Phonics and guessing.....

[Allison TX]

My dd 6 is almost through with the Reading Lesson. We're on lesson 17.

She is doing great, but has recently started guessing at words instead of sounding them out. Especially if we are reading a book with pictures, she will scan the page looking for clues before attempting to sound out some words. Is this okay? I'm worried that despite all the phonics we have done that she has gotten into a habit of sight reading.

Also, should I still begin the emerging readers with her when we finish the Reading Lesson? Or should I have her keep working on phonics with ETC? Or do both? Any thoughts or encouragement?

Allison

[Tansy]

If it was me I'd be covering up the pictures so she has to guess using the phonics clue.

but ultimately sight reading is what we do, do when we learn to read. Just some brainiac educator thought you could skip a step and not bother with phonics. She is just doing what her brain really wants to do read it fast...

[1GirlTwinBoys]

I tried to post earlier and it disappeared.

My daughter is 6 and doing the same thing. I think it's because she is trying to read fast and then it causes her to just guess. She will get the initial blends and then just totally add in sounds that are not even there for the rest of the word. I talked to her about it and told her that speed will come later and for now she needs to concentrate on saying the words correctly. She has done so much better the last week and I can tell a huge difference. Her brothers are a year younger than her and reading fluently so I think she is just trying to keep up with them.

[Allison TX]

Thank you both. I do think part of it is that she really wants to read faster. She doesn't like to take the time to sound it out, especially if it is a long word. It's nice to know other six year old do this too.

[pollo_la]

Sometimes when my dd misreads words it is because she is trying to go to fast and "misses" some of the sounds in the word. What works great for this is to have her use her finger and have her finger "trace" under the word as she reads. This causes her to slow down and really look at all the sounds. She never seems to miss the sounds when I have her do this.

[my3sons]

It helped my ds to give him a practice session before he read out loud to me. Maybe you could give her a chance to practice the words on her own, and then she could reread them to you out loud? The only thing with this is they need to do it twice because it's really important they do read it out loud to us as parents. My ds liked reading it twice - mainly because he liked first doing it independently, and then liked being able to read it faster for me when he did it the second time. If your dd would be prone to say, "But I already read it once, why do I have to do it again?" then this idea probably isn't a good one.

In Christ,
Julie

[water2wine]

I think this is a normal thing. I have two that are reading well that do this and then I have one that has learning issues but she does it differently. So I handle them differently. I'll share the one that relates to you first. The two that really are reading well and just sometimes guess instead of read they get either a "beep" in a funny way a small tickle or a hint on the way the word sounds. They know if they get a tiny little pinch (and don't freak out I am not talking about a real one that hurts we are talking pretend) that the ou or the ow says the "o" sounds as in "OUCH!" or if it was oa and they could not see it I would touch their nose (or even pull on their toe) and say it sounds like this and that will make them get it. And I will sometimes do something that kind of acts out the word and gives the answer but also tells them to slow down and read. I find that gets them off doing that because it just makes them focus.

The one that has real reading issues I do the same thing but I will break down the word cover up parts of it get out the chalk board or whatever it takes to make her see the real word. She also reads it ahead before we ever read together but still she will need my help because her mind tricks her to see different words or else completely different spelled words with the same meaning which is very interesting to me. And if she does that I will ask her to show me the letter that is not there but obvious in the wrong word she said and that causes her to refocus.

This is just stuff I do so take it at that. It just works for me. Hope there is something there that helps!

[Allison TX]

Thanks for all the great suggestions. I will be trying them out next week.