reading disability: A framework of essential skills
A reading disability can occur when children do not master phonics. However, phonics is just one component of reading. The framework below provides an outline for all of the skills that learners need to master in order to become efficient readers.
Reading Skills Framework.
Phonological awareness
Phonics
Reading fluency
Reading vocabulary
Reading Comprehension
Reading comprehension for sentences
Reading comprehension for text
Children learn to read by mastering the skills listed above. The five skills or five components of reading unfold mostly in the order as written. But, like most aspects of child development, skills do not unfold in a linear manner. Instead, they unfold in a zig-zag fashion, or in a pattern of overlapping waves. Let’s look at this more closely.
Mastery of Phonics. Phonics can only emerge after phonological awareness is already in place. You may remember that phonological awareness refers to recognizing and producing all of the sounds of English (or other heritage language). See the Language Skills Framework for more information. Children do not need to be able to recognize every sound of English or produce all of the sounds of English before they can start to learn some phonics skills. But, in the end, they do have to fully master all phonological awareness skills or phonemic awareness skills before they can master all phonics skills. When they start to learn about Phonics, they automatically also learn more about phonological awareness. Reading instruction introduces the young reader to sounds they might not have been able to differentiate before reading instruction began. So, while phonological awareness is a pre-requisite for developing phonics skills, it’s also true that learning phonics skills helps you to fully master phonological awareness.
Mastery of reading fluency. The same pattern holds true for reading fluency. Reading fluency is the skill of quickly decoding words. You can’t decode quickly unless you’ve already mastered all of the phonics skills discussed above. But it’s also true that you can’t decode quickly unless you have a good vocabulary in your spoken language. That’s where reading vocabulary steps in. So, reading fluency depends upon sound phonics skills, but reading fluency really improves as you talk and listen more, and as you acquire more and more words in your spoken language.
Mastery of reading automaticity. When reading fluency and reading vocabulary combine, children jump to automaticity. They instantly recognize familiar words, and don’t need to sound them out. As they gain more and more automaticity, they can dedicate more mental energy to comprehension.
Reading Comprehension. Reading automaticity leads to better comprehension. Now that the child has mastered reading decoding, reading fluency, reading vocabulary, and reading automaticity, they can dedicate more energy to reading comprehension. the young reader first learns how to read full sentences and understand their meaning. they then have to master reading text.
How long does it take children to master reading skills?
Reading takes several years to master. Phonics takes about 2 years to master. Fluency takes about one year to master, and should be in place by the end of grade three. Comprehension takes about four years to master and should be in place by the end of grade five. However, it continues to improve over several years.
The struggling reader will take more than 2 years to master phonics, and more than 4 years to master reading comprehension. The actual time needed depends upon many factors. Think of these numbers as guideposts for the typical young learner. The main barrier for most children who struggle to read is the struggle of mastering phonics. However, children can get ‘stuck’ at other stages of reading development too. They can struggle because they do not make the shift from phonics to automaticity, for example. Or, they struggle because their vocabulary in spoken language is not big enough to support successful reading.