Reading Fluency – What Helps

Does your child have reading fluency? Is it easy to understand them when they read aloud, or do they read too slowly or in a choppy tone?

What is Reading Fluency?

According to Marie Rippel at All About Learning Press:

“Fluency is the ability to read with accuracy, proper speed, and meaningful expression. Fluency is also a significant indicator of reading comprehension. When children can read fluently, it means that instead of using brain power for decoding, they can turn their attention to the meaning of the text.”

Where to Start

My son Harry struggled to learn to read and made all the usual mistakes. He stumbled over, substituted, and needed to sound out multiple words on every page.

Harry’s problem was he couldn’t decode words. Here is a post about how to tell if your child has a reading problem. I purchased Marie Rippel’s All About Reading programme (affiliate link) to help him. Harry developed his decoding skills using this material by reading single words on flashcards. Once he knew them, he read these words in simple sentences. After practising the activity sheets, he could read these words in stories whenever he came across them.

The Need for a Wide Vocabulary

If you’ve ever tried reading a book on an unfamiliar topic, you may have stumbled over words you didn’t understand. When I was in primary school, I told my friend I liked eating muscly for breakfast. My friend was perplexed. What kinds of muscle did my wolf-like family tear into each morning?

I described the cereal.

“Oh, you mean muesli,” she said.

I blushed. That was the first time I’d heard the word spoken.

To develop fluency, ensure your child knows how to pronounce the words they encounter in the text. You can read my post on how to help build a child’s vocabulary here.

The Importance of Reading to Children
(even when they are young teens)

When a child hears fluent reading, it is easier for them to understand and mimic it.

If you have children under six, you may like to watch this short video by early years advisor Sarah Kingham. Sarah established the Readit2 literacy programme in 2006 to encourage adults to read to children. She stresses pointing out words as you read and explaining what they mean.

For older children, especially those with dyslexia, reading can feel like a chore. However, if you continue to read to them as they grow, you allow them to access texts they may struggle to read alone. My husband read the Harry Potter books and The Lord of the Rings to our son because these were the books his friends were reading.

When a child hears you read, they take in the tone, inflections, and correct reading speed. They also hear how you break sentences into phrases. To show your child how you phrase a sentence, pick one sentence on the page, and explain how you broke it into chunks when you read it. For example:

Ben knew perfectly well they’d be disappointed that the cage hadn’t squashed him.

A fluent reader naturally groups words:

Ben knew perfectly well… they’d be disappointed… that the cage hadn’t squashed him.

If you own the book you are reading, circle the words in each phrase with a pencil to show these chunks.

Audiobooks can be fun to listen to with your child, and Libby and BorrowBox are great ways to access free audiobooks.

Model Expressive Reading

One way to encourage fluency is to model expressive reading. Read a page from their book a couple of times, demonstrating how to pay attention to punctuation and emphasize important words. Then ask the child to give it a go. Encourage what they get right and correct them a couple of times but keep the experience positive. If a whole page is too much for them, start with a short paragraph.

Reading Aloud Improves Fluency

Although a child needs to be able to read silently, they must read aloud to improve fluency.
My library has a read-to-a-dog programme to help children develop fluent reading.

Their website says dogs:

• Can increase a child’s relaxation while reading

• Listen attentively

• Do not laugh, judge, or criticize

• Allow children to proceed at their own pace

• Can be less intimidating than a child’s peers

If you don’t have a dog, perhaps your child could read to another pet; even a goldfish will work. If a pet isn’t available, ask a friendly neighbour or grandparent to listen to them read, but be sure to coach the adult on the need for encouragement rather than criticism.

Allow Kids to Record Themselves Reading

Many phones have recording apps, and allowing a child to record their reading and play it back can be helpful. Encourage your child to notice one thing they did well and one thing they could do better. Then they can re-record the page to see if they can improve.

Putting it All Together

Developing reading fluency takes time and practice.

• Help your child learn how to decode words
• Encourage them to build a strong vocabulary
• Model the pause for punctuation and demonstrate how to phrase sentences
• Let them read to an animal or a supportive adult
• Have your child record their reading and self-assess

If you want to know about the All About Reading programme I used to help Harry become a fluent reader, check out this affiliate link.

Speechify is an app that can help dyslexic children as it reads online text. Here is my affiliate link.

What tips do you have to develop reading fluency?