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Does your child guess at unknown words instead of sounding them out?
The “word guessing” habit can stand in the way of learning to read. In this post, you’ll learn why kids guess and how you can solve the problem.
Kids don’t guess to annoy us or because they’re lazy; they may simply be using the process that seems most logical or intuitive to them.
Some kids guess because they have been taught to guess. Believe it or not, guessing is taught as a reading strategy in many schools, so previous teachers may have encouraged a student to look at the pictures or use context clues to see if he could figure out what the unknown word was.
Guessing is common among children who have been taught with the whole word or sight word method. They are accustomed to looking at the beginning letters and shapes of the words instead of paying attention to each phonogram in the word.
Some kids guess because they don’t know what else to do. They haven’t been taught phonics or strategies for breaking down multisyllabic words.
What type of guesser is your child?
The All About Reading blending procedure is a great solution for helping word guessers.
Here at All About Learning Press, we’re big believers in finding simple solutions for solving reading problems, including word guessing. The blending procedure explained below is a highly effective method for solving this issue. This free download provides an illustrated summary of the blending technique.
With this method, your child will develop the good habit of looking at each phonogram, starting at the beginning of the word, and then progressing through each phonogram in sequence. It won’t take long before your student will transfer this blending skill to printed words and you won’t need the letter tiles.
Practice this blending procedure for a few minutes a day, five days a week, and soon you’ll be able to say adios to the word guessing habit!
Do you have a child who is a word guesser, or did you manage to escape this bad habit?
Anacastro
says:I have been searching to find a comfort or effective procedure to complete this process and I think this is the most suitable way to do it effectively.
Robin
says: Customer ServiceThank you, Anacastro.
Marriah
says:Looking forward to trying this with my son, I will be placing an order to start AAR level 1 and AAR Pre-Reading soon!
Robin
says: Customer ServiceSounds great, Marriah! Let me know if you have any questions as you order or get starting with All About Reading.
Deborah
says:I have some who also guess just endings (multiple syllable words). They read half the word correctly and then just make up something. Curious if there are strategies for that. I encourage them to follow through each syllable like swinging a baseball bat all the way through.
Robin
says: Customer ServiceThat’s a great approach, Deborah!
I found that making guessing take more time and effort than just sounding out completely the first time to help break this habit. So, when my child misread a word, I’d wait until the end of the sentence and then say, “Ooops, that’s not quite right. Read that one again.” If he misread the word again, then I’d stop and build it with tiles and have him divide the syllables, read each one, and then read the entire word. Then we’d go back and he’d read the entire sentence again. Just a couple of times of that and he stopped guessing completely during our the time each day that he read aloud to me. And, in time, the practice with sounding out multisyllable words led to him not needing to guess even when he was reading alone.
However, if you need more ideas or tips, please let me know. I’m happy to help!
Kimberly E.
says:My son wants to read faster and often guesses at longer/unfamiliar words now (we are on level 4 and have AAR from the beginning). I have to remind him to slow down and break words down often, but once he does it he can read the words correctly. He has all the tools, it’s just a matter of getting him to slow down and use them.
Robin
says: Customer ServiceExactly, Kimberly!
Kristin C.
says:This is a new issue for us. My daughter is in AAR 1 and she’s a last letter guesser. She’ll say sam instead of sat or man instead of map. We’re working on blending (she’s 4 but ambitious) and has mastered many two letter words. She’s so excited to read them automatically that now she rushes trying to blend the three letters words. She honestly doesn’t even look at the card when saying the third letter. I try to slow her down, but she’s wanted to read since she turned 3 and she gets frustrated that she can’t.
Robin
says: Customer ServiceKristin,
Bless her enthusiasm!
You can get her to slow down and pay more attention to that last letter by making guessing require more time and effort than not guessing. You do this by stopping work with the Word Cards, building the word with letter tiles, and taking her through the full Blending Procedure, especially the cumulative blending part. Talk with her about how it is important to pay attention to every letter in a word and using the letter tiles helps her to do that.
(The Blending Procedure is taught in Lesson 1 and it is also found in Appendix C of the Teacher’s Manual. You can also download a printable of it in this blog post and in our Helping Kids Sound Out Words blog post.)
Most children will quickly learn to slow down and read each word carefully to avoid having to stop everything to use the letter tiles. This approach also shows to the child how important careful reading is to you, that it’s not just about getting through the stack of cards. Plus, it moves the responsibility for slowing down from the teacher (reminding, nagging, etc.) to the child, where it needs to be anyway for working toward the goal of highly accurate, independent reading.
