Steps to Developing Language Fluency in Young Children

Visit your local library to see what programs are available that encourages reading. Usually children can join their library’s book club, gain school credit from reading a number of library books and sometimes win small prizes after attaining reading milestones. Encourage your child to search the library bookshelves for books that are of interest to him and that are also appropriate for his age. On occasion encourage him to read aloud to you so that you can diagnose any difficulties in his phonic skills such as slow reading and poor comprehension. Oftentimes poor readers have a slow word per minute count and have difficulty decoding words, which may in turn lead to poor comprehension of the text.

• Does Your Child have the Ability to Link Letters and Sounds Together?
• Is Your Child Familiar with Words that Form Opposites?
• Can Your Child Build New Words from a Single Core Word?
• Can Your Child Sound Out Rhyming Words?
• Has Your Child Learned about Compound Words?
• Can Your Child Build Words using Ending Clusters?
• Is Your Child Familiar with Beginning Blends?
• Have You Encouraged Independent Reading?
• Do You Read Books Yourself?