive reading are:
- the ability to observe pauses and put logical stresses that convey the author's intention;
- the ability to observe the intonation of a question, statement, and also to give the voice the necessary emotional coloring;
- good diction, clear, distinct pronunciation of sounds, sufficient volume and tempo.
All qualities, of course, are interconnected and are formed on the basis of the development of all cognitive processes: perception, attention, memory and thinking.
They go through certain stages of development.
4. Stages of formation of reading skills in younger students.
In practice, children of primary school age go through three stages in the development of reading skills. Namely:
Analytical is the initial stage and it is characterized by a certain fragmentation of the reading components. Recognizing a letter, pronouncing it in a syllable and linking several syllables. Those. reading by syllables. Usually, children go through this stage along with literacy. But here the teacher is advised to remember that each child is unique in general development and in mastering reading skills as well.
Synthetic - this stage is characterized by the synthesis of the main components of reading. Pronunciation, perception and comprehension of what the child reads occurs almost simultaneously. During this period, the child begins to read in whole words. But the most important thing is the presence of a certain intonation.
The correct intonation will appear only if the general meaning is understood and held in the mind. From work experience I can say that this happens in the second year of study.
9009Stage 5 automation - at this last stage, reading is brought almost to automatism and all attention is directed to the text itself, its form, content, semantic coloring. Moreover, guessing the meaning of the text often goes ahead of the reading itself. It is at this moment that children have a desire to read “to themselves”. The child reacts very directly and emotionally to what he reads.
After many years of working with children, I came to the conclusion that it is possible and necessary to go through all these stages in elementary school. But for this, it is necessary to provide such a mode of work in which the child will invariably have a desire to master reading. First of all, the very working atmosphere in the classroom should be conducive to learning. The child should not be afraid to make a mistake or look stupid.
The texts offered to the child should be selected taking into account the psychophysical characteristics of the children and taking into account the observance of the phased approach, from simple to complex. Be sure to carry out work to prevent erroneous reading. Well, the most important thing is the daily exercise in reading. This idea should certainly be conveyed to parents, since modern programs do not include reading lessons every day. In addition, I noticed that in a family in which parents read a lot, children who read usually also grow up. The process of becoming a reader in such children runs more smoothly and quickly.
5. DEVELOPMENT OF THE SKILLS OF CORRECT, FLUENT, CONSCIOUS AND EXPRESSIVE READING IN CHILDREN OF PRIMARY SCHOOL AGE.
For more than one year I have been working on the topic “Forming the skills of correct, fluent, conscious and expressive reading in children of primary school age”. A huge amount of literature and methodologies on this issue has been reviewed.
And this is what I came to the conclusion that it is advisable to form reading skills in younger students in conjunction. It is simply criminal to develop the skills of only fluent reading and relegate to the background the skills of conscious, correct or expressive reading.
A) At the beginning of the first year I practice the so-called breathing exercises:
- Guys, let's imagine that we are blowing out candles on a birthday cake. There are a lot of them and you need to blow out every single one (children take a deep breath and many small exhalations, each for a candle).
- Imagine that we are in a flowering meadow. How many flowers are here! Feel their scent! (children breathe in and out smoothly)
- Let's count! (children take a deep breath and, as they exhale, begin to count. The count is kept until the air runs out).
B) During this period, one should not forget about the speech apparatus, which needs constant training. Usually I use the BLOCK reading method:
1 BLOCK (this is the reading of two-letter combinations)
ke cha you then ta tu ty
You can make a lot of such blocks, it will not be difficult.
2 BLOCK (this is the reading of three-letter combinations)
Bar kor tyk noise crowbar khor pak rak
Ama ole usha ele yula ino yazy omo
Kor rot lom hoktan meh dur rut
3 BLOCK (these are words that end with 2 or more consonants)
Korkh burk clang backlash brain borscht walrus
Korzh kurp porsch mark nimbus chord
There can be many such blocks. In addition to those already listed, I use blocks with doubled consonants at the beginning of a word, in the middle of a word. Blocks with vocabulary words. Here the teacher is given a wide field for activity.
C) The next thing I would like to dwell on is diction. Distinctness in the pronunciation of sounds is most quickly and efficiently worked out in tongue twisters. This method is not only effective, but (according to the children, which is important) very fun.
