: Learning to read before yearning to read Stella Jones examines how early reading skills lay the foundation for a love of reading and academic success.

Reading is often portrayed as a gateway to adventure, knowledge and imagination, allowing us to lose ourselves in gripping stories, explore distant lands through vivid descriptions and meet vibrant characters who evoke our emotions. However, enjoying and understanding these experiences hinges on possessing a strong grasp of basic reading skills.

As discussed in part 1 of this series, the journey into the world of books begins with shared experiences with caregivers and educators. Becoming a fluent, skilled and attentive reader starts early, even before encountering a book. This early stage is heavily influenced by the quality of interactions with parents, which help expand vocabulary and comprehension.

Our human brains are pre-wired for speech and language, but they’re not pre-wired to read and writing, so mastering the basics of reading is essential before children can fully engage with the joy of stories and adventures. Reading proficiency involves more than recognising letters; it encompasses understanding phonetics, building vocabulary, developing fluency and grasping grammar. These are the building blocks that enable children to decode words and comprehend meanings efficiently.

Without these foundational skills, reading becomes a daunting task. It’s like navigating a foreign city alone and without knowing the local language — written or spoken. Similarly, attempting to read without basic proficiency can quickly lead to dissatisfaction and disaffection. Weak reading skills often lead to a vicious cycle of anxiety, where frustration compounds the struggle. Educators and caregivers play a vital role in preventing this by helping children build fluency in the foundational skills. As reading becomes more
automatic, the cycle of anxiety is broken, allowing children to approach texts with greater confidence and motivation. Focusing on skill mastery is not a chore but a gift that helps children enjoy academic tasks, stay motivated and achieve higher success rates.

Constrained and unconstrained skills
From a reading perspective, constrained skills refer to the fundamental abilities such as decoding and fluency that need to become automatic within the first few years of schooling. These skills form the basis of reading and should be mastered early to allow children to read effortlessly. When constrained skills are well-developed, children can then focus their cognitive resources on unconstrained skills, such as comprehension and critical thinking. Investing sufficient instructional, practise and rehearsal time to ensure that constrained skills are fluent and automatic enables children to fully engage with reading for learning and pleasure, supporting their overall development and love for reading.

The skill before the thrill
Cultivating a love for reading begins with building a strong foundation in reading proficiency. This journey starts with:

1. Oral language development: Engaging in conversations, listening to stories and being exposed to rich language helps build vocabulary and comprehension skills. Singing songs and reciting nursery rhymes enhances oral language development and phonological awareness and introduces rhythm, rhyme and the sounds and patterns of language.

2. Listening skills: Developing the ability to listen attentively and understand spoken language is essential for following stories, instructions and engaging in conversations.

3. Storytelling and narrative skills: Encouraging children to tell their own stories helps them understand the structure of narratives, which is important for both reading and writing.

4. Phonological awareness: Recognising and playing with the sounds in words, such as rhyming and syllable counting, lays the groundwork for understanding phonics.

5. Phonemic awareness: Identifying and manipulating individual sounds (phonemes) in words, such as blending sounds to make words and segmenting words into sounds, is crucial for decoding and spelling.

6. Print awareness: Understanding that print carries meaning, recognising signs and labels, and knowing how to handle books are foundational skills.

7. Letter knowledge: Familiarity with the alphabet, knowing the names and sounds of letters, and recognising them in different contexts prepares children for decoding words.

8. Fluency: Fluency refers to the ability to read text automatically and accurately, with appropriate prosody and understanding. Pupils must have enough skill proficiency in decoding in order to profit from fluency rehearsal.

Cracking the phonetic code
The bottom line is, pupils must crack the phonetic code. It is necessary for reading, allowing children to understand how sounds correspond to letters and words. A solid foundation in reading proficiency not only enhances a child’s ability to enjoy books but also boosts their academic performance and critical thinking skills. It allows them to delve into different worlds, understand diverse perspectives and expand their imagination.

By nurturing strong reading skills early on, parents and educators lay the groundwork for a lifelong love of reading. This love opens doors to knowledge, creativity, and personal growth. It equips children with the tools they need to succeed academically and thrive in a world driven by information and communication.

Phonics to fluency
The idea that fluency is the path to generalisation, comprehension, and reading is widely supported in educational theory. Fluency refers to the ability to read text smoothly and accurately, with appropriate expression and understanding. It plays a key role in the process of learning to read and in developing comprehension skills.

Here’s how fluency connects to these areas:

1. Generalisation: Fluency helps learners generalise knowledge because it involves applying learned skills across different contexts. When readers are fluent, they can recognise patterns, words and structures quickly, which enables them to apply their reading skills to new texts and situations.

2. Comprehension: Fluency is closely linked to comprehension. When readers are fluent, they can focus their cognitive resources on understanding the meaning of the text rather than on decoding individual words. This allows them to grasp the deeper meaning, themes and ideas presented in the material.

3. Reading development: In reading instruction, fluency is often considered a bridge between decoding and comprehension. Early readers who successfully develop fluency are more likely to enjoy reading and engage with texts more deeply, leading to better long-term literacy outcomes.

Conclusion
Children need to master foundational reading skills to enjoy and immerse themselves in books. Engaging read-aloud sessions from caregivers and educators lay this groundwork, preparing children for academic success and fostering a lifelong love for reading. Strong reading skills enhance academic performance, professional growth and personal development, enriching their understanding of the world and nurturing their curiosity and imagination. Early investment in these skills supports future success and lifelong learning.

More on reading fluency:

How I teach reading fluency ‑Town End Research School

Fluency handbook – Town End Research School