Emerging readers must first develop phonemic awareness. Phonemic awareness is the recognition that words are made up of sounds, that the letters in a word translate into sounds. Since the English language is alphabetic, readers need the ability to translate letters, parts of words and words into spoken sounds. Beginning decoding skills include understanding rhyming words, syllables and word patterns. Word patterns are word families such as "book" and "look," or "cat" and "hat." Readers must then learn to blend the sounds into complete words. Phonics, matching sounds to written words, follows the development of phonemic awareness.
Preschoolers learn phonemic awareness through nursery rhymes, poems, songs and read-aloud books. Teachers and parents may play letter games to help students learn the alphabet. Use magnetic letters, or have students highlight the letters they are learning in a poem or nursery rhyme. Ask students to count out or clap out the number of sounds they hear in a word. Try the same technique to count syllables. Have children sort pictures of objects according to beginning, ending and middle sounds. Teach blending by first breaking up the sounds, then instructing students to put the word back together, saying the word quickly.
Be on the lookout for signs of a struggling reader:
- is unable to recognize word patterns
- ignores middle or ending sounds
- guesses at the word based only on first sound
- demonstrates poor memory skills, and cannot remember letter names
- cannot match letters to corresponding sounds
- breaks up words in a choppy manner rather than blending smoothly
- does not spell phonetically
- reads slowly and in a labored manner
- avoids reading
Once the student has mastered decoding, fluency and comprehension should follow. However, some children may be excellent decoders, but cannot understand or retain what they have read. These students must focus on fluency and comprehension to become proficient readers.