Reading Skills

Successful reading is a mater of acquiring the proper reading skills. Good reading skills don't just happen. Good reading skills need to be taught and developed. Good reading skills will make for a good reader and good readers, over all, are happier and more successful in their careers and lives. So reading skills are very important and should not be left up to chance. It was believed until fairly recently that reading skills did not need to be taught per se. It was thought that reading skills only needed to be practiced.

It was believed that students acquired reading skills in the same manner that children acquired spoken language skills...just by immersion. It was believed that reading skills would come naturally as the need for them arose through the child's experience. But this turns out to not be the case. Reading skills must be taught and monitored to be sure a child understands them all and is using all the reading skills. Because only when the child uses all reading skills, is he going to be a successful and happy reader. Children do not acquire reading skills, at least not all reading skills, naturally, the way they acquire spoken language skills.

It is supposed that since man has been using spoken language for some ten thousand years and the average man has been using written language for only a few hundred years, that children are just not genetically pre-wired for reading skills. Whatever the reason, it is now proven fact that children must be taught reading skills in order to be successful lifetime readers. Reading should be challenging, but fun and if a child is equipped with the proper reading skills, it will be.

The basic reading skills that children need and need to be taught are decoding skills, thinking skill, and vocabulary skills. Decoding skills are vital if a child is to ever be a confident reader. A child needs to be taught, among other reading skills, the ability to decode new words. This reading skill comes through the mastery of phonics. If a child has a grasp of phonics, then he can decipher unknown words and read. The ability to decode new words is also a key to building vocabulary. If a child has a good vocabulary, then he will most likely be a good reader. And the more a child reads, the bigger her vocabulary gets, so it is a win, win process. Vocabulary skills are very important among the reading skills that a child needs to be an accomplished and satisfied reader. A child also needs to be taught. in addition to the other reading skills, the thinking skills needed to summarize, predict, and imagine while reading.

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