Reading Immersion or Reading To Children

You would think reading immersion would be the last step, but no we are only halfway there. Many parents are actually reading to children at this point which is great motivation unless it is used as a crutch.  Assuming you have a phonics system that has handled the vowel confusion you can immerse your child in reading. The more they read the faster they gain stamina, recognized words and fluency.

Initially, you start with one word games that check if they know the meaning of the word. One favorite is word find where you have a list of words after the child decodes one they search for the prize hidden there. In finding the prize they have demonstrated they understand the word. Also they read and then they run so it’s a good balance between movement and reading. After a while their ability to blend will speed up. Now, you can advance to blending phrases and then sentences. Some of the same games can be played reading a phrase like under the chair. We then progress to jokes, riddles, Simon Says because we don’t know which games your child will enjoy. 

Children Reading Leads To Fluency 

Our main purpose here is to give lots of fun practice so that the heart of the child learns that reading is fun. Our secondary purpose is to give enough practice reading in context so the child builds blending stamina, practice and skill at jumping from the blended word to the spoken word. As an added bonus the child builds up his vocabulary with the new words he reads along the way. During this process your child will gradually start recognizing words that he or she doesn’t have to sound out. This increases the speed of reading which is the next step. Reading speed is important because when you are decoding every word you forget the beginning of the sentence by the time you get to the end.