Be willing to end a lesson as soon as frustration shows up. Children of any age do not learn well when they are frustrated, so continuing at that point isn’t helpful. Discuss with her that reading takes a lot of time to learn how to do, and most kids don’t learn how to do it until they are 5 or 6 years old. Let her know if she is getting upset that it isn’t coming quick and easy, then she may be better off playing outside or building with blocks (or whatever she likes). Be clear that it’s not bad that she is frustrated, just that that day may not be a good day for reading.
While it is exciting to go forward with a young child’s desires to learn, there is a strong development component to learning how to decode. Desire is not enough if a child is truly not ready. I say this from personal experience. One of my sons cried regularly because I wouldn’t teach him to read, but I was actually trying and he just could not get decoding. He started begging when he was 3 and he was 6 before he was successful with All About Reading Level 1. (Even though he had known his letters since he was 3, it took doing the Pre-Reading Level around the time he turned 6 for him to finally be successful with decoding. He need the focused worked on phonological awareness that level provides for him to be ready to read.)
Amanda Rodríguez
says:My son does a bit of #2 and #4. I always remind him that there is no need to guess, that he has all of the “tools” needed to read the word. I find that reminding him that it is actually faster to read the word rather than guess will usually get him to stop the guessing.
Robin
says: Customer ServiceWhat a great approach, Amanda! Sounds like your son is dong very well with reading too!
Jessica Friday
says:My son is falling into this habit out of the desire to read faster. I’m always reminding him to slow down. It’s so comforting to know that he’s not the only one who does this!
Robin
says: Customer ServiceJessica,
I’m glad it’s helpful for you to know your son is not the only one that experiences this. With practice, he too will overcome this tendence to guess at words.
Kerry Rowe
says:My daughter has dyslexia and we struggle with word guessing. I’m so glad to have found this program to help her out!
Robin
says: Customer ServiceKerry,
I’m glad this program will help you daughter! Let me know if you have questions about placement or anything else.
Lindsey
says:This was a very helpful article, and the comments and responses gave helpful information and insight, too. My daughter is an occasional guesser. I suspect it is because she is trying to read faster, and she doesn’t want to take the extra bit of time to sound out a less familiar word.
Robin
says: Customer ServiceIt is likely you are correct, Lindsey! Children often try to fluently read words they aren’t quite ready to read fluently by guessing. The tips for breaking this habit are the same, however. Practice sounding the words out.
Alexa
says:Going to try this with my daughter, hopefully it will help her!
Robin
says: Customer ServiceI hope it helps your daughter too, Alexa. However, if you need additional help or have questions, please let me know. I’m happy to aid however I can!
Lana
says:This is extremely helpful! I have a word guesser and I thought it might be unique to him. I’m glad it is common and something we can overcome! Thank you!!
Robin
says: Customer ServiceLana,
Word guessing is fairly common, but it isn’t terribly hard to break the habit. I’m glad this article was helpful, but let me know if you have further questions. I’m happy to help!
Miroslava Olguin
says:My daughter is a first letter guesser.
Robin
says: Customer ServiceI’m sorry to hear that, Miroslava. I hope you find the tips in this article helpful. Let me know if you have questions though.
Sara
says:My child is a combo of #1 and #2 Word Guesser. The weird thing is, we started with the AAR program when we were homeschooling, but now she’s in public school, and all of a sudden she is guessing again. I am not sure how reading is being taught in class, but perhaps reviewing the AAR will help? Hopefully it doesn’t contradict what’s being taught in class, because I am sure that would be really confusing for her. I know that they do the Sight Word Busters at school. Is that a hindrance?
Robin
says: Customer ServiceSara,
Focusing on having children memorize high-frequency words (such as Sight Word Busters do) can make word guessing worse. Children are often encouraged to guess at sight words they should know, so they pick up the habit of guessing at every word. Sadly, most high-frequency words are completely decodable and don’t have to be memorized (this video shows that 90% of the Dolch Sight Word list are decodable).
One way you can help your child break the word guessing habit is to encourage her to use what she learned in AAR instead of guessing. Because, even with words that aren’t 100% decodable, most of the phonograms in the words do say what we expect. So sounding the word out will get the child close to the right word, and then context will help with the sound or two that isn’t expected. For example, when a child approaches the word many, sounding it out gets may-nee. Well, that isn’t far off from the correct word, so no guessing was needed.
