In a world where low literacy rates are still a stumbling block to development, and with the technological innovations that unfold at an unprecedented pace, gaining reading proficiency at an early age is much more rewarding, especially when reading is an instrument for unlocking children’s potentials in accessing all kinds of information across fields. Parents and school educators have a central role to play.
Unlike back in the day, when only the syllabic method was used to teach reading, today there are a plethora of strategies to teach reading with ease and in a more structured and fun way.
This article digs deeper into Erani Tech’s Reading Essentials as one of the online affordances that help children understand the dynamics of letter sounds in learning how to read, pronounce words correctly, interpret, and comprehend a range of texts.
We shall explore different categories of letter sounds, ranging from level 1 to tips in comprehension.
The Power of Phonics (Letter Sounds) in Making a Child Read for the Very First Time
Having your child understand the functional aspects of letter sounds (phonics) and advancements in technology is more ground-breaking than before. An opportunity that children are always very eager to experience a variety of things and are open to learning.
With early exposure to letter sounds, children gain vital ingredients needed to be better readers. Phonics give a child a sense of sounds that, when blended, produce new sounds, syllables, or words; therefore, children can differentiate sounds and contextual tones.
You realize that in reading, there are words that are pronounced the same way but spelled differently (homophones) or words that are spelled the same way but pronounced differently (homographs), as they present different meanings (etymological difference).
The children need to be grounded in this phenomenon elementarily, especially through the pre-reading skills, which we shall explore in the latter if they are to be good readers/writers.
It is not surprising that there are even some letters that also follow the above phenomena, though with similarity in pronunciation; an example is /a/ and /u/ in the English language. The power of phonics not only helps in spelling and pronunciation but also helps children gain flexible acuity while dealing with varied texts in their present and future endeavors.
In the recent past, a study by Uwezo in 2021 revealed a daunting percentage of children who can read and comprehend text. In their report (2021), they highlighted that the Ugandan literacy rate of children stood at 39.5 in grades P3-P7. The non-reader stage even doubled from 6.2% to 11.6% in P2 grade and 12.7 to 25.1% at P3.
As we are at the edge of blended learning and flipped classrooms (technology-driven developments), it is essential to have your child dive into life-long learning skills in reading and face the prevailing illiteracy challenges.
The illiterate populace is not an empowered one and cannot be relied upon to make informed choices or decisions.
This interdisciplinary approach not only enhances reading skills but also presents an opportunity for exposure to practical applications of technology in various fields.
Pre-reading is a Key to Successful Reading for Beginners.
Here, pre-reading skills are developed and play-based activities are introduced to the beginners of reading. The pre-reading skills equip learners with all the word attack skills, as they involve a variety of activities that help a child dynamically deal with the reading tasks.
Skills such as phonics awareness (differentiating sounds within the environment) auditory discrimination (ability to hear and differentiate sounds /tell the source of sound), visual discrimination (differentiating things that are seen physically, eg differences in colors, sizes, and shapes), and directionality of print (left-to-right movement) all these are vital skills before they are introduced to phonemic awareness, that has to do with phonemes (letter sounds or phoneme-grapheme correspondence).
This undertaking does not only equip a child with the early soft skills for successful reading but also builds a mindset of discriminatory effects to gain fluency in reading, spoken languages, and automaticity in reading.
Why is Blending a Necessary Activity in Learning How to Read?
Just like we would want to drink a cocktail or any other blended juice with multiple ingredients to enjoy a sense of fragrance, blending in reading involves bringing different categories and sets of letter sounds to make a syllable, then syllables to words and words to sentences. In this way, most learning styles are met since the approach is hands-on.
Use of locally available resources.
It involves the activeness of all the key senses of the body and the use of locally available resources like plastic bottles for mobile bottle-line and cardboard for letter sound cards.
Both educators and parents have a shared role in ensuring the availability of the necessary materials to ease reading.
Picking empty plastic bottles, card boards(empty boxes), and bottle tops from the shopkeepers, a few cutters, and pair of scissors; and other writing resources would be a minimal cost and this underpins easy ways to get a child to play with resources which result in better reading.
Exposes children to different Categories of letter sounds.
