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REINFORCING CRITICAL READING SKILLS
We will evaluate your child’s core reading skills and develop an individualized learning plan to focus on identified weaknesses. Explicit instruction is available in the following skill areas:
Whenever a parent brings their child to me because he or she is struggling with reading, I assess them for phonological awareness and phonemic awareness, both essential skills for successful reading. Phonological awareness is the ability to hear and manipulate spoken parts of language, e.g., sentences, words, syllables and, critically, individual sounds. The ability to hear and manipulate individual sounds is known as Phonemic Awareness, a skill critical to both reading and spelling success.
PHONOLOGICAL & PHONEMIC AWARENESS
WORD DECODING AND PHONICS
Phonics refers to the relationship between sounds and their spellings. Phonics instruction teaches students the most common sound-spelling relationships so that they can decode, or sound out, words. Decoding involves taking apart the sounds in words (segmenting) and blending them back together. The ability to decode quickly and accurately is crucial for good reading.
VOCABULARY
Reading vocabulary refers to the words that a student can read and understand. Students learn the meaning of most words through everyday experiences. There is a strong relationship between vocabulary knowledge and reading comprehension; students need to understand the meaning of high impact words through carefully designed vocabulary instruction.
FLUENCY
Fluency is the ability to read with speed, accuracy, and proper expression. In order to understand what they read, children must be able to read fluently whether they are reading aloud or silently. Students whose reading is slow and inaccurate will have trouble meeting the reading demands of their grade level.
COMPREHENSION
The ultimate goal of reading is to extract meaning. Comprehension is the understanding and interpretation of what is read and the ability to connect with what the reader already knows. Comprehension is influenced by the successful acquisition of critical reading skills; phonological and phonemic awareness, word decoding and phonics, vocabulary and fluency.