I hope this helps some. I’m sorry your child is having to deal with something like this.
Heidi
says:Definitely had a guesser! I covered the pictures sometimes!
Robin
says: Customer ServiceHeidi,
Yes, the pictures can be a problem in many books. That’s why the illustrations in our All About Reading Readers were carefully designed to add to the story but not give away any of the text.
Genevieve
says:My son can blend words, but still often guesses just because he’s in a hurry. I keep reminiscing him to read the actual word or read the letters, and then he will focus in enough to read it.
Robin
says: Customer ServiceGenevieve,
Yes, I’ve seen this somewhat often in children. They start to get fluent at reading and they find that reading is easier when they just know words and don’t have to sound them out. So they try to “know” words they don’t actually know.
You may consider waiting until your son finishes an entire sentence before stepping in, to give him a chance to notice his poor guess and self-correct. If he does self-correct, praise him! That’s a needful skill for the future; we all make mistakes when reading at times.
If he doesn’t self-correct, say “Ooops, that sentence wasn’t quite right. Let’s read it again.” Also, if his guess makes the sentence not make sense, be sure to point that out. “Oh, that didn’t make sense, did it?” This will encourage him to think about what he is reading as he reads it, which will lead to him being more likely to self-correct.
When he reread the sentence, he will (hopefully) pay closer attention to each word and read the sentence correct. If he doesn’t, however, then build the guessed word with tiles and have him work through the blending procedure. Once he reads the word correct with tiles, then have him reread the entire sentence again so it gets the word in context before moving on to the next sentence.
All this takes more time than just stopping him immediately after he misreads a word, but it is time well spent. It encourages his ownership of accurate reading by giving him the opportunity to self-correct, and it gives him the message that you think accurate reading (and not guessing) are important.
Let me know if you have questions. I’d love to hear how things go after you try this approach out for a few days!
Hanna
says:Thank you so much for this information. It helps me a lot in realizing why my child is guessing so much and what to do about it.
Robin
says: Customer ServiceYou’re welcome, Hanna. I’m glad this is helpful, but if you find you need more ideas or help, please ask. I’m happy to help!
Krystal Oden-Seals
says:Thanks! This is some for helpful information and I can’t wait to use it.
Robin
says: Customer ServiceYou’re welcome, Krystal! I’m glad this is helpful for you. However, if you have additional questions or need more help, please ask. We’re happy to help!
Brenda Arnaud
says:I have a word guesser. She just wants to be the first one to answer it. So she will keep guessing until it’s right.
Robin
says: Customer ServiceBrenda,
I’m sorry to hear your child is so set on guessing and guessing. I think stopping her guessing after the first try to have her sound out the word phonogram by phonogram will definitely help. However, if you need more help or suggestions, please let me know. I’m happy to help.
Rachel
says:Thank you for these tips! They’re so helpful. My kids tend to guess at words and I’ll definitely be using these tips during our next lesson.
Robin
says: Customer ServiceI’m glad this is helpful, Rachel! However, if you find you need more help or ideas, let us know. We’re happy to help!
F Nanashima
says:My 5-year-old is a “word shape guesser” for big words. We’ve only completed Level 1 so far, but she now reads hard books by herself, and she’ll shout out, for instance, “Mummy, what sound does b,e,c,a,u,s,e make?” I tell her “That spells because.” Then the next time she sees it, she knows it. I think she is just memorizing the word as one big chunk, because (example) having learned “because,” she’ll then see “believe” and read it as “because” as it has the same rough shape. To be fair she will reach the end of the sentence, realise that “because” didn’t make sense, and go back to the beginning of the sentence and ask me for help. Then she’ll memorize “believe” as a chunk, and on we go. My question: is it OK to just let her do this? Should I be trying to stop her in the middle of reading and teach her the phonograms she’s running into that she hasn’t learned yet? I think that might be counter-productive as she’s having fun reading. She doesn’t want to stop and study in the middle of an exciting story. Is there any harm in letting her, essentially, memorize her way through the entire English language?
Robin
says: Customer ServiceOne problem with memorizing your way through English is that there are just so many words that need to be learned. It is estimated that the average adult native English speaker has a vocabulary of 20,000 to 35,000 words. Memorizing that many words is just too much.
The more compelling problem, however, is what your child is already experiencing. She has no skills to read an unfamiliar word herself; she has no option but to seek help or just guess and move on. Now, at such a young age, that isn’t a big deal, but what happens when she encounters an unfamiliar word when she is older? Stop everything and look it up? Both research and personal experience tells me that will not happen. Rather, students will almost always just guess or skip an unfamiliar word and go on. This can be very detrimental to comprehension.