At this point, children are exposed to different categories of letter sounds, both in the local and English languages. In Level 1, reading alphabetical letter sounds is majorly featured in local languages and lower-level decodable words in English, then later introduced to Level 2, reading in the English language.
Children go deeper and gain multiple skills required to be a better reader; for example, automaticity and fluency in reading can easily be gained as children follow a pattern in which a word is pronounced and written so they are likely to read any new word(vocabulary) they had never come across correctly before they go etymologically.
Educators here should be equipped with letter sound knowledge and articulation skills and parents too need to be supportive.
Helps children understand Decodable and Non-decodable words.
Blending goes with the understanding of decodable and non-decodable words. While we catch up with the blending activity, it is essential to know decodable and non-decodable words.
This brings the idea of sound knowledge to form or read a variety of words, including sight words (phonetically irregular words).
Before reading gets tenser, we first let learners explore the decodable words to maintain their interest in reading and decode words.
This activity helps to nurture a child’s literacy skills in very easy ways, and the whole activity is play-based.
Orthography (the conventional spelling system of a language) can be chipped in upon request and should come after a child has learned the basic letter sounds. Orthography digs deeper into the pronunciation patterns of the letter sound depending on a particular local language.
Blending goes beyond just putting sounds together it is an activity that manifests in a child to be a successful reader, speaker, and writer, the skills required in the 21st century and tech-driven economies.
Understanding the Power of Syllables in Helping Read and Spell Words Correctly
What are Syllables?
Syllables are often misconceived as “a combination of a consonant and a vowel letter.” Unfortunately, this does not rise to the horizon. An example is the word “while” which has only one syllable, especially when you clap while pronouncing the word. This must be corrected. A child will be taken through the meaning of syllables and will practically enumerate syllables in a given word.
With all that said, children are likely to form or spell words correctly and will not face any challenges at all while interfacing with a teacher who dictates notes. We don’d wait to walk children through the dynamics of syllables step by step.
Why Shouldn’t Syllables be Taught in the English Language?
Syllables should not be taught in English but should be listened to as sound beats in a word. In the word “congratulations”, there are 5 sound beats if you stamp the ground (co ngra tu la tions). This might not be a clear cut to children when taught in the English language because of the weal-correspondence between sounds and letters in the spelling of modern English words unlike in most local languages syllables can be taught such as the word “bantu” has two syllables- “ba ntu.”
Why Should Children Segment Words?
Segmentation goes hand in hand with blending. Breaking a word into clear parts, thus into syllables and individual letter sounds, is powerful in getting children to read and spell words correctly.
When educators do these with the learners, they gain a passion for recognizing the rhythmic representation of the word parts.
It also helps in recognizing the patterns that contribute to the morphology of the given word. The mechanism helps build the memory of the child and gain independency as experience and do the exercise on their own.
The Role of Parents and Educators in Nurturing Literacy Skills in Children.
Parents, the resource mobilizers
Parents are the first educators of the children in most aspects before school time. It is a great opportunity for early intervention if parents expose their children to reading materials. Picture books and any other playlets.
However, the parent’s role goes beyond this; they have a duty to interest learners by reading with them and appreciating their endeavors toward reading and writing.
School Educators, on the other hand, have a role to play in expanding the learner’s knowledge, understanding the importance of phonics, and using play-based learning approaches to maintain the learner’s interest in reading and this builds on the reading culture in children.
Conclusion; Nurturing great readers, speakers, and writers of tomorrow.
In conclusion, efforts to gain invaluable skills in reading will be very rewarding in the future.
By exposing learners to the phonics system and giving them the necessary support, we shape a brighter future with a blend of tools used in literacy to meet the ever-emerging challenges of the world.
Whether they become reading specialists, orators, and others. The world belongs to those who stand out from the crowd with their soft skills in reading and turn them into opportunities to earn a living.
Making children gain confidence in reading is not just about preparing kids for future careers; it’s about empowering them to be active contributors, problem solvers, and innovators in a tech-driven world as learning goes digital.
Join us on a journey into a future where illiteracy remains history, children can easily read and comprehend a variety of texts, and a world of informed people; tailor-made for undertaking more challenging tasks.
I am glad you read this article, feel free to share it with friends, and also register your child for our Reading Essentials course today.