RAR #184: What to do if your developing reader skips words when reading

Speaker 1 (00:00):

Hi Sarah.

 

Holly (00:01):

Hi Sarah, my name is Holly.

 

April (00:03):

Hi Sarah, my name is April. I'm in Melbourne, Australia.

 

Speaker 3 (00:07):

I have a question about...

 

Julianne (00:09):

My name is Julianne, and we live in India.

 

Speaker 4 (00:11):

I am wondering...

 

Crystal (00:12):

Hi Sarah, this is crystal from Milwaukee, Wisconsin.

 

Speaker 5 (00:15):

Can you give me a suggestion for an especially fabulous book?

 

Sarah Mackenzie (00:23):

Hey there, I'm Sarah Mackenzie. This is the Read-Aloud Revival. And in this short episode, I'm answering one of your questions.

 

Kelly (00:31):

My question is around my developing reader. When she's reading aloud, she does not have a whole lot of difficulties with the bigger words, but what I'm finding is when she's reading aloud, she tends to skip a lot of those connecting words, like the word, the, with, and, and so what happens is there's that disconnect in making that a complete sentence, making it more difficult for her to have comprehension of what that sentence means. When she's reading to herself, I don't think that's an issue. So I would love any feedback on that, and if anybody else is experiencing this with their developing reader.

 

Sarah Mackenzie (01:11):

Hey Kelly, thank you for this question. First of all, this is super normal. When we read with our eyes, we skip stuff. Actually the better readers we are with our eyes, if we're just reading silently to ourselves, the more words we skip, the faster we get, and the more words we skip, that's just sort of... As you gain fluency and speed in your reading, you can skip a lot of those small connector words and still understand what's happening. Then when you try and read it aloud, doesn't work so well, right? Because the sentences don't make sense because our brains aren't doing that work of filling in the connector words when we read out loud. So I would bet she's a darn good reader silently, but reading aloud requires that we slow down and read every single word in order. And that's actually where a lot of the benefit of reading aloud in the first place comes in. Because we want grammatically correct sophisticated language patterns to be stored in our children's brains.

 

(02:10):

And when we read them aloud or they read them aloud or they listen to an audio book, those words read aloud are said one at a time, no words are skipped. And so those language patterns are stored in order. And then the sentences, they make sense because every word has to be said in order. Now, one way to sort of help her with this, when she's skipping over the words, she's probably kind of trying to read like she does with her eyes silently and just do it out loud. She's going to have to slow down. So see if you can help her slow down, encourage her to slow down when she's reading aloud. And then, just letting her know, hey, you're such a good reader, the faster you read, the more of those small words, you'll skip just like everybody else.

 

(02:56):

So you're going to have to slow down a little bit. You can also have her listen to audio books, read aloud, or you can read to her and she can follow along with her eyes. This is something we did in our home that was very successful. Especially during those developing reader days when one of my kids in particular, I remember had gained fluency and he was reading on his own well, but the comprehension wasn't always there. So I'd chat with him, but the books he was reading afterward, and I'd think, I think he kind of missed a lot. And so then what we did is we read together. We actually read the first book in The Incorrigible Children of Ashton Place series, The Mysterious Howling. I read it aloud to him, but I got two copies. One for me to read aloud and one for him to follow along with his eyes silently.

 

(03:44):

And that can help a lot because it can help with pacing and it can help them hear those important connector words and why they're so important not to skip. If you don't have time to do that reading, you could also do that with an audio book. You know, get the audio version of a book like The Mysterious Howling or whatever book you want and have your child use a physical copy to follow along. I recently was at a homeschooling conference and saw some new sets of readers from Usborne books. They're based on classics, and I think there are three different levels of reading ability. I got the beginner set, but there is a QR code on the back. So for example, there is... One of them is The Emperor's Nightingale. Because I think most of them are based on classics. So on the back of The Emperor's Nightingale, there is a QR code that you can scan with your phone.

 

(04:31):

And then that links to a very well done narration or audio version of the story so that your kids can read the reader and then follow along listening to someone read to them. The narrators are excellent. There's even that chime, every time you hear this chime tring, turn the page. You might remember that from books on tape, when you were a kid, I wish more audio books did that. So I was delighted by everything about these, the stories they chose, that the stories were well told, they were really well narrated. There was the chime, is all working for me. Anyway, I will... I bought a set for my own kids and I know there's a few different sets, so I will find them, and will put a link to those in the show notes for you. But hopefully those are a couple of ideas that work and it doesn't have to be the book that you have them read and listen to.

 

(05:20):

Doesn't have to be like at the top of their reading level either. What you want is for them to hear the pace of reading aloud, which is absolutely always slower than reading with your eyes. And we want those grammatically correct sophisticated language patterns to come in through the ear. Thanks so much for your question and hey listeners, if you have any questions, you can go to readaloudrevival.com/message because that's where you can leave me a voicemail. I'm answering tons of these questions on upcoming episodes of the podcast, and I want to hear yours. So go ahead and go to readaloudrevival.com/message to leave me a voice message. And I will answer as many as I can. Now let's hear from a few kids about books that they are loving these days.

 

Lillian Paul (06:12):

Hi, my name is Lillian Paul. I live in Alexandria, Virginia. I am five years old. My favorite book is Nate the Great and the Pillowcase. I like it because it's about a detective who solves cases.

 

Nora (06:35):

Hi, I'm Nora and I'm eight years old. I live in Loveland, Colorado. The book I've really enjoyed is a whole series called The Vanderbeekers. I love how they always are solving problems.

 

Gibson (06:50):

Hi, my name's Gibson. I'm from... I'm seven and I'm from Maryland. My favorite series is The Bad Guys because they're bad guys who then try to be good guys. And there very funny things happen.

 

Sarah Mackenzie (07:05):

Thanks for listening. If you've got a question for an upcoming episode, leave me a voicemail at readaloudrevival.com/message. Until next time go make meaningful and lasting connections with your kids through books.

 

(07:26):

So many of us feel overwhelmed in our homeschool. There's a lot to do, and it feels like every child needs something a little different. The good news is, you are the best person on the planet to help your kids learn and grow. And home is the best place to fall in love with books. I'm Sarah Mackenzie, I'm a homeschooling mother of six, the author of Teaching from Rest and The Read-Aloud Family. And I'm the host here on the Read-Aloud Revival podcast. This podcast has been downloaded over eight million times. And you know, I think it's because so many of us want the same things. We want our kids to be readers, to love reading. We want our homes to be warm and happy havens of learning and connection. We know that raising our kids is the most important work of our lives.

 

(08:30):

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(09:16):

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(09:45):

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