Have you ever encountered a preschooler or kindergartner who reads effortlessly? Often, they are quite intelligent and are very aware of their surroundings. However, the question remains: Are they truly readers? How well do they spell? Sometimes, they are deceiving the adults around them.
Often, what happens is that these children are smart — there is no doubt about that. They have managed to memorize enough words by sight to read fluently within their level of books, making them seem fluent. Parents sometimes become frustrated when teachers focus on letter sounds and blending because they believe their child is already a reader.
Without a proper understanding of how words are constructed, these children may begin to struggle once they encounter more challenging reading materials with higher vocabulary levels and words with multiple syllables. Therefore, the curriculum guides the students and teacher in building a strong understanding of how words are constructed which will transfer to their writing skills later.
Most children can memorize approximately 70-80 words and understand their usage. However, by the middle of second grade, many students begin to struggle. This difficulty arises because they are unable to decode unfamiliar words or multisyllabic words. The level and amount of reading has increased to the point that sight word memorization can no longer be their only reading method. At this point, they must backtrack to learn the skills that their kindergarten and first-grade teachers introduced, which can slow their progress.
Don’t stop encouraging your preschooler to read; rather, it is crucial that they also learn the names and sounds of letters and letter combinations. By building these foundational pathways in your child’s brain, they will be better equipped to transfer these skills later on, aiding their ability to decode words as their reading skills advance. With those strong foundational skills they will be able to apply them, and truly be able to read anything accurately.
Research shows that memorization of sight words alone is insufficient for most students to develop the complex skill of deciding text accurately allowing the child to be a fluent reader by the end of third grade. Keep reading and help them decode letter sounds and combinations to be strong readers and spellers.
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Scott Smith has been in education for the past 43 years. Smith currently lives with his wife in Mosier and serves on the Board of Decoding Dyslexia of Oregon.
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