Decoding can be very laborious for the beginner reader. Here are a few tips that can make the experience successful and rewarding.
- Encourage the child to blend sounds throughout each word.
- Be patient: give the child time to work out a word by sounding it out.
- If the child doesn’t know the sound of a grapheme, tell them them what it is but let them blend it into the word themselves.
- If the child has omitted sounds or inserted sounds into a word, point out where this has happened so the graphemes and phonemes match. Give the child the opportunity to self-correct.
- If you encounter a non-decodable high-frequency word, first sound it out (pointing to the graphemes) and then, if necessary, read it for the child.
- Read each sentence for the child after they have decoded it, in order to aid comprehension,
- Explain new words.
- Discuss the theme of the book, and relate it to the child’s personal experiences.