I was shocked to find that one of my sons was grossly misunderstanding his history and science assignments when he was in junior high. I had him read aloud to me so I could follow along and help teach the subjects to him, only to discover that his misunderstandings were the direct result of word guessing. He was guessing at almost every word that had 3 or more syllables, and the result was text that said something different than what it was supposed to say, if it made sense at all. Remediating his word-guessing habit at that point took more time and effort than if I had made sure he never developed the habit in the first place.
_____
For you daughter, first I recommend that you continue with teaching reading so that she progresses in her skills to approach unfamiliar words. When a child takes off in reading like this, there is a tendency to want to just let them read, read, read and it will all work out. However, too often that ends up like my son experienced, a student that is great at reading-for-pleasure on a lower level, but is unprepared for higher level reading-to-learn.
It is possible to skip levels of All About Reading, so you could use the reading placement test to see if she is ready for that. Even if she is reading amazingly well, years above grade level, All About Reading Level 4 will be extremely beneficial. It ensures students have the have the phonics and word attack skills necessary to sound out high school level words (though younger students may not know the meaning of all higher-level words yet). Word attack skills include things like dividing words into syllables, making analogies to other words, sounding out the word with the accent on different word parts, recognizing affixes, and so on.
You may also consider starting her in All About Spelling. The phonics, rules, and concepts used in spelling are very helpful for sounding out unfamiliar words. My son informed me many times that he had to remember to use what he learned in spelling while he was reading.
_____
Then, when your daughter encounters an unfamiliar word in her pleasure reading, instead of just telling her what the word is, sound it out for her. You don’t have to take more than half a minute or so, but sounding out “/b/-/ē/ /bē/, /l/-/ē/-/v/ /lēv/, believe” will show her that the word can be sounded out. Yes, she may still memorize it, but she will know that she doesn’t have too. She will also notice that the consonants are very regular. Even with only the phonics learned in All About Reading Level 1, the B, L, and V are all approachable for her. Plus, she already learned about open syllables and the word be in AAR 1, so that first syllable is decodable for her. That leaves only the vowel team and that silent E that she may not know. But, in context of a sentence, sounding out “be-lllll vvv” should make coming up with “believe” not too hard.
Because may seem harder, because of what we do to the second syllable, but it really isn’t that hard. Be, as discussed above, is easy. Then you sound out /k/-/aw/-/z/ (knowing that S is more likely to say /z/ when between two vowels). So, sounding out using phonics and English rules, because is /bē/-/kawz/. That is so close to how we say because that most children ready for that level of decoding don’t even blink at the difference. By that time, they have learned that when we speak normally our mouths and tongues get lazy and we muffle some vowels (see How to Teach Schwas, although technically the second syllable in because is not schwa). This is the reason why problem is prob-lum and button is but-n. Anyway, the take-away is that even phonically irregular leap words (sometimes called sight words) still have many letters that follow predictable patterns.
_____
To recap, I recommend continuing your child’s reading instruction and to help her with words in her pleasure reading by sounding them out for her. Also, start All About Spelling. Let me know if you have questions or need tips or ideas for additional words or situations. I’m happy to help!
F Nanashima
says:Wait, you mean it’s NOT pronounced “com-PROM-ise”? :)
I was that kid, too. I still remember the awful embarrassment of grownups laughing at me at age 9 or so for mispronouncing “bicarbonate of soda” as “BICKER-bonnet of soda”! Then I grew up and let my eldest child do the exact same thing. But we can and will break the cycle with #2 and #3!
F Nanashima
says:Thank you so much for this. I hadn’t thought about later difficulties down the road, but this makes a lot of sense. My oldest daughter basically taught herself, the way #2 is starting to do now, and now at age 11, she often comes out with words that are wildly mispronounced because she has read them, picked up the meaning from context, but has no clue what they’re meant to sound like. I now understand this is a problem we could have avoided by teaching more phonics at an early age. Total lightbulb moment! I had indeed been going to let #2 just read, read, read, since it “worked” for #1 who now reads at college level. But based on your advice, I will do the placement test with her, maybe skip a level or two, and definitely do All About Spelling. Thanks again.
Robin
says: Customer ServiceYou’re welcome.
