The Importance of Fluent Reading

Fluent reading is essential for developing comprehension. When kids take a while to sound out words, by the time they have figured the word out, they forget much of what the rest of the sentence was about. They may recall a portion of the information, but forget or miss subtle words like 'not', 'before', or 'after', which can change the entire meaning of a sentence or paragraph!

Smooth reading at a steady pace depends on solid skills in phonological awareness, phonemic awareness, and effective letter-to-sound mapping.

Before students have stable letter-to-sound mapping, phonological and phonemic awareness, they need to develop strong listening, feeling, and comparing skills.  Information delivered through the five senses must integrate to arrive at a 'whole' concept for storage and retrieval from long-term memory. 

• How does one sound compare to another? Can they tell the difference between two similar sounds?
• Do they know how their mouth feels when making a particular sound?
• Can they associate a symbol or a letter with a specific word or sound? 
• Can they repeat a pattern, either visual or auditory?
• Can they play with sounds to make new words? [Think of songs like the Raffi song "I like to eat apples and bananas."]

Dr. Stanislas DeHaene researched what happens in the brain when people read.  Using fMri brain images taken while people read, he found that there are neural pathways and locations inside the brain where letters and sounds are processed and words decoded. His insights are invaluable to teachers, reading tutors, speech language pathologists, and parents who work with children to develop literacy skills.  There is a physical aspect to reading that can be modified and improved to help children read and understand what they read. "Reading in the Brain" is an easy-to-read and understandable book that I recommend to anyone teaching a struggling reader.

Please take a look at our research page to find articles and studies that support the development of reading fluency strategies recommended on this website.