By second grade, much of the developmental skill needed from kindergarten and first grade is developed, making second grade the time to work on reading more quickly. We call being able to read quickly, fluency. The goal to reading with fluency is to be automatic and effortless in letter naming, letter sounds, sight words, and the ability to put sounds together to read words. Reading to a fluent level is a complex activity for the brain to do. But with practice, the brain is "retrained" to automatically recognize a letter, the assigned sound, and then recognize it as a word to read it. All of this is possible because of the prior stages of development. Remember when your child was learning to walk? There was a developmental age range when your child would walk. Some children walk early at 7 months old, and some child walk later at 16 months old. The process is developmental. Reading is a developmental process. Reading is not connected to a specific age, or grade in school. By meeting your child where they are developmentally, our reading team works toward developing skills in a developmentally appropriate sequence. It may be possible that in second grade, first grade skills (or in some cases kindergarten skills) still need to be developed in order for automatic reading to occur. If you are finding that it is difficult for your child to read automatically, it is completely acceptable to move to a different level to meet them where they are. Remember, it takes practice at the correct developmental level!
Automaticity is the fast, effortless word recognition that comes with a great deal of reading practice. In the early stages of learning to read, readers may be accurate but slow and inefficient at recognizing words. Continued reading practice helps word recognition become more automatic, rapid, and effortless.
Automaticity refers only to accurate, speedy word recognition, not to reading with expression. Therefore, automaticity (or automatic word recognition) is necessary, but not sufficient, for fluency.
Automaticity is the fast, effortless word recognition that comes with a great deal of reading practice. In the early stages of learning to read, readers may be accurate but slow and inefficient at recognizing words. Continued reading practice helps word recognition become more automatic, rapid, and effortless.
Automaticity refers only to accurate, speedy word recognition, not to reading with expression. Therefore, automaticity (or automatic word recognition) is necessary, but not sufficient, for fluency.
Find ways to read, write, and tell stories together with your child. Always applaud your young reader and beginning story writer! The tips below offer some fun ways you can help your child become a happy and confident reader. Try a new tip each week. See what works best for your child.