What you described about your oldest daughter brought back memories for me! I was the kid wildly mispronouncing words because I had learned them from reading and didn’t know how they were supposed to sound. It was terribly embarrassing to say “com-promise” (like “promise” with the word “com” before it) in class in 9th grade. I was approaching 40 the last time I found out I was mispronouncing a word. It was antecedent and I was saying it as “an-TIH-cih-dent.” It’s supposed to be “an-tih-CE-dent.”
You may try having her read aloud to you for about 10 minutes a day to help her with pronunciation as things come up. You could note any words she has trouble pronouncing correctly to bring up again in conversations or during school on another day as a way of reviewing to ensure she continues to pronounce the word properly. I used to have my kids read aloud to me as I made dinner or did dishes.
ELIZABETH
says:How do you extinguish an already ingrained guessing habit when reading text? I am tutoring an adult that has a habit developed over many years of guessing the simple words such as a, an, the, this, etc…..but can sound out difficult words. He is anticipating words using context clues and I am at a loss to help him break this habit. I have him track with his finger under each word in the text and I correct him each time he guesses, but even after months of working on this he still does it. Do you have any suggestions?
Robin
says: Customer ServiceElizabeth,
I’m sorry to hear that your student is having such difficulties. Such long-term habits are definitely very hard to break!
First, how are you correcting him each time he guesses? Are you immediately telling him what the word is? You may try waiting until he finishes a sentence and tell him, “Oops, that’s not quite right. Let’s read that sentence again.” Asking him to reread an entire sentence for one misread word may seem to be overkill, but sometimes it is needful to really reset the mind to start paying attention to each an every word. When he rereads the sentence knowing he misread a word but not knowing which word he misread, he will have to read with more focus on detail.
Second, take a look at our Help! My Child Skips Small Words When Reading blog post as well. Misreading small words as you listed is much the same as skipping them, and the causes and solutions for that issue are different than guessing at more difficult words.
Also, discuss with him the importance of reading for accuracy. There is a big different in meaning between “the cat” and “a cat”, between “of the house” and “for the house.” Little words can have large impact on comprehension! The only way to get good at reading accurately is to practice reading accurately, and you can help him with that practice.
However, as I mentioned above, your correction needs to be geared more to having him reread sentences rather than individual words. Oh, and if what he reads does not make sense, point that out. “Oh, that sentence didn’t make sense. Try it again.” Directing him to be thinking about what he is reading as he reads it will help with reading accuracy as well.
I hope this helps! I’d love to hear how things go. And if you have additional questions or concerns, I’m happy to help! Just ask!
HmD Gaming
says:This is very educational content and written well for a change. It’s nice to see that some people still understand how to write a quality post.!
Robin
says: Customer ServiceThank you!
Miriam
says:He I have a 9 1/2 yr old son and changing curriculum to all about reading and having a hard time know exactly how far to go back he knows the phonogram sounds equal to level 4 but was advised to go back to level three. He still struggles with knowing what his vowels and consonants are and the curriculum we were using although very phonics based we didn’t go over /learn some very basic rules…. Cvc for example . I am concerned he will be discouraged to go back to “baby reading”! Don’t know where to start. Are there Printables for quick intro and review of these basic skills?
Robin E.
says: Customer ServiceMiriam,
All About Reading includes research-based instruction in all aspects of reading, not only in phonograms and decoding skills but also in fluency, automaticity, comprehension, vocabulary, and lots and lots of reading practice. While it is good that he knows the phonograms for All About Reading Level 4, he also needs to be reading fluently with good comprehension.
Do you use our placement test to find he needs Level 3? If not, how were you advised to start with Level 3?
Just so you know, All About Reading levels are not grade levels. Level 3 does not mean “third grade”. All About Reading groups words in a logical manner based on similar rules or patterns regardless of their supposed grade level, which allows students to progress quickly and confidently.
At the end of Level 4, students have the phonics and word attack skills necessary to sound out high school level words, though younger students may not know the meaning of all higher-level words yet. (Word attack skills include things like dividing words into syllables, making analogies to other words, sounding out the word with the accent on different word parts, recognizing affixes, etc.)
You can look through the All About Reading Level 3 samples and see that it is not “babyish” at all. Much older students than your son have enjoyed and learned from this level.
I can direct you to help with specific concepts and rules, but being able to read with fluency and automaticity cannot be done from a quick introduction. So being able to read the samples in the placement test with fluency is the first key to placement.
Cara
says:My 2 kids are guessers 1, 3 and 4, depending on what we are trying to read. I constantly need to remind them to look at the word, not the picture, and then we sound out the word together.
