I think it’s pretty safe to say that none of us were taught to read using the old Dick and Jane books.

We laugh and joke about how antiquated those sweet little books are, but the truth is, the way most of us were taught to read is pretty outdated, too.

Way back 20-something years ago, when I was in first grade, my classmates and I read from our basal readers and learned skills to help us in our reading, focusing largely on phonics, or, “sounding out.” We read stories focusing on certain sounds and any time we needed help problem-solving a word, we diligently sounded out the word, letter by letter. Even Sesame Street had us practicing our sounding out skills! And in the end, for the most part, it worked… you wouldn’t be reading this otherwise, right? Or, perhaps, if it didn’t work the first time, Hooked on Phonics (which taught you more sounding out) did?

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So, of course, as parents, when teaching our children about reading, it’s only natural that we begin to use the same techniques that we were taught and that worked for us. If sounding out worked for us, it’s probably good for our little ones, too, right?

Weelllll… not really.

You see, in the last three decades, educators have learned so much more about the reading process and what early readers need in order to navigate through that process. We’ve also seen the need for stronger reading comprehension in the upper grades and beyond. Because of that, we’ve come to understand that yes, “sounding out” *is* important, but it’s only one of three sources of information that are used while reading.

Rather than relying on straight phonics, we teach children that reading is, first and foremost, meaning-making. Unless you are understanding and making sense of what you are reading, you’re not really reading, you’re kind of just word-calling and decoding. Using Meaning as the driving source of information, we teach children to first ask themselves, “What would make sense?’ when at a point of difficulty in their reading. Then, we have them check the Visual information — “Does the word you are checking look right?” At the same time, we ask children to think about Structure — “Does that word sound right”? It is when these three sources of information all come together that accurate reading happens.

So, what does that all mean? Let me give you an example.

Take this page from an early leveled reader, one that I would use at the beginning of the year in Kindergarten.

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A child could read this page and say, “Look at the blue balloon.” The substitution of Look at for Here is would make sense (Meaning) and sound right using proper syntax (Structure), but it doesn’t look right (Visual). In this case, I would acknowledge that the child made it make sense and sound right, but then direct his attention to the first letter (H) and the sound it makes. So, while I would be prompting the child to use phonics, it would be embedded within using all three sources of information.

A different child could read this page and say, “Here is the blue bug.” The substitution of bug for balloon would sound right (Structure) and look partially right (Visual — at this level, using Visual information would really be limited to the first letter), but it wouldn’t make sense (Meaning) because there is no bug in the picture. So, since Meaning was not used, I would prompt for that source of information, asking the child, “What would make sense here? What is the cat looking at?”

Finally, a different child could read this page and say, “Here is the brightly balloon.” (And this is a bit of stretch given the text and level!) The substitution of brightly for blue would *kinda* make sense (Meaning — I told you it was a stretch, but the balloon is *kinda* bright!), and the first letter looks right (Visual), but it doesn’t sound right (Structure). I would prompt the child to think about Structure by asking, “Does that sound like what we’d hear in the book?” and then also cue for Meaning since the picture clearly shows that the balloon is blue.

I realize that a lot of that was teacher jargon, but all of that is just to show how much goes into early reading besides “sounding out” words. In fact, when a child is just beginning to read, asking him to “sound out” the words is probably the least effective teaching you can do. At this stage, a child does not need to know all of his letter sounds, or even all of his letters — yes, it is certainly helpful and ideal for a child to know all his letters and sounds prior to taking on early reading, but at this level, it is not 100% necessary. The purpose of early leveled readers (like the one above) is to have children understand and follow a simple pattern while thinking about the meaning of the story by checking the picture. This is also the time for children to learn voice print match, understanding that there is one printed word for each spoken/read word.

Reading at this early level will often seem memorized, and that’s okay. It is also okay, and even expected, for a child to be able to accurately read an entire book with an easy pattern (like the one above) and not recognize some of the same words in another book (for example, the word here might be in another book, but the child might not realize it is the same word).

As I mentioned, the most important thing that we stress at this very early level is that reading has to make sense. The pictures provide a wealth of information for the young reader, and at this point, more information is gained from the picture than from the words. Therefore, it is not appropriate to cover the pictures or to have children read the books from end to start to “test” that they really do know the words… because they won’t! And it won’t make sense!

As children work through this early reading level, they will learn to follow patterns and make sense of the books they are reading and slowly but surely, they will learn, with a teacher’s help, to recognize certain words and solve new words using phonics — all, again, in the context of making sure the Meaning of the story is intact. And if you’re like me, this probably seems quite different from they way you were taught to read. But, I promise, it works… and the comprehension skills that are developed in tandem with word-solving skills are incredible.

What does this mean for parents of young, pre-readers? The most important thing you can do is to continue to read, read, READ to your child daily. Talk about the stories you read — discuss the characters and the problems and solutions; make predictions; make connections between similar books or between the book and a personal experience… in short, make the reading you do with your child meaningful, so that making-meaning while reading becomes like second-nature to your little one. Look at the pictures and predict what will happen by looking at the pictures in order to emphasize the importance of the pictures matching the words.  At the same time, point out letters and talk about letter sounds, especially ones that are important and meaningful to your child (his name or names of characters or favorite things). And as tempting as it might seem, don’t go out and buy workbooks or phonics readers. Having rich, meaningful discussions with your preschooler will pay off so much more than any workbook or little phonics reader ever can.

Yes, times have changed with reading instruction…but I can confidently say that they have changed for the better! It is such a joy and a privilege to be able to teach little ones to read!!