Welcome to another blog series brought to you by Cuenye Consultants. We thank you for taking this journey right along with us as we learn more about what the science of reading is. The information presented here is to further teacher content knowledge on the reading brain in order to strengthen their teacher practice in addition to informing parents about what is needed to ensure reading success for their little ones.
The science of reading is a vast, interdisciplinary body of scientifically-based research about reading and issues related to reading and writing. (The Reading League)
We left off learning about Scarborough's Reading Rope which describes how intricate learning to read is. The upper and lower strands skills take time and explicit instruction in order to develop efficiently and effortlessly. Let's take a closer look at the Word Recognition strand through the eyes of Ehri's Phases of Word Reading Development:
https://literacysanantonio.com/about-the-science-of-reading
When the goal is to teach foundational skills, Ehri's phases of word reading development, established by research, can help teachers and parents decide what to do, with whom, in what way, and for how long. (Moats & Tolman 2019) The four phases: Pre-alphabetic stage, Early Alphabetic Stage (Partial Alphabetic), Later Alphabetic Phase (Full Alphabetic) and Consolidated Phase is a continuum of early word-reading development, they are not stages because they overlap and progress. Children pass through these phases at different rates and different degrees of effort.
Let us learn a bit about the Pre-alphabetic Stage.
Children in this phase have some but not all alphabet letter names and forms
May be aware of how print looks-change in letters, spaces, etc.
May not understand the concept of a speech sound; has little phonemic awareness
Is beginning to match words orally by initial consonants
May be unsure of terms such as word, sentence, letter, initial, final, left, right
May lack knowledge of word meanings or information required to understand text
Why is this important? Navigating texts and understanding its components is beginning knowledge children should know in order to develop reading and writing skills.
If your child is in need of developing these characteristics, reach out to us for a free 30 minute consultation at: info@cuenye.com