Robin E.
says: Customer ServiceThat habit of guessing at words can be hard to break! I hope you find the tips here helpful, Cara. However, if you need more tips or suggestions as you work with your kids, please let me know. I’m happy to help!
Amy
says:Totally have a guesser! We are in Level 1 and finished through lesson 6. I’m confident he knows all the phonograms that we’ve done so far. When sounding out the words, he says each individual sound just fine. But then when he starts to blend he says the first two letter together and then abandons the mission and guesses a word often that is not anything close to what he just said. You talk about how it can be a lot to remember by they time they get to the third sound and I get that. I feel I have correctly taught how to blend and he knows the mechanics of doing it but I need to work with him more on the actual process of blending. He gets weary really quick. Any suggestions for working on blending and maybe some ways to keep his interest on it?
Robin E.
says: Customer ServiceI’m sorry your child is having difficulty with this, Amy.
I think the first thing I would do is double-check that this is the right level for him. Here’s a link to the Level 1 placement test. I would especially look at the phonological awareness section, as that is an important indicator for reading readiness.
If he’s struggling with phonological awareness skills, then it’s probably the best place to start. Skills like being able to blend words orally and being able to identify first and last sounds in a word are very important to reading. Blending written words is dependent on these skills. You might want to read this article on Fun Ways to Develop Phonological Awareness for more help in understanding these skills. It includes some free download activities to practice them as well. If he improves with those, he may be fine trying level 1 again. If he’s still struggling though, then try Pre-reading.
Assuming he does fine on the Level 1 placement test and shows that he is ready for level 1, then he needs to no move forward in Level 1 unit he has mastered sounding words out. He needs to be able to sound words out without difficulty or help before moving past the first two or three lessons, actually.
Here are some things you can do to work on his ability to blend easily:
Make sure to work on reading daily. (You may already be doing that, but I always like to double-check!) We recommend working for about 20 minutes per day on reading, but it is best to do even shorter lessons if your student grows tired or frustrated sooner.
Review the Blending Procedure at the start of each day. (Before anything else.) You want to make sure he is doing every step as shown in the book and in our Helping Kids Sound Out Words blog post. I would start each day with a tile demonstration until he is able to demonstrate all the steps back to you. (Help as much as he needs while he’s learning to do this, but eventually, it should be easy for him and he will be able to demonstrate it without help):
– First, point to each letter and say the sounds. “/p/-/ă/-/t/”
– Second, draw the finger under the first two letters. Blend those and then point to and say the last sound. This cumulative blending step is really important for kids who tend to forget the sounds or mix them up if they try to jump from the first step to the fourth. “/pă/-/t/”
– Third, draw the finger slowly under all three letters and blend those. “/păt/”
– Fourth, say it fast or “say it like a word.”
It may be that focusing on the third cumulative blending step helps your son with this difficulty. It often does for children.
However, you may need to model the full blending procedure (stressing the cumulative blending step) for your son and then have him do it for the exact same word. You may need to model every word for him this way for a while before he can do it easily. But once he can do it easily, try changing just the final letter and see if he can blend the new word without you modeling it first. If he has trouble with it, then model it for him and then have him do it so he can have success with it.
The Change-the-Word activities in the Teacher’s Manual are especially helpful for working on blending and paying attention to all sounds in a word. Change one letter at a time, starting with simple 3-sound words like: bat-sat-sit-sip-tip-top…and so on.
Work on oral blending. You say the sounds of a word you are thinking of, and then he blends them into a word. Can he guess a word that you mean if you just say the sounds? Do easy 3-sound words first, like /k/-/ī/-/t/ (kite). This is a game that can help develop his blending skills. If he can blend orally, then he is on his way to being able to blend written words.
You can make this easier to do it as a part of an “I-Spy” game. Say, “I spy with my little eye something that sounds like /s/-/ŏ/-/k/.” (Choosing something that is within your child’s line of sight.)
Let him say sounds for you to blend too, even if they make nonsense words. Laugh and have fun with it! Hearing you blend sounds can help him begin to hear how individual sounds change slightly when they are blended.
If you are on our Facebook Support group, here’s a great video that a mom shared about teaching her daughter oral blending. If you aren’t in the group already, you can request to join and we’ll get you approved.
