The Process of Reading

As much as 33% of the population still cannot read. Quite a number of children pick up the ability to read, quite well, even while not being taught. Some children however struggle through it. For these children, a systematic process must be followed in order to ensure that they will be able to read. Here are a few things to take into consideration. Liking it – some children love it, some children do not. If children are allowed to read more regularly and have access to material they are interested in, they might cultivate a liking to it. Let your children choose the books they want to read. Phonics – children need to understand how the reading process works. You need to teach them the individual sounds, how to break up words into syllables, putting sounds together to make a complete word. All this kind of phonemic awareness is absolutely necessary. It must be instilled in them from the very first reading stages. Phonics and decoding – children must be taught the different sounds the letters in the alphabet represent. They must be able to ‘decode’ words, be able to understand the relationship between individual letters and put it together. Fluency – in order to read fluently, this process of decoding must happen fairly rapidly. Once this is in place, then other factors like attention and the memory process are necessary to understand what exactly is being read. Fluency in reading is necessary for your child to have good comprehension skills. You must encourage your child to read independently. Building knowledge – at early stages, read as much material as possible with your child. Help build up their knowledge base. The more they read, the more they will know about the world, and be able to better comprehend new reading material. Vocabulary – a larger vocabulary means better comprehension levels. Children pick up new words while they read, and more reading means a better vocabulary.