Please does fluency just 'come' or can it be helped?

[Sammiez]

Hi,
My dd reads quite well but her reading sounds awkward. Is there anything I can do or will it just 'come'.

Advice appreciated.

Thank you

I think fluency is a combination of being confident with talking, as well as being confident with reading. DD is very articulate as she is an only child and tends to socialise with our friends, most of whom are a bit older and talk to her like she is a mini adult. I'm sure that this has helped with the expression and fluency of her reading.

Also reading to your daughter will help as she will copy what you do. I always try and be a bit flamboyant when I read to DD - different accents for the characters, dramatic pauses, etc. It also means that I don't go into a coma at the millionth reading of The Enormous Crocodile...

sometimes when i help in school I stop the child when they are reading each word well btu without any fluency. We talk about what the person is saying and sometimes they just suddenly seem to get it. Its as though it comes alive for them and after that they are havign fun reading aloud.
Its moment like this that make me actually enjoy being with the children.

Fluency is a function of practice, as in any learned skill. Are you asking about the type of practice that would help develop automatic decoding, as this is the usual stumbling block with beginner readers. Other things that inpact on fluency are encountering unfamiliar vocabulary or unfamiliar sentence construction.

Thanks for responses...

Malaleuca,is there a kind of 'practice that would help automatic decoding'? That sounds like one of the things that could help my dd.

I also agree with the unfamiliar vocabulary/sentence construction too. I guess that is part of learning to read and carries on all through life.

Sammie there is a kind of practice that helps automatic decoding, and that is ...practice decoding or sounding out. I don't know what sort of books your child is using, or what sort of words she is awkward with.

IME it tends to come with interest in the books they are reading. My dd has discovered some books that she really enjoys and her reading has come along nicely at the same time with expression, etc.

Motivation leads to more practice.

For my daughter, it just took time, a lot of time. She found reading aloud frustrating so I never made her do it, but occasionally she would choose to. She started learning to read at 6.5, and around her ninth birthday she became quite fluent and able to read for extended periods. I think it was just practice.

I agree with the suggestion of reading aloud to your daughter with expression. We've also listened to many audiobooks. In his excellent book "The Read-Aloud Handbook", Jim Trelease puts forward many compelling reasons for reading aloud to children right through their teens.

If only we could be sure that waiting patiently would do the trick! I think children who do not like 'sounding-out' are unlikley to practice enough in 'silent' reading, independently, but I could be wrong.

Perhaps the advice 'read like you talk' might be suggested once you are sure your daughter is decoding accurately, but is just a bit slow and stilted. If a sentence is particularly complex, read it to her after she has decoded it, then ask her to re-read it like you.

Re-reading is valuable, plus clarifying meaning of unknown words.

I keep getting comments from school since she started Yr1 that she needs to work on fluency when all through Yr R comments were 'very fluent reading with lovely expression in the right places'. I totally agree with both as I can hear her too. Now her reading is just so awkward it sounds like she is dictating words.
I read to her with expression and voice change,play audio tapes etc.

She decodes quite well,just sooo slow. I was actually considering telling her teacher to give her easier books when after trying her with some at home she read them the same way. I am however still thinking of asking her teacher if her books could be changed.

Re:silent reading- I remember her telling me in Reception that her teacher asked her to read in her head. She sounds out fine but just picking the words since she started Yr1. We read all through the summer,at least she read a book a week and I read to them too. Can one read too much because I cannot for the life of me understand how her reading has deteriorated so.

Are you sure she was decoding in the berginning? Children who deteriorate(and it is not uncommon) do so becaqsue they had previously memorised words - eventually this becomes too difficult to maintain. Many schools give beginners books which require memorisation rather than decoding, and a false picture emerges.
You can check this by seeing if your daughter is able to read 'nonsense' words. On the website of the books I suggested earlier (www.piperbooks.co.uk)there are performance indicators. Try them.

Hmmm... When I read your first question asking if I was sure she was decoding in the beginning, I thought, yes I am sure she was. But then,at the end I wondered if I was sure she was decoding. I am not entirely certain either that she wasn't decding because she was always sounding out all through YrR and later got really fast at sounding out that I wondered if she was sounding out anymore but she was. Confused now!
I stopped making her read or making a fuss about her reading so it is no longer a chore.

Her school did a lot of ORT in YrR but now I see more of Rigby Stars.

I will try 'nonsense' words and look at that website.

Thank you again

I try so so hard not to be worried about this but just can't! If she had always read like this,I wouldn't be bothered but this is something new and the teacher puts it in the reading diary too.

I think fluency comes when they learn to scan ahead as they read. Dd's reception teacher told me that this was a developmental stage and quite a sophisticated skill, so I think she just needs to keep practising and it will come one day.