Why
“Sounding it Out” May Not Be Sound
A familiar evening scenario plays out in kitchens and family rooms across America. The ritual of completing homework generally takes place alongside the preparation of dinner. While the cooking parent contemplates what to prepare for the evening meal, school aged children settle in at the counter for the dreaded homework time. Elementary children may be required to complete a variety of tasks, from math facts to spelling words and reading aloud. Each evening, early readers are assigned the task of reading aloud to a parent or caregiver. Simple enough, the little one begins reading aloud while Mom or Dad continue with meal preparation. All settled, right? Wrong! Inevitably, little Sally will come to a word she does not know, and as soon as she pauses, a well-intentioned and busy parent will likely say, “Sound it out”. Unfortunately, for Sally, this is not always the best advice. What follows from the child is usually inaudible to human ears, leaving most adults ready to pull out their hair and purchase earplugs. Children in early literacy have not yet learned to blend the sounds of a word together, in order to come up with reasonable guesses as to what the mystery word could be. Most often, the student will articulate one letter sound at a time. Thus, sounding it out may leave Sally still confused with the tricky word. However, if Sally’s well-intentioned parent would offer some different suggestions, Sally may have a chance at solving this word and going on with her reading, while learning something about independent problem solving at the same time.
Rather than telling our kids to “sound it out,” the phrase “say it slowly” may result in something resembling the unknown word. At this point, Sally now has a guess. If her parent encourages her to try her word (even if it is incorrect), she may hear the error on her own, which is an important step toward successful reading. On the other hand, if the prediction is correct, Sally should be encouraged to consider one more test. Sally’s caregiver should now say, “Does that make sense?” This gives Sally one more way to check the word by herself. At this point, Sally has blended letter sounds, produced a prediction as to what the word could be, and checked her idea to see if it makes sense. All this started by one simple suggestion, “say it slowly.”
What’s wrong with sounding it out, isn’t that the way most of us learned? The answer is yes, most of us have heard these words as early learners ourselves, and we learned in spite of it. When we find a better cleaner, do we buy it? What about a more dependable car? Aren’t we looking through the showroom glass to view the latest model? Why should learning to read be treated any different? We owe it to our children to use the best tools when helping them to develop a love of reading. Don’t we want them to enjoy books? Do parents expect grown children to read the newspaper? How about college? The creation of a successful adult reader who reads for enjoyment begins during homework time while reading aloud at the kitchen counter.
A familiar evening scenario plays out in kitchens and family rooms across America. The ritual of completing homework generally takes place alongside the preparation of dinner. While the cooking parent contemplates what to prepare for the evening meal, school aged children settle in at the counter for the dreaded homework time. Elementary children may be required to complete a variety of tasks, from math facts to spelling words and reading aloud. Each evening, early readers are assigned the task of reading aloud to a parent or caregiver. Simple enough, the little one begins reading aloud while Mom or Dad continue with meal preparation. All settled, right? Wrong! Inevitably, little Sally will come to a word she does not know, and as soon as she pauses, a well-intentioned and busy parent will likely say, “Sound it out”. Unfortunately, for Sally, this is not always the best advice. What follows from the child is usually inaudible to human ears, leaving most adults ready to pull out their hair and purchase earplugs. Children in early literacy have not yet learned to blend the sounds of a word together, in order to come up with reasonable guesses as to what the mystery word could be. Most often, the student will articulate one letter sound at a time. Thus, sounding it out may leave Sally still confused with the tricky word. However, if Sally’s well-intentioned parent would offer some different suggestions, Sally may have a chance at solving this word and going on with her reading, while learning something about independent problem solving at the same time.
Rather than telling our kids to “sound it out,” the phrase “say it slowly” may result in something resembling the unknown word. At this point, Sally now has a guess. If her parent encourages her to try her word (even if it is incorrect), she may hear the error on her own, which is an important step toward successful reading. On the other hand, if the prediction is correct, Sally should be encouraged to consider one more test. Sally’s caregiver should now say, “Does that make sense?” This gives Sally one more way to check the word by herself. At this point, Sally has blended letter sounds, produced a prediction as to what the word could be, and checked her idea to see if it makes sense. All this started by one simple suggestion, “say it slowly.”
What’s wrong with sounding it out, isn’t that the way most of us learned? The answer is yes, most of us have heard these words as early learners ourselves, and we learned in spite of it. When we find a better cleaner, do we buy it? What about a more dependable car? Aren’t we looking through the showroom glass to view the latest model? Why should learning to read be treated any different? We owe it to our children to use the best tools when helping them to develop a love of reading. Don’t we want them to enjoy books? Do parents expect grown children to read the newspaper? How about college? The creation of a successful adult reader who reads for enjoyment begins during homework time while reading aloud at the kitchen counter.
