This may shock you, but I’m not a gym guy. It’s hard and boring and I’m not good at it!
If I can talk my way out of going, I will! Even though I know that going to the gym will help me with my long term fitness goals.
For beginning readers, early decoding is just as hard. If students can find a way to avoid it, they will!
Beginning readers and poor readers try to guess words from pictures in books or first letters or vague ‘word shapes’.
But these so-called ‘strategies’ are bad habits, and aren’t really reading. They don’t work for long – especially when picture books and readers are replaced by textbooks and novels, and complex sentences replace simple ones.
So, as soon as my students can blend CVC words, I increase the reps.
Then I step up to sentences without picture cues – to check that they are really reading. Then I repeat the readings to build reading speed – but insist on word-by-word decoding until they achieve 100% accuracy with no guessing.
If you want to check that a beginning reader is really reading, download our free resource:
Hi there, I’m David Kinnane.
Principal Speech Pathologist, Banter Speech & Language
Our talented team of certified practising speech pathologists provide unhurried, personalised and evidence-based speech pathology care to children and adults in the Inner West of Sydney and beyond, both in our clinic and via telehealth.
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