Improve Your Child's Reading Fluency With These Tips

What Is Fluency?

Fluency is characterized as the capacity to read quickly, accurately, and clearly. Children must be able to read clearly, whether loudly or quietly, in order to comprehend what they read. Fluent readers use proper tone while reading aloud. 

Why Is Fluency Important?

Fluency in reading is vital because it connects word recognition and understanding. Children who are unable to read fluently have a jerky and uncomfortable tone to their voice. Those pupils may struggle with decoding skills or just need more experience with reading speed and smoothness. Fluency is also vital for motivation; children who find reading difficult are less likely to desire to do so! Fluency becomes increasingly crucial as readers progress. In the upper primary level, the amount of reading required increases considerably. Students who read slowly or laboriously will struggle to satisfy the reading requirements of their grade level.

How To Help

While lack of reading fluency may be a struggle, it can be improved with the right methods. Parents, teachers and caregivers can improve a reader’s fluency by using the following tips: 

1. Encourage beginner readers to point at the words as they read. Beginner readers may often begin reading half of one line and end reading the latter half of another line. When learning to read, it can be a challenge to keep track of where you are in the sentence. Encouraging beginner readers to point at the words as they read helps them to keep track of where they are in the sentence/passage and improves their overall fluency. 

2. Allow readers to reread the sentence where necessary. Sometimes due to having to pause numerous times within a sentence to sound out new words, a student may lose the meaning of the sentence. Having them reread the sentence when necessary not only improves their fluency but also gives them an opportunity to practise their newly learnt words again and gain a better understanding of that sentence. 

3. Instruct readers to look at the words carefully when reading 

4. Guide readers on blending the words aloud as they read. A common mistake made by some students is looking at the first letter and guessing a word instead of actually paying attention to the word and blending its sounds. A student may see ‘smart’ and say ‘short’ since they guessed the word based on its first and last letter. Encouraging and guiding them to blend the sounds improves their reading skills and fluency. 

5. Have students begin with shorter texts then gradually increase as they progress. Being urged to read a full page with many ‘new’ words can be intimidating, especially to an already struggling reader. Starting with shorter texts encourages the reader to try and boost their confidence which will positively impact their fluency. 

Our Individual Reading Assistance Programme is geared towards assisting struggling readers with: 

• Sight words and high-frequency words

• Sounds recognition 

• Reading comprehension 

• Letter and word recognition 

• Phonics and phonemic awareness

Our programme is designed to teach the foundational skills of reading to children with significant academic challenges, empowering them to achieve grade-level proficiency. Fluent and confident readers are the result of our well-structured programme with dedicated tutors who aim to equip young readers with critical reading skills and a lifelong love of reading. 

Chrystal Murray 

Reading Interventionist 

Caribbean Academy for Reading Intervention and Development 

1-868-474-9819