Another thing that you can do with young kids that’s fun: (First the parent demonstrates this, and then the child mimics.) Lay three sheets of colored paper on the floor. Write one letter on each sheet of paper, like M – A – P. Jump on the first paper and say /mmmmm/. Jump on the second paper and say /ăăăăă/. Jump on the third paper and say /p/. Then start over, and do it quicker: /mmmmăăăă/-/p/, and then /mmmmmmăăăăăp/. Finally, run across the papers and say “MAP!” You can do a similar activity on the table with a race car and letters written on index cards.
You can also play oral segmenting games. Say a word that has 2 or 3 sounds, and see if he can say the sounds in that word. Here’s a video that demonstrates how to segment sounds. (This post also talks about spelling, but don’t work on that yet–just segmenting words orally.)
Another game I used to play with my kids: I would pull down 3 letter tiles such as c, t, and a. I would draw 3 blanks on the board and say, “I want to make the word cat. What’s the first sound in cat?” (/k/) “Right! Which letter should I put first?” (see if he puts the C in the blank, or help him do that.). “Good! What’s the second sound in cat? /kăăăăt/” (/ăăă/) and so on. See if he can help you make the 3-sound word, and then model how to sound it out and read it using the full blending procedure.
Just play around with the tiles and other activities and games for a few weeks and see if he starts to catch on to blending. I hope this helps! Please let me know if you have additional questions.
Ashleigh
says:Came upon this blog post after struggling with teaching blending to my 5 year old son, who was starting to act out because he was frustrated. Cutting down to 10 minute lessons and doing some of the “fun” activities you mentioned above really helped to alleviate his frustration with learning to blend. We’ve camped out in Lesson 2 for a week and a half, but he is now reading three word sentences, and I feel confident he is ready to read the first story in Lesson 3. Better than that, his frustration is gone and he is feeling more confident in his own abilities! Thank you for your suggestions!
Robin E.
says: Customer ServiceAshleigh,
I am so happy to hear that your son was able to get blending down and is ready to move forward! It sounds like you did great work teaching him! Thank you so much for sharing what worked with your son.
Gale
says:What helped my child the most was practicing some with nonsense words. After our phonics lessons he seemed to understand the concepts, but when he would encounter similar words in other texts, he would “guess or give up.”
Someone who used Barton suggested adding nonsense words practice. So, after every phonics lessons I’d make up some fake words using the phonics concepts we had learned to practice them by writing them on a dry erase board, and also, after he could read these well, I would mix them up with other concepts (like after we had covered r controlled vowels and silent e words I might give him “zar zat zate” to read), and every time he missed one remind him of the phonics rule. I saw results almost immediately, and they were big. And it worked…in reading if he’d come across a word he didn’t know he would try to sound it out in stead of just guessing, and his reading really started taking off.
Robin E.
says: Customer ServiceI’m glad to hear nonsense words has worked so well for your child, Gale!
Nonsense words are used in some programs to help stop kids from guessing at words, because they have to be sounded out. All About Reading doesn’t include them. Nonsense words can help some kids and overly frustrate others, and it can take careful attention to the child’s responses to decide whether they will be useful. Marie Rippel, the author of AAR, likes reading first and foremost to make sense to kids, and so she decided not to include them for these reasons.
However, AAR includes names and less common vocabulary, which many people find fulfills a similar purpose. Activities like the change-a-word activity and the fluency pages also help children have to focus on decoding (they can’t guess based on context the way some children can with a story).
Another issue with nonsense words is that sometimes they are phonetically confusing. Does the word sut rhyme with but or put? Should bo sound like go or do? We have seen such ambiguities on nonsense word evaluations, and students are marked down for trying a less common but phonetically correct sound. That can be pretty discouraging for a student!
When you do end up use nonsense words as you do the activity as you described, we recommend letting your student know if you will be including nonsense words. This way, the student isn’t trying to identify a word they recognize.
Mira
says:My 7 year old often guesses words beginning with the last letter of the word in the text. Or she will just start telling the story based on the pictures and is not paying any attention to the text. She was diagnosed at 3 with speech apraxia so spelling and reading have been a struggle because she says the wrong sounds often. In preschool and kindergarten her school used Heggerty’s, which I did like. But now that we are homeschooling (the past year and a half, is behind due to the pandemic closures, and is at a mid first grade level for ELA skills), I’m struggling to find the system of teaching that will match her challenges and turn them around into strengths. I’m going to do the spelling and reading placement tests with her, but are there blog posts I’m missing or anything else you might know of for students like her?
