Reading skills

Topic: Reading skills

Reading is a very critical skill to all human kind both the hearing and those individuals with hearing impairments. It is a communicative skill which allows one to appreciate what others have written in print. Reading is very important because it enables one to access information, read for pleasure as a way of relaxing, get direction among others.
To be able to read, we need to be able to:

identify the words we see (word recognition);
understand what they mean (comprehension);
connect words and their meaning so that reading is automatic and accurate (fluency)
Pre-reading skills are the skills children need in order to help them to become a reader. Many of these skills are learnt naturally, during the course of a normal childhood, at home and in the nursery/preschool environment. By talking and reading with your child, you will be doing a great deal to help these essential skills to develop.

Matching: When we read, part of what we do involves matching. Children learn to match shapes, patterns, letters and, finally, words.

Rhyming: Research shows that children who can understand about rhyming words have a head start in learning to read and, even more, to spell.
Letter skills: As well as recognising letter shapes, learning the most common sounds that each letter makes will give children a head start.

Direction: Print goes from left to right, so children will need to be familiar with where to start each line and which direction to go in.

Components of Reading skills:

· Phonics: The relationship between written and spoken letters and sounds.

· Phonological awareness: The knowledge and manipulation of sounds in spoken words.

· Fluency: The ability to read with accuracy and with appropriate rate, expression and phrasing

· Vocabulary: The knowledge of words, their definition and context

· Comprehension: The overall understanding i.e. the meaning of the text

Components of Reading skills:

· Phonics: The relationship between written and spoken letters and sounds.

· Phonological awareness: The knowledge and manipulation of sounds in spoken words.

· Fluency: The ability to read with accuracy and with appropriate rate, expression and phrasing

· Vocabulary: The knowledge of words, their definition and context

· Comprehension: The overall understanding i.e. the meaning of te text.

Six Things Parents Can Do to Promote Reading Readiness

1. Help your child hear speech all day with consistent amplification (hearing aids, implants, and FM systems).
2. Help your child develop “text awareness” by pointing to words as well as pictures as you read books to your child.
3. Talk about sounds in words. Change a letter in a word to create a word that rhymes.
4. List words that start with the same sound as your child’s name (phonemic awareness).
5. Talk about synonyms and antonyms.
6. Help your child hear speech all day with consistent amplification.

Froala Editor

Discuss a useful next step for your child