phonics Archives - EBL Coaching

What is the Science of Reading?

olha.syrbu — Tue, 17 Dec 2024 13:46:52 +0000

Originally published on the Macaroni KID website

What is the Science of Reading?

Reading is one of the most important skills for academic success and it is a skill that doesn’t come naturally. It must be taught to children directly and explicitly. What is the best way to teach reading? The consensus has changed over the years, with various thoughts and opinions on the matter. However, the science of reading includes decades of research that has identified the most effective approach for teaching children to read, which includes five components: phonemic awareness, phonics, fluency, vocabulary, and comprehension. Let’s examine each component:

Phonemic Awareness

Phonemic awareness is the ability to notice and manipulate sounds in words. It includes identifying individual sounds, blending sounds to form words, removing sounds within words, and otherwise manipulating sounds. Phonemic awareness is a key foundation to reading, and it can be explicitly taught to children.

You can help develop your child’s phonemic awareness skills with sound and word games that you can play at home. For example, give your child two words, like cup and cat, and ask them to tell you the first sound they hear in both words. You can also work on ending sounds by presenting two words like sat and mit and ask them to tell you the final sound they hear in the words. Then focus on middle sounds by asking them what the middle sound is that they hear in cup, sit, and leg.

You can also work on blending, another component of phonemic awareness, by giving your child three sounds, like /m/, /a/ and /t/ and asking them what word is formed if they blend those sounds together. Additionally, try working on rhyming by asking them which words rhyme with bat, cut, peg, and so on.

If your child continues to struggle with phonemic awareness, you may want to consider multi-sensory tutoring for this skill, since it is crucial for reading success.

Phonics

Phonics is the relationship between letters and sounds. The science of reading tells us that teaching phonics directly, explicitly, and systematically is key to effective reading instruction. The Orton Gillingham method is an example of this type of systematic, direct approach to teaching phonics.

Children can start by learning individual letters, including the short vowels, and their corresponding sounds – then work on blending those sounds to form words. After practice and repetition with these letters and sounds, they can move onto learning how to read words containing blends, consonant digraphs, vowel digraphs, silent e patterns, r-controlled patterns, multi-syllabic words, and so on, all following a structured, sequential approach.

If your child struggles with phonics, they may benefit from Orton Gillingham tutoring to further develop this important skill.

Read more about Orton-Gillingham tutoring at

https://eblcoaching.com/what-is-orton-gillingham-tutoring/

Fluency

Reading fluency involves reading with appropriate speed, accuracy, and expression. Fluent reading is important for comprehending the material a student is reading. Try this choral reading strategy to help your child develop stronger reading fluency skills:

Select a passage slightly below your child’s reading level.
Have them read the passage aloud to you one time as a cold read.
You read the same passage aloud to your child to model good reading fluency.
Your child reads the passage aloud with you and tries to keep up with your pace.
Your child reads the passage again as a final read. Compliment them on any improvement you note in their fluency!

Vocabulary

Vocabulary is an understanding of the meaning of words. It is an important skill in being able to comprehend material that one reads.

To help develop your child’s vocabulary skills, try integrating vocabulary work into your daily life. If you are grocery shopping with your child, for instance, use words like receipt, groceries, and discount, and explain to them what each term means. You can do the same when driving, watching a sports game, or setting up a bank account. Any excursion can include an opportunity for vocabulary development! Your child may also benefit from explicit tutoring in vocabulary if they continue to struggle with this skill.

Reading Comprehension

Reading comprehension is the ability to process what one is reading. It involves all of the above skills combined: phonemic awareness, phonics, fluency, and vocabulary.

To help develop your child’s comprehension skills at home, ask them questions when you read to them. Instead of just reading a book and closing it when you are finished, ask questions as you read about the characters, story, and plot. You can even ask higher level comprehension questions involving making predictions and drawing conclusions. For example, as you read your child a book, ask questions like, “Why do you think that character was happy?”, “Why did he seem sad?”, or “What do you think might happen next in the story?”

The science of reading has identified the most effective way to teach children how to read, which includes the five elements described above. Help your child develop these skills at home, and if they continue to struggle, you may want to consider an Orton-Gillingham tutor or multi-sensory tutoring in any of the areas above. With stronger reading skills, your child will be well on their way to school success.

Read more about the science of reading at

https://tntp.org/blog/what-is-the-science-of-reading-and-why-does-it-matter/

The post What is the Science of Reading? appeared first on EBL Coaching.

Best Apps For Kids With Dyslexia

emily_levy — Fri, 09 Mar 2018 17:25:26 +0000

Originally published on the New York Family website

If your child has dyslexia, there are plenty of great ways to keep them reading.

