Phonics instruction is the time in which children learn short vowels, long vowels and all of the different phonics elements. It is in this area that children start to develop their word recognition. If children have a difficult time recognizing words and being able to read them, they have a gap somewhere in their phonics knowledge. If your child struggles with word recognition, go to her teacher and ask that she administer a phonemic awareness assessment, as well as a phonics assessment. This will tell exactly where a child's gap is. Request that your child be given a small group intervention based on the areas she is lacking. The intervention your child receives is typically about 30 minutes a day, five days a week. It is imperative that educators catch this early. If your child is older (3rd grade and up) and struggles with word recognition, the intervention time is typically about an extra hour a day.
Sometimes children are able to grasp the phonics elements that are taught in first grade, but as they move on, they begin to struggle with applying it to multi-syllabic words. These are words that are more than one syllable long. As they encounter longer words in their reading, they begin to struggle because they don't know how to break the words up. Children need to have direct instruction in the different syllable types and syllable patterns. Instruction in multi-syllabic words begins in late first grade and up. If your child is a third grader and older and struggles with word recognition, go to her teacher and ask that she be placed in an intervention group for multi-syllabic word reading.
If a child has difficulty with word recognition, this in turn effects how he comprehends text. A child needs to receive direct instruction in prefixes, suffixes and root words. When the child knows the meaning of the 50 most common prefixes and suffixes, it will in turn help him with recognizing words. When a child encounters larger words in print, he will be able to identify any prefixes, suffixes or root words and then be able to break the larger word in to smaller pieces and decode (or read) the larger word.