- Senka is carrying Sanka and Sonya on a sled.
Sledge jump, Senka from his feet, Sanka - to the side,
Sonya on the forehead, all in a snowdrift - clap
- The mouse whispers to the mouse:
"You are still rustling, you are not sleeping.
"
The little mouse whispers to the mouse:
"I will rustle more quietly."
- Lyosha clumsy
Plunged into a puddle.
Torn and soaked his pants,
Stuffed a big bump on his forehead.
You can start with one tongue twister and gradually add others.
D) EXPRESSIVE READING.
We often hear that teachers demand expressive reading from their students. There is no doubt that the very concept of expressive reading is very multifaceted! And in many respects the ability to expressively read depends on life experience, on experienced emotions. Since this baggage is not great for children of the primary level, the work on expressive reading is just beginning.
In my practice, I begin this work with the formation of 3 skills:
- The ability to choose the right intonation (express joy, grief, regret, sadness ...)
- The ability to choose the desired pace of reading (slow and smooth, fast and rhythmic, or their alternation)
- Ability to place logical stresses.
In developing the skill of expressive reading, the book by O.V. Like many others, I took a lot of work material from this book
E) DEVELOPMENT OF READING SKILLS.
To say that a high reading fluency is very important is probably not worth it! This is clear to everyone! This is especially evident when a child moves from primary to secondary school. The quantitative load on the subjects increases many times and for the successful assimilation of the material, its timely synthesis and analysis, it is simply necessary to have a high reading technique. Work on the technique of reading begins to be carried out (and this is reasonable) even at the initial link. V.N. Zaitsev in his work “Reserves for Teaching Reading” says that the reading speed of 120 words per minute is quite accessible to most students. Then the following question arises: how to get to this level, how to achieve this speed - the optimal speed, what training reserves can be used here?
I use different tricks:
- Buzzing reading (undertone reading)
- Loud reading.
- Reading in a whisper.
- Reading in the teacher's ear.
- Reading in pairs.
- Reading to a desk mate.
- Gentle reading mode.
- Reading at the pace of tongue twisters.
- Choral reading.
I often try to include competitive moments in my work, students like them and are perceived with a bang:
- Competitive reading by desks.
- Competitive reading in rows.
- Between a strong student and a class.
- Between class and teacher.
- Repeated reading with transition to an unfamiliar part of the text.
Taking into account the psychophysical development of younger preschoolers, for whom not so long ago the leading activity was not educational, but play activity, I necessarily include play teaching methods:
- "What's next?" (you need to finish the word, the first syllable of which I show on the card).
- "Let's play theater" (reading by roles, observing the tempo, intonation).
- "Find the missing" (search for a missing word in the text).
- For the first class I often use the game "Live Stones".
For each child, starting from the first grade, I recommend starting a diary on reading technique. It will clearly show the dynamics of growth or give a signal about the backlog and timely work with each student. In my opinion, the method of self-control and mutual control is very effective.
Good results in learning to read can only be achieved through systematic reading. You need to set a goal for the child - a reading speed of 120 words per minute and track the achievement of this goal. Do it in such a way that the child himself is interested in achieving such a result.
I try for each child, based on his psychophysical type, to select a specific work according to the text. From the first grade, I organize study tours to the district library, printing house, TV and radio studio. All this broadens the horizons of students, gives new food for the mind, vivid emotions.
6. Conclusion.
The purpose of this article is to systematize reading skills in children of primary school age. Acquaintance with own experience. I hope my colleagues will consider it worthy of attention, and maybe they will discover something new for themselves. I wish you good luck on the difficult path of enlightenment!
7. LIST OF REFERENCES USED.
- E.S. Likhtenstein "Word about the book" (Aphorisms, sayings) M., 1984, p.3
- M.R. Lvov "School of creative thinking" Study guide. M., 1993
- O.V. Kruglova "100 tongue twisters to improve diction", Ed. Phoenix, 2016
- T.A. Kulikovskaya "Speech therapy tongue twisters and counting rhymes" Speech material for automating sounds in children. Publisher, Gnome 2016
- E.V. Lapteva "1000 Russian tongue twisters for the development of speech: a study guide." Publishing house, Astrel 2012
- V.N.Zaitsev "Reserves for teaching reading", M.
Learn more
