Reading isn’t just a matter of sounding out words on a page. It’s a complex process that involves multiple skills and abilities. To help your child become a strong and confident reader, you’ll want to understand the five components of reading.
These components are crucial for building a solid foundation and developing advanced reading skills. In this guide, we’ll break down each component and offer tips to help you practice them at home with your child.
Table of Contents
The 5 Components of Reading
Reading is part of Content (which includes core skills), one of the 6Cs at the heart of the Begin Approach to helping kids thrive in school and life. When teaching reading, you’ll want to integrate all five of these components:
- Phonemic Awareness
- Phonics
- Fluency
- Comprehension
- Vocabulary
Though each is a unique skill, they’re interconnected and build upon each other as your child progresses through their reading journey.
Phonemic Awareness
A phoneme is the smallest unit of sound in a language. For example, the word mat has three phonemes: /m/ /ă/ /t/. Phonemic awareness is recognizing and using these sounds in written and spoken words.
How It Helps Kids Learn to Read
Phonemic awareness allows your child to:
- Crack the alphabet code
- Break words into sounds
- Put sounds together to form words
- Hear rhymes and identify rhyming words
- Identify syllables in words
These skills help build a solid foundation for future reading and spelling success.
Ideas for Practicing at Home
You can start practicing phonemic awareness with children as young as two or three. Here are some fun ideas to get you started.
Sing Songs with Rhyming Words
Young kids typically love singing silly songs, and several silly songs are full of rhyming words. Some of our favorite songs include:
- “Down by the Bay”
- “The Wheels on the Bus”
- “Eensy Weensy Spider”
- “Teddy Bear, Teddy Bear, Turn Around”
Play “I Spy a Rhyming Word”
This quick-playing game is a twist on the classic “I Spy.” Take turns being the spy, saying, “I spy something that rhymes with _.” Then, name a word like “cat” while the other player finds an object in the room that rhymes with it—perhaps a mat or a hat.
Alphabet Soup
Take some magnetic letters and mix them up in a bowl of water. Have your child “fish” out a letter with a slotted spoon and say its sound. Then, see how many things you can think of that start with that sound.
Phonics
Phonics is the connection between letters and sounds. It teaches children how to decode words and read them correctly.
How It Helps Kids Learn to Read
Phonics helps children:
- Break down unfamiliar words into smaller, more manageable parts
- Sound out words
- Understand the relationship between spoken and written language
- Recognize patterns in words
Ideas for Practicing at Home
Once your child can read and recite the alphabet and understand phonemic awareness, they can work on phonics. This typically happens in preschool or kindergarten, though your child may be ready before then.
Use these fun activities to practice at home.
Word Family Hunt
Before you play this game, write several words from the same word family on index cards. For example, if your child is working on the “an” word family, you could include:
- van
- can
- fan
- clan
Then, hide the cards around the room and ask your child to find them. As they find each one, have them sound out the word.
Build a Word
Spread magnetic letters around the table, and call out the sounds for the letters you want your child to find. As they identify each one, have them stick it to a cookie sheet or another magnetic surface. When they have all the letters in the word you’re practicing, ask them to read it.
Circle the Sound
Hand your child a newspaper page or an old magazine, and ask them to circle as many words as they can find with the “ea” vowel sound (or whatever sound they’re currently learning).
Fluency
Fluency is the ability to read smoothly and accurately, with appropriate expression. Children who struggle with fluency may read slowly or stumble over words.
How It Helps Kids Learn to Read
Fluency lays the foundation for comprehension. When kids read smoothly and with expression, they don’t have to devote as much brain power to reading the words. Instead, they can focus on the meaning behind them.
Ideas for Practicing at Home
Here are some strategies to help your beginning reader become more fluent.
Use the HOMER App by Begin
The HOMER app by Begin is an excellent resource for practicing fluency. The app’s personalized reading exercises help kids build their decoding skills. They’ll practice sight words and phonics to help boost their reading fluency.
Using the app for just 15 minutes a day can make a huge difference in your child’s literacy skills. Start your free trial today and see how much your learner can grow!
Copycat
This fun game will help your child learn to read with expression. Choose a short story or a passage from their favorite picture book.
Read the first sentence out loud, using different voices and expressions to represent different characters or emotions. Be sure to pause at commas and use the appropriate tone for question marks or exclamation points.
Then, have your child repeat the sentence back to you, copying your expressions and intonation. Repeat this for a few more sentences until they get the hang of it.
Next, switch roles and let your child read a few sentences while you copy their expressions and intonation.
Read “Too Easy” Books
Let your child read books that they find easy. This allows them to focus on reading smoothly and with expression without being distracted by difficult words or complex sentence structures.
Encourage them to read the same book multiple times. They could read aloud to relatives over video chat or to their favorite stuffed animals. The more practice they get with each book, the more fluent they can become.
Comprehension
Comprehension is the ability to understand and take meaning from text. It’s typically developed later than the other components of reading. However, it’s just as important.
How It Helps Kids Learn to Read
Comprehension allows kids to make connections between what they’re reading and their own knowledge and experiences. It also helps them draw inferences, make predictions, and understand the main idea of a text.
Ideas for Practicing at Home
To help your child develop their comprehension skills, try these activities.
Retelling a Story
Once your child finishes a book, ask them to retell the story to you in their own words. This will help them recall and organize the information they read and identify key plot points and characters.
Prediction Pictures
Stop halfway through a read-aloud and ask your child to predict what’ll happen next. Then, have them draw a picture related to their prediction. It could be the character in a new setting or a new conflict.
Discuss any clues or evidence in the text that lead them to their prediction. Then, after you finish the book, compare their prediction to what happened.
Reading Journal
Encourage your child to keep a reading journal where they can write down their thoughts, questions, and connections as they read.
As you review the journal together, you can discuss their understanding of the text, explain the meaning of any unfamiliar words, and help them make connections between different parts of the story.
Vocabulary
Your child’s vocabulary is their understanding of words and their meanings. A strong vocabulary can help your child be a better reader and communicator.
How It Helps Kids Learn to Read
A rich vocabulary helps children understand what they are reading and make connections to their own experiences. It also allows them to express themselves more clearly when speaking or writing.
Moreover, a strong vocabulary can improve reading fluency and comprehension. As your child encounters new words in texts, they can decipher the meaning based on the words they already know.
Ideas for Practicing at Home
Your child will develop their vocabulary throughout their lifetime. Here are a few ideas for practicing and growing it at home.
Read Aloud
Find books above your child’s reading level and read them aloud. As you come across new words, take a moment to define them. You can also have your child repeat the word and use it in a sentence.
Subscribe to Little Passports
Little Passports is a subscription service that delivers a box of educational activities and games to your doorstep. Each month, the box focuses on a different topic, allowing your child to dive deep and learn new vocabulary related to various subjects.
With several subscriptions available for ages 3-10, you’re sure to find one your child will love!
Practice the 5 Components of Reading with Begin
The five components of reading—phonemic awareness, phonics, fluency, comprehension, and vocabulary—create a strong foundation for literacy. You’ll help your child become a better reader by actively practicing these skills at home.
One of the most enjoyable ways to practice is with play-based programs from Begin. Whether your child uses the HOMER app to practice phonics or builds their vocabulary with a Little Passports subscription, they’ll have a blast while learning!
