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Common Terms
Phonemes: smallest unit of sound represented by a letter(s). There are 44 phonemes in the English language.
Graphemes: the letter(s) that represent a phoneme. For example p = /p/ sh = /sh/ .
Phonemic awareness: an awareness of and ability to work with the individual sounds (phonemes) in words. For example, a child needs to know how to take the sounds /m/ /a/ /t/ and blend them together to say “mat."
Phonological awareness: the ability to hear, manipulate, and identify any sound heard in spoken language. These pieces of sounds can be rhymes, syllables, or phonemes.
Phonics: the relationships between letters and their sounds. This can be as simple as the letter “p” representing the /p/ sound, or the letters “igh” representing the long i sound, like in the word “light.”
Fluency: the ability to read easily, quickly, accurately, and with expression. The greater a child’s fluency is, usually the better their comprehension is.
Vocabulary: knowledge of words, phrases, and their meanings. Vocabulary knowledge helps children improve their comprehension. Comprehension - The ability to understand a text, both what is literally stated in the text and by making inferences or thinking critically. Comprehension is the end goal of reading!
Word mapping: the process of breaking down a word into its phonemes and writing the graphemes that represent the phonemes.
Heart words: words that have a tricky part that is memorized “by heart.”
Decoding is a child’s ability to look at the letters & words on a page and turn them into spoken language.
Language Comprehension is a child’s ability to understand the meaning of words and speech.
Decoding
The Science of Reading has shown educators that children best learn to read when they are given decodable books. You may also hear these called “phonics books” or “decodable readers.” These books are written especially for beginning readers. The authors carefully limit the kinds of words that are included in a decodable book. This way, the child can use what they’ve learned about phonics to successfully read the book. Just because a book is labeled a decodable book does not necessarily mean that your child can read it, however. Teachers choose decodable books that match your child’s current level of phonics knowledge. If you need help finding appropriate books for your child to read at home, reach out to your child’s teacher (Learning at the Primary Pond).
How Can I Help My Child with Decoding?
Discuss letters from speech to print.
Instead of saying z says /z/, ask your child what letter represents the /z/ sound.
Segment words to build phonemic awareness.
Say the word cat out loud
Ask your child to tap each sound /c/ /a/ /t/
Ask your child how many sounds are in the word (3)
Use the word cat in a sentence
When you listen to your child read, encourage them to sound out words.
Don’t ask them to use the pictures to guess at words.
When your child asks you how to spell a word, see if they can figure it out by breaking the word up into its individual sounds
"sheep” -> /sh//e//p/)
More Ways to Help Your Child At Home
Talk to your child.
Children whose parents talk to them often and for extended periods of time tend to have larger vocabularies.
Read aloud books to your child that would be too difficult for them to read on their own.
Discuss words they may not know.
Use high level vocabulary words in your daily interactions
Instead of saying “it is time to clean up.” Say “it is time to tidy up.”
Ask your child questions as you read.
Who are the characters?
Where is this story taking place?
What happened at the beginning of the story? Middle? End?
Was there a problem in the story? If so, how was it solved?
Make connections to the story.
For example, if you are reading a story about the zoo, talk about a time when you and your family went to the zoo.
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