How to Help a Beginning Reader Decode Unfamiliar Words

Posted on November 20th, 2010 by Carolyn Hart in Learn to Read Printables, Games and Activities for Parents and Teachers

There are all sorts of ways we can help children to read unfamiliar words. When children struggle to decode an unfamiliar words, here are some strategies to suggest.

Picture Clues – Almost all books for beginning and emergent readers are generously illustrated. We want children to “read” the pictures and use what they see in the illustrations to help them read the text. Encourage your child to look at the illustrations and see if there are clues in the illustrations that can help. Remember, even before children start reading independently, we can pause to discuss and investigate illustrations for story clues. We can encourage children to think about the relationship between the illustrations and the text. Wordless picture books are a great resource for pre-readers and children who are beginning to read. They offer opportunities to practice reading and interpreting illustrations.

Blending Letter Sounds – Many of the words that children encounter in books for beginning readers can be decoded by “sounding out.” Encourage your child to begin with the sound made by the first letter in the word. Continue with subsequent letters and sounds. Finally, mush the sounds together until they blend. Note: we can help children to learn this skill (before they start reading or once they have begun to read) by giving them sounds to mush or blend together. For example, “Blend these three sounds and tell me what word they make /c/ /a/ /t/.”

Using Word Chunks – Some words that beginning readers encounter will have familiar parts or chunks. A child may be able to use his knowledge of other words to identify chunks within a new word. If your child can read “dog,” he should be better able to decode “hog.” Familiarity with word families and rhyming words supports this approach.

Context Clues -Some sentences and paragraphs provide clues about words that might make sense. For example, if a child encounters this sentence: The brown dog jumped up and _______. If the first letter in the unknown word is “b,” what might be a logical guess? Keep in mind that sometimes a child uses clues and makes a logical guess that is not correct. For example and child might substitute “house” for “home.” When a child makes a guess that is logical (given the clues) but incorrect, we usually would not interrupt his reading to correct the mistake.