Regardless of which letter-sound sequence you use to introduce letter-sound links and teach children early blending skills, kids in Kindergarten should have mastered the basic alphabetic code by the end of the school year. They should also be able to blend the speech sounds most commonly associated with each letter to form short words, like “bat” and “sit”.
Unfortunately, some children are very good at tricking us into thinking they are better readers than they actually are. For example, some children with good expressive vocabularies and/or oral language structure skills are adept at pretending to read by guessing words from pictures or following simple language patterns (e.g. “I can see a…”, “There’s a…”). This is especially a risk when predictive texts that use repeated carrier phrases and lots of pictures. Other children simply memorise their readers and trick us into thinking they are reading by reciting books back to us on cue like secretaries from the 1950s.
Many children with problems decoding words fly under the radar until around Year 3. Then they are expected to read lots of things without pictures, and are also expected to learn new things – written words they have never seen before – by reading about them. If the child hasn’t learned to decode before Year 3, it takes a huge amount of work to catch up, and the evidence tells us that many kids never catch up.
To give families a reality check on their children’s true basic decoding skills, we have written some free, mini-stories for late Kindy kids (and older kids with reading issues).
They don’t have pictures or follow patterns. Nor are they fine literature by any measure. (If you are after quality literature to enhance your child’s oral language development, check out these links – audiobooks for preschoolers, audiobooks for kids in Kindergarten and Year 1, audiobooks for kids in Years 2-6.)
Instead, these mini-stories are designed for one thing: a basic check whether children can decode real, simple words without guessing from pictures or spotting oral language patterns.
To help us structure the stories, we used the Sounds Write letter-sound sequence and Units for reference. We tweaked it a bit to include some early developing morphemes, including 3S and possessive s. But most children who have finished Kindergarten should be able to read these silly little tales without too much trouble.
If your child struggles to read these tales, she or he might benefit from some more work on letter-sound links and early blending skills to kick-start their true decoding and reading skills.
Related articles:
- Teaching the alphabet to your child? Here’s what you need to know
- Is your child struggling to read? Here’s what works
- Kick-start your child’s reading with speech sound knowledge (phonological awareness)
- How to find out if your child has a reading problem (and how to choose the right treatment approach)
- “I don’t understand what I’m reading” – reading comprehension problems (and what to do about them)
- How to help your school-age child learn new words – the nuts and bolts of how I actually do it in therapy
- The forgotten reading skill: fluency, and why it matters
- What else helps struggling readers? The evidence for “morphological awareness” training
- Dyslexia vs Developmental Language Disorder: same or different, and what do we need to know about their relationship?
Banter Speech & LanguageBanter Speech & Language is owned and managed by David Kinnane, a Hanen- and LSVT LOUD-certified speech-language pathologist with post-graduate training in the PreLit early literacy preparation program by MultiLit, the Spalding Method for literacy, the Lidcombe and Camperdown Programs for stuttering, and Voicecraft for voice disorders. David is also a Certified PESL Instructor for accent modification.
David holds a Master of Speech Language Pathology from the University of Sydney, where he was a Dean’s Scholar. David is a Practising Member of Speech Pathology Australia and a Certified Practising Speech Pathologist (CPSP). David is a part-time Associate Lecturer at the University of Technology Sydney’s Graduate School of Health. David sits on Speech Pathology Australia’s Ethics Board and Professional Standards Advisory Committee, and is a Board Member of SPELD NSW.
Banter Evidence Snapshots: bite-sized speech, language, literacy and stuttering resources for busy families
Over the last five years, we’ve written hundreds of articles summarising some of the most interesting research published about speech, language, literacy, stuttering, and voice.
But who has time to read it? Even we get lost looking for some of our articles!
To make life easier for our clients and readers, we’re pleased to present new, one-page infographics summarising our most popular articles. We call them Banter Evidence Snapshots.
And we’ll be publishing two a week, starting now!
If you’d prefer to receive Banter Evidence Snapshots via social media, follow us on Facebook, Instagram, or Twitter.
Banter Evidence Snapshot: Why preschoolers with unclear speech are at risk of later reading problems: red flags to seek help
To read our full article, check out: Why preschoolers with unclear speech are at risk of later reading problems: red flags to seek help
Banter Speech & LanguageBanter Speech & Language is owned and managed by David Kinnane, a Hanen- and LSVT LOUD-certified speech-language pathologist with post-graduate training in the PreLit early literacy preparation program by MultiLit, the Spalding Method for literacy, the Lidcombe and Camperdown Programs for stuttering, and Voicecraft for voice disorders. David is also a Certified PESL Instructor for accent modification.
David holds a Master of Speech Language Pathology from the University of Sydney, where he was a Dean’s Scholar. David is a Practising Member of Speech Pathology Australia and a Certified Practising Speech Pathologist (CPSP). David is a part-time Associate Lecturer at the University of Technology Sydney’s Graduate School of Health. David sits on Speech Pathology Australia’s Ethics Board and Professional Standards Advisory Committee.
