I have been working with both girls on their reading and with my sister and niece on helping her become a proficient reader as well. In thinking about this journey with these precious girls, I have thought of 5 different things that parents or teachers should listen for when they listen to their readers. I know that it is vital to correct readers as they read so that they do not develop compensation strategies or learn bad or incorrect reading habits. However, if you don’t know what you are listening for or what to do when you do hear your child make mistakes then it can feel like a useless and frustrating experience. So, I have put together a few things to listen for and some possible causes and correcting strategies for those specific mistakes.

1. Mispronunciation of letter sounds

If your child is reading and they read an unknown word with one mispronounced sound, like reading last instead of the list, pat instead of put or sit instead of lit, then the first step would be to ask then to sound out the word. If they sounded it out to begin with, but read one of the sounds incorrectly, ask them to sound it out again. If the wrong sound is used again, ask the reader to spell the word. Then have them sound it out again. If they are still using the incorrect sound, ask them the sound of the letter they are miscueing on. If they give the correct sound have them sound out the word again. Repeat this until they use the correct sound with each letter. If they give you the wrong sound for the miscued letter, give them the correct sound and have them repeat the sound to you a few times. Then have them sound out the word again. Once they have sounded out the word correctly continue on.

If this is an extremely frustrating process for your child you might just note the miscued word and letter. Then work on it at a better time when they are fresh and are less likely to reach frustration level. Also, always note the letters that your reader miscues on, especially if it is the same letter/letters repeatedly. Then at a separate time work on the sound of that letter to increase automaticity of the sound. Often when a reader is making this kind of miscue they may know the sound the letter makes (they have accurate knowledge of the sound), but they do not have instant recall of it (they do not have automatic knowledge of the sound).

2. Word Calling

My oldest tends to start doing this when she gets tired of reading. My youngest does it when she’s reading at the upper level of her independent reading band or she is intimidated by what she is reading or her audience. Word calling is when a reader looks at the first or first couple of letters and then just calls a word from their oral vocabulary that matches that letter or beginning like saying instance for ice, or yellow for yelling, or accentuate for accident. That last one may seem unlikely for you, but I have certainly heard something similar from my oldest. She has a large oral vocabulary that far exceeds to her sight word vocabulary. If you are not sure what sight word vocabulary is, I explain it more in my post on Orthographic Mapping. So, once she’s tired of reading and sounding out words she will just sound out the first couple letters and then pull a word form her oral vocabulary and use it instead of whatever is actually written on the page. The most remarkable thing is that even with doing this and often making the mistake talked about in number 5 she manages to gain the gist of the story and typically have remarkable comprehension!

One strategy that I have seen for this is from the book Equipped for Reading Success by David Kilpatrick. He talks in it about compensation strategies struggling readers will use and he suggests sometimes having students work out words from the middle out or from the end forward. That means choosing one of the syllables from the end or middle and covering the rest of the word up and then work from that point to the rest of the word. So, if your readers was word calling the word invisible, you could have them read the consonant le syllable at the end by covering up everything but ble, then add in visi for visible and then add in the prefix to read the whole word invisible.

Another thing I work on with my girls is just telling them to reread and to always be sure to read all the way through the word. I generally use this when it is a shorter word they are word calling with, like saying bath for bird. Another thing to consider if this is happening a lot with your reader is that possibly they are feeling really taxed with the level or amount of reading they are doing in each sitting. So, you can either give them shorter passages to read or easier books for a time in order to increase their sight vocabulary before moving back to the longer or higher level passages or books. You can also just limit the amount they are reading from the same level of text, a chapter instead of the whole book, or a page instead of a chapter or trade off one sentence that you read and one sentence that they read.

3. Sounding out known words

I find that this happens sometimes when a reader gets nervous about a change in their audience or overwhelmed with the text they are reading. Sometimes, I think it also just happens by habit. If a reader has been reading a passage or book, especially if it a decodable text, and they have kept automatically reading a word that is in their sight vocabulary and then all of a sudden they try to sound it out instead, there are usually a few reasons I have noticed. One is that they are paying more attention to who is listening and worrying about their reaction than they are paying to the text or story. Another reason is that they are used to being prompted to sound words out and they revert to that habit. A third and similar reason is that the sentences or page that the student in on has several other words that the reader does have to decode (sound out) and so again they revert to that habit even on a word that they don’t have to use decoding to read.

I find it most helpful to just prompt them to read the whole word at once. Or, if it is a word that has been repeated throughout the text and they have been reading it automatically from their sight vocabulary, I show them one printing of it that they read automatically and the one they just sounded out and show then that they are the same word. I will often interrupt their sounding out to show them the match, so that they do not fully revert to sounding out that word.

4. Using the wrong vowel sounds

Sometimes when a learner is reading they will use a long vowel sound when they should use a short sound or visa versa. This is generally a similar issue to using the wrong sound for one of the letters when sounding out words. You may notice this as a new problem for a reader who has never done it before after introducing long vowel sound words like Open Syllables or Silent e Syllables. Then the learner may over apply those rules and start reading CVC words they never had trouble with before with long vowels, like reading cat as cate or pick as pike. This is again a problem with having accurate knowledge of a vowel rule, but not automatic knowledge. This can best be addressed with additional practice with a blending board and going back and forth between open and closed syllables like he and hen and practice with words like can and then adding a Silent e and making the word cane. As the reader gets more practice with activities like this their knowledge grows from accurate to automatic.

5. Reading the wrong word with the correct letters

This is the hardest one for me to give suggestions on. First, let me tell you what I mean by it. This is when a reader reads left for felt. So, they have seen all the letters and are using the correct sounds for them, but they have reordered them in their brain and called the wrong word. The best hope here would be that the reader would be paying enough attention to the story or passage that they would recognize their error when the sentence no longer makes sense. Sadly, that is not always the case.

The first thing I would try when this happens is to simply stop the reader and tell them to reread the sentence that the incorrect word was in. If the reader doesn’t correct their mistake then I would ask them to tell me the meaning of the sentence and reread again. I would do this to see if that causes them to correct their misread. If it still doesn’t correct their mistake then I would have them sound out that specific word. At times I have had readers who struggle a lot with this difficulty, sound the word out correctly and still say the misread word. So, the child reading left incorrectly as felt would correctly sound out /l/ /e/ /f/ /t/ and then when blending together into the word would still say felt. I would ask them to try again a couple of times. If it still doesn’t work, I will sound out the word orally to the student and see if that causes them to hear left instead of felt. If that still doesn’t work, I will ask them to say the sounds and ask them if that makes the word felt or left. Often by this point, especially if they are listening and not looking at the word they will call the correct word. The last thing I try to do for this is to have the child tell me the word again and then spell it for me to help move them to completing their orthographic mapping of that word.

Now you have a few specific things to listen for when listening to your growing readers. And some strategies that will help you help them outgrow some of these limiting habits. Also, here are a few of my biggest take aways from working with readers:

1. Some accurate reading is better than a lot of inaccurate reading
2. Never be afraid to let readers read easier text on occasion to build confidence and alleviate compensating habits
3. Be sure to encourage and compliment as often as you corret
4. Use as many authentic reading opportunities as possible for practice, (reading to younger students, reading directions, reading a recipe, etc.)

Let me know if you have encountered any of these struggles with your readers. If you try any of these tips to help them overcome these troublesome habits, please share how it goes.