Robin E.
says: Customer ServiceMira,
You may find our blog post on Auditory Processing Disorder: 10 Ways to Help Your Child helpful. If a student is saying the wrong sounds for words, she may be not hearing the sounds well. But if she hears the sounds fine, you may wish to seek out speech therapy for her for pronunciation.
However, we have heard from parents that All About Reading can be a great help for students with apraxia of speech. Check out this AAR 1 review from Courtney:
“Fantastic program for kids with disabilities!
Posted by on June 5, 2019
My son is 8 years old and has Apraxia of Speech. He was held back a year because he was not ready for kinder after his 1st year of prek. This past school year (1st grade) he had made zero reading progress. He left kinder on an AR level B and was still on B at Spring Break of 1st. I did a ton of research and found AAR. I ordered Level 1 and worked with him after school. In 7 weeks, he moved to a Level C reading. This program is effective. My son’s Apraxia affects all of his learning but specifically reading, writing, and spelling. This program has built his confidence, lowered his frustration level, and made reading fun for him.”
I do think you will find All About Reading and All About Spelling helpful for your daughter. However, we have an excellent one-year, “Go Ahead and Use It” Guarantee. If the program does not meet your needs, return it at any time within one year of purchase for a full refund of your purchase price excluding shipping, even the materials are used. Marie Rippel, the author, never wants anyone to feel “stuck” with their purchase and wants them to feel free to really try the program.
I hope this helps some, but please let us know if you have additional questions or concerns. Let me know if you need help with placement as well.
Mira
says:Thank you Robin for this feedback. It is extremely helpful to me. We will be ordering AAR level 1. I saw AAS level 1 is suggested for only after AAR level 1 is completed, so we will follow that order. We have been using BOB books and workbooks, Houghton Mifflin reading books level 1, and I’ve just been finding videos and activities to teach language arts. I need a system! I’ve been searching for what seems to make the most sense for my daughter, and I think these programs will be our next step.
Robin E.
says: Customer ServiceI’m glad my reply was helpful, Mira!
Let me know if you have additional questions or need anything. We offer full support!
Sarah Daulton
says:My 7 yo started guessing words last year and would get frustrated when I encouraged him to “sound it out” (distance learning through public school). I’m so grateful that we are now homeschooling with your program, focusing on blending and phonograms, and working at his pace! His fluency is also improving with AAR!
Robin E.
says: Customer ServiceI am so pleased to hear that All About Reading is helping your child master reading, Sarah! Thank you for sharing.
Janette
says:My granddaughter is a word guesser. We just finished lesson 8 in AAR level 1. She was beginning to complain about all the words in her review stack. I encouraged her to pause and really look at the word before she tried to read it. I also reminded her to blend the sounds one at a time to figure out what the word is. Once she actually took the time to try to decode the word instead of rushing and guessing. She blew through the review words. It was amazing.
Robin E.
says: Customer ServiceIt’s wonderful to hear that learning to decode words is helping her do better with the fluency practice sheets, Janette!
However, check out our 12 Great Ways to Review Reading Word Cards blog post for ideas on making review even more enjoyable.
Hilary Harris
says:My 14and half year old grandson has only just been diagnosed with dyslexia/disgraphia and it is quite severe. After being ‘experimented’n in so many different ways he lost interest and has stopped trying. He is intelligent with a very good memory and is a non verbal reader when he has a go.
I have found and read The Gift of Dyslexia by Ronald Davis and this a revelation to me. Do you have any experience of his methods, would it be worth me doing the training? I retired from teaching after 50 years work and still do some work. Also I am the SEND governor for my local school.I must try to get thie help before it is too late,
Robin E.
says: Customer ServiceHilary,
I am familiar with the book The Gift of Dyslexia. Davis’ descriptions of what it is like to have dyslexia and some of the strengths of many of those with dyslexia ring very true for my dyslexic husband and children. However, I did not find the Davis method for teaching reading to be successful for one of my dyslexic children, and when he had success with the Orton-Gillingham approach I used that with the rest of my dyslexic children.
Academic research over the last 80+ years has shown that the most successful approach for teaching those with dyslexia to be successful with reading and spelling is the The Orton-Gillingham Approach. All About Reading and All About Spelling are based on the Orton-Gillingham approach and are designed to be easy to teach without previous training or experience.
We offer a one-year money back guarantee for our products as well. If you purchase materials from us and find that they aren’t working for your student, you can return them for a full refund of the purchase price, excluding shipping, even if the materials are used.
Please let me know if you would like information about placement or have additional questions.