Learning to read is an exciting time for children and their families. However, many parents can’t realize that these emerging literacy skills don’t come as second nature and that learning to read is not automatic. Regardless of family background, many children need help.
The Reading Skills Pyramid is a helpful resource for parents. It illustrates the five key areas in becoming a reader: phonemic awareness, phonics, comprehension, vocabulary, and fluency.
- Phonemic awareness* is a child’s awareness that words are made up of sounds that can be assembled in different ways to make different words. Children build this pre-reading skill by practicing nursery rhymes and playing rhyming word games.
- Phonics* is the understanding of how letters combine to make sounds and words. Learning phonics starts with knowing the alphabet. Children then learn the sound of each letter by associating it with words that start with that sound. Phonics skills grow as students distinguish between vowels and consonants and understand letter combinations. Try our phonics lessons.
Thanks for the clarification that phonics pertains to how vowels and consonants produce sound. I’m thinking about getting a phonics reading program for my son because he has a bit of a lisp. Perhaps learning more about how words are pronounced will help him improve his speech.
Hi Alice! We appreciate you stopping by and joining in the conversation! 🙂
Here is some more information about Time4Learning’s reading curriculum: https://www.time4learning.com/homeschool-curriculum/reading.html Please don’t hesitate to reach out to us if we can answer any questions!