How do I help my child read unknown words?
When children encounter unknown words when reading, successful decoding allows them to use their knowledge of letter-sound relationships to accurately read a word. This web page will provide you with an alphabet chart that can serve as a helpful reminder for your child when recalling a specific letter-sound relationship when reading an unknown word. In addition to decoding, there are other word-solving actions that enable children to use their knowledge of the language system to solve words. These word-solving actions are explicitly taught by teachers to provide students with strategies for reading unknown words and you can reinforce these same strategies at home. Rapid, automatic word solving is a basic component of fluency and important for comprehension because it frees children's attention to focus on the meaning and language of text. This web page will provide you with some strategies to help your child figure out unknown words that they encounter when reading.