Reading Fluency

Reading fluency is the next step for your homeschool reading lessons once you have taught your child to read.

Fluency in reading is important in order to use reading as an effective learning tool. This typically happens around 9-10 years of age. Someone who reads fluently can focus on comprehension, because the decoding, or "sounding out", of words is automatic.

Three Strategies to improve fluency and increase comprehension levels include:

1. Have your child practice reading a little bit every day until it becomes automatic. Oral reading is fine, but remember some children read more proficiently when they read silently. Don't get too caught up on word calling being perfect when your child is reading orally. You know it’s automatic if they read with minimal “decoding” breaks.

2. Continue to read orally to your child. Stop every now and then and ask them to describe a character or what is happening in the plot. This checks their comprehension of the content and is sometimes called narration or visualization. If they have trouble with this for read alouds, they will probably have trouble comprehending content from books they read on their own.

3. Continue teaching reading and exploring the world. Children who have a broad knowledge base have an easier time understanding what they are reading.

Once children are fluent readers, can narrate and visualize well, and have a broad knowledge base, they are ready to use their reading skills as learning tools.

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