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Reading
Decoding Skills and the Elementary Reader
Reading decoding skills are a
critical component in the ability to read. Unfortunately,
knowing how to teach reading decoding skills is a mystery to
most parents. To better understand how to teach reading
decoding skills, it is helpful to first understand what
reading decoding skills are.
What Are
Reading Decoding Skills?
Reading decoding skills is the
ability to make sense of printed words. This involves
recalling and recognizing the spoken word that is represented
by the printed word. In other words, reading decoding skills
is the ability to understand that a printed word represents
the spoken word, and that this printed word is made of a
sequence of phonemes. To take it a step further, reading
decoding skills also require the ability to recognize the
individual phonemes and phoneme blends.
In essence, to have strong reading decoding skills, your child
must have a basic understanding of the written word and its many
properties. In all, a word has five major properties:
• Semantics
• Syntax
• Conceptual relationship
• Phonological properties
• Morphological properties
In addition, you will focus on
using the word, as well. In this way, your child sees you
modeling ways to use the word. It also helps prove to him that
you think learning new words is important. You might even want
to develop this into a contest and keep score on who manages
to use the word in a meaningful way the most throughout the
week, then follow it up with a special treat – such as a movie
or some other family outing.
How Do
Semantics Affect Reading Decoding Skills?
Semantics is the word’s meaning.
Semantics is an important part of reading decoding skills
because the broader your child’s vocabulary, the better he
will be able to understand and remember new words and their
meanings.
Directly teaching vocabulary is the best way to increase your
child’s vocabulary, or semantics, skills. Interestingly, the
more new words your child learns, the more new words he is
capable of learning. Furthermore, there is a direct
correlation between vocabulary and reading comprehension. In
other words, the more words your child knows and understands,
the better he will be able to comprehend new words and
comprehend the things that he reads.
How Does
Syntax Relate To Reading Decoding Skills?
Syntax is the function, or part
of speech, a word represents. In order to understand a
sentence, your child needs to understand the relationships
between words.
After your child reads a sentence and
determines the grammatical purpose of the word, as well as the
semantic meaning of the word, she can comprehend the meaning
of the sentence as a whole. In this way, your child might not
remember each word of the sentence, but she retains the
general meaning or purpose of the sentence.
This is not to say that your child’s reading decoding skills
have to be so aptly honed that he is capable of identifying
and labeling the grammatical purpose of every word in a
sentence. Research has shown, however, that training in
labeling of sentences does help children better understand
sentences and, therefore, remember sentences. Therefore,
syntax is necessary to understand a sentence’s meaning.
How Does
Understanding Conceptual Relationships Help With Reading
Decoding Skills?
Reading decoding skills require
understanding about how words relate to each other, or conceptual
relationships. Preexisting knowledge of words and their
meanings helps your child understand new words. Furthermore,
understanding the relationships between words helps strengthen
your child’s understanding and ability to remember new words,
as well as previously learned words.
For example, understanding the word “car” can help your child
understand and remember the word “van.” This is because your
child already has a basic understanding of what a van is
because he understands the word “car.” When your child later
learns the word “automobile,” he will be able to group all of
these words together to gain a clearer understanding of all
three words.
How Do Phonological Properties
Relate To Reading Decoding Skills?
Phonological properties are the characteristics of the various
sounds in a word. Using these reading decoding skills is often
referred to as “phonemic awareness.” This is the understanding
of the fact that words are made up of units of sounds. This
also involves the understanding that letter sounds are
affected by the letters around them. For example, the letter
“a” is pronounced differently in the words “face” and “mass.”
Digraphs are also a part of reading decoding skills and
phonological properties. Digraphs are letter combinations,
such as “ch” and “sh.” These letters, when used separately,
have a very different sound from when they are used together.
Through knowledge of phonological properties, your child can
learn to sound out new words as she encounters them in her
reading.
What Do Morphological
Properties Have To Do With Reading Decoding Skills?
Morphological properties are the word elements that create new
words and change the meaning of words. Examples include
prefixes, suffixes, and root words.
Understanding morphological awareness is important to reading
decoding skills because this helps your child break words down
into more familiar words. For example, if your child knows
what “school” means and what “pre” means, he will be able to
figure out what the word “preschool” means.
Having a solid morphological awareness will also assist your
child in determining the grammatical purpose of a word. By the
time your child reaches 3rd grade, most new words will be
based on words he already knows.
Reading decoding skills are in integral part of learning to
read. Practice these skills and teach them to your child as
often as possible to help him become a strong reader. For
practical tips for teaching reading decoding skills, read:
Tips For Teaching
Decoding Reading Skills.
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