Help children read better

It really is that simple!*

The picture above is a visual representation of the Simple View of Reading. This is a formula based on research by Gough and Tunmer (1986) which tells us that:

word recognition (decoding) x language comprehension = reading comprehension

Simply put, a person cannot be an adequate reader without both of these components. If someone can read words fluently, but has poor vocabulary and understanding of language, they will extract no meaningful information from what they are reading. On the other hand, if someone has a broad vocabulary and age appropriate understanding of language but has poor reading fluency, they will be spending all of their time breaking words down without focusing on the content.

During an initial assessment with my clients, particularly those who are school-aged, I make sure to assess their ability to identify individual letter sounds, digraphs (e.g., /th/ in thin), and trigraphs (e.g., /igh/ in night). Can they blend these sounds to construct words (i.e., /n/ + /igh/ + /t/ = night)? Can they pull apart words into their sounds? Can they recognise words within words? These are crucial for word recognition and reading fluency.

After assessing this, I would take a look at the client’s language comprehension ability. Language comprehension in itself is a wide array of skills that we develop at a young age to understand information in our world. Some of these language comprehension skills include identifying word meanings (vocabulary), understanding different sentence structures (simple, complex), and understanding text structures (e.g., description, sequence of events etc.). Accompanying this, real word knowledge reinforces a lot of our language which is why children should be exposed to many different experiences at a young age.

For many of us, word recognition and language comprehension are subconscious processes that require a small percentage of our brain power. This means we are able to devote our brain power towards drawing conclusions about what we are reading and applying this information to our own lives (as long as we don’t get distracted by our phone!). For those with a deficit in either word recognition or language comprehension, reading is a big struggle and the motivation to carry this into their adult lives is low. Our role as Speech Pathologists is to provide our clients with the tools to read well, and to provide education to parents so they can continue the process at home.