Kids with dyslexia tend to struggle with reading and writing. They often have difficulty blending sounds together to form words and ‎expressing their thoughts effectively on paper. While traditional structured approaches are useful for building these skills, there are many fun, interactive apps that students with dyslexia can use to help further strengthen their reading and writing skills. Try some of the ideas below:

Bob Books #1 and #2
The Bob Books apps are great reading reinforcement tools for kids in grades pre-K-4. The first app, Bob Books #1, teaches pre-K and Kindergarten students foundational phonics skills, including individual letters and their corresponding sounds, and how to blend those sounds together to form basic words. ‎In the Bob Books #2 app, students are introduced to stories with engaging characters, along with fun, interactive games to develop mastery of basic to more advanced words. These apps follow Orton Gillingham patterns for reinforcing foundational decoding skills.

iWriteWords
‎Many kids with dyslexia have trouble properly forming letters and numbers and spelling words correctly. This app helps kids build these skills in an enjoyable and engaging manner. Using a multi-sensory format, students use their fingers to trace upper and lower case letters as well as numbers, while learning how to appropriately write them using top-to-bottom formations. They later work on spelling basic words to reinforce encoding and phonics skills. The images are colorful and child-friendly, keeping kids engaged and happy.

Montessori Crosswords
This app is a useful tool for helping dyslexic kids in grades pre-K-4 build basic to more advanced spelling and reading skills. With the app, students have fun building words using a drag-and-drop method, beginning with consonant-vowel-consonant words, then moving onto words with consonant blends, words with digraphs, and words with more complex patterns. There are also “themes,” such as Christmas, clothes, and food, where kids build words that fall into these categories. The pictures are playful and colorful, and the app provides ample practice for building key reading and spelling skills.

Read2Go
Read2Go helps elementary and middle school students engage with books and further develop their reading skills with eBooks. With this app, they have access over 200,000 eBooks through its partnership with Bookshare. Students can search for specific book titles, peruse book categories, download books, and read them directly from Bookshare. They can also highlight important text to practice active reading and study skills, can change the text’s font size and color, and can even have books read aloud to them as part of the app’s text-to-speech functionality. It’s a great tool for students with reading challenges who benefit from more interactive options than paper books offer.

StoryPals
‎StoryPals helps elementary and middle school students with dyslexia build stronger reading skills. With this app, students can choose to either read a passage aloud or have it read to them, then answer corresponding comprehension questions. Kids love the animated characters, colorful artwork, and interesting topics that these 24 stories offer. The app also saves student quiz scores so parents can track their child’s reading comprehension progress.

Building reading and writing skills doesn’t have to be a boring task! Students with dyslexia can have fun strengthening their skills with these interactive apps, helping them to ultimately achieve academic success.

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5 Apps for Preparing Your Child for Kindergarten

emily_levy — Tue, 19 Jul 2016 19:01:18 +0000

Originally published on the New York Family website

Educational apps to help your child start Kindergarten on a positive, confident note

With summer in full swing, most kids enjoy spending their time running, swimming, and playing outdoors. Yet summer is a long period of time without consistent learning, and if your child is getting ready to start Kindergarten in the fall, you won’t want to miss this opportunity to reinforce early learning.

Help your child prepare for Kindergarten while still having fun‎ with the apps detailed below!

ABC Letter Tracing
Learning to form letters properly when writing can be challenging for many students. This app helps children learn to form letters correctly and gives them ample practice tracing them. Players are presented with both upper- and lower-case letters and work on tracing these letters with proper top-to-bottom formations using their finger (great tactile reinforcement!). A colorful picture corresponds to each letter, giving students a visual aid for remembering the sound each letter makes. This app is useful for both early learning and fine motor skills development. Free on iTunes

Montessori Rhymetime Learning Games for Kids
Learning to rhyme is a key component of reading success. In this app, students learn to identify different sounds in words and match words that rhyme using bright, colorful pictures. ‎ The app contains six hands-on activities, starting with basic rhyme games and progressing to more challenging ones. The games can be played independently, or parents can engage with their children by having them articulate their reasoning for why they selected certain pictures. This multi-sensory app is one students love playing, and helps solidify phonemic awareness, a precursor to reading. Free on iTunes

Moose Math by Duck Duck Moose
This app helps build several important Kindergarten math skills, including ‎addition, subtraction, counting, and sorting. The app contains five different activities, including Moose Juice where kids make “smoothies” (and practice addition, subtraction, and counting skills); Paint Pet, where players count dots to match pets; Pet Bingo, where kids answer counting, addition, and subtraction problems; Lost and Found, where players sort colors and shapes; and Dot to Dot, where players connect dots. $1.99 on iTunes

Starfall Learn to Read
This app is a great tool for building and reinforcing basic phonics concepts, including sound/letter recognition and blending. Similar to the Starfall website, the app presents fifteen “mini books” that each focus on a certain vowel pattern, including short sounds, long sounds, vowel teams, and r-controlled sounds. The app also includes whimsical, fun-filled videos to reinforce reading (like “The Amazing Silent e” and “Y can be a Vowel!”) and other engaging phonics-based activities. $2.99 on iTunes

Stumpy’s Alphabet Dinner
This is a great app for teaching kids to recognize letters and shapes, while they “feed” colorful characters. To play the letter segment, a word pops up and kids must “feed” ‎Stumpy the monster by identifying and dragging specific letters. Likewise, they feed Stumpy’s friend Lexie shapes in a similar manner, while building key early academic skills. Free on iTunes

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