Why are boys more at risk for reading problems like dyslexia than girls?
Peer-reviewed evidence tells us that:
- boys are 3-5 times more likely than girls to be referred to professionals for help with reading difficulties, including dyslexia;
- on average, boys don’t do as well as girls on standardised reading tests;
- boys’ performance on reading tests tends to be more variable than girls; and
- boys are over-represented in the population of children with significant reading difficulties like dyslexia.
Why?
We’re not sure. There are several possible candidates, including:
1. Referral/selection bias. Children selected to participate in reading studies may not always reflect the population as a whole. For example, more boys may be referred to reading professionals (and thus recruited into their research studies) because boys may display higher rates of acting out, e.g. in some boys with ADHD (Willcutt & Pennington, 2000). In population studies, however, the sex ratio of boys:girls with reading difficulties still ranges from 1.5:1 to 3.3:1 (Rutter et al., 2004; Wadsworth et al., 1992).
2. Test bias. Perhaps some reading tests are biased in favour of girls, although the weight of existing data does not support this theory (e.g. McGrew & Woodcock, 2001).
3. Cultural differences between boys and girls. There is some older evidence to suggest interactions between culture and sex on cognitive performance (DeFries et al., 1981). But girls appear to be advantaged in reading as early as the age of 5 years (Camarata & Woodcock, 2006) and 7 years (e.g. Flannery et al., 2000). And girls tend to do better than boys across cultures with widely differing education practices and languages (e.g. Stoet & Geary, 2015).
4. Brain differences between boys and girls that develop before school starts. Studies have demonstrated significant average differences between boys and girls in:
- Processing speed: Processing speed is a cognitive predictor of reading skill. Girls show an advantage over boys by age 5 that is maintained until adulthood (e.g. Camarata & Woodcock, 2006; Irwing, 2012).
- Inhibition skills: on average, girls tend to restrain their impulses more than boys (Arnett et al., 2012, 2017).
- Verbal reasoning skills. One study, suggested that boys, on average, outperform girls, on average, on verbal reasoning skills (Arnett et al., 2017), despite an overall female advantage in writing, verbal production, and fluency (Camarata & Woodcock, 2006; Halpern & LaMay, 2000).
Clinical bottom line
A 2017 study published by Anne Arnett and colleagues confirmed that:
- boys are over-represented in the population of children with significant reading difficulties; and
- brain differences between boys and girls – differences in processing speeds and inhibition (in favour of girls), and verbal reasoning (in favour of boys) – explained the difference (see citation below).
A word of caution: we’re still a very long way from understanding how physical sex-based differences in brains and brain development – e.g. in size, volume, and white matter tracts – advantage girls in the development of reading skills.
Related articles:
- Is your child struggling to read? Here’s what works
- How to find out if your child has a reading problem (and how to choose the right treatment approach)
- “I don’t understand what I’m reading” – reading comprehension problems (and what to do about them)
- The forgotten reading skill: fluency, and why it matters
- 24 practical ways to help school-aged children cope with language and reading problems at school and home
- “Does dyslexia exist?”
- How to help your school-age child to learn new words – the nuts and bolts of how I actually do it in therapy
- Kick-start your child’s reading with speech sound knowledge (phonological awareness)
Key source: Arnett, A.B., Pennington B.F., Peterson, R.L., Willcutt, E.G., DeFries, J.C., Olson, R. K. (2017). Explaining the sex difference in dyslexia. Journal of Child Psychology and Psychiatry, 58:6, 719-727.
Image: https://tinyurl.com/ycquua8f
Banter Speech & Language is owned and managed by David Kinnane, a Hanen- and LSVT LOUD-certified speech-language pathologist with post-graduate training in the PreLit early literacy preparation program by MultiLit, the Spalding Method for literacy, the Lidcombe and Camperdown Programs for stuttering, and Voicecraft for voice disorders. David is also a Certified PESL Instructor for accent modification. David holds a Master of Speech Language Pathology from the University of Sydney, where he was a Dean’s Scholar. David is a Practising Member of Speech Pathology Australia and a Certified Practising Speech Pathologist (CPSP). Banter Speech & Language
My loved one has reading problems. Where can I find evidence-based answers to get help? New free eBook
Instantly download our new, 188-page, free eBook here:
What is it?
There’s so much information out there about reading difficulties, including dyslexia. It’s hard to sort:
- the good stuff – based on independent, peer-reviewed evidence; from
- the nonsense – the fads, the snake oil, patent-protected “systems”, “special lenses”, and expensive products and courses that are not backed up by independent evidence.
We wrote this book for parents, carers and other loved ones who have a family member or loved one with reading difficulties.
This book is fad-free. People with reading difficulties don’t have time to waste on stuff that doesn’t work. This book is designed to help you find the quality information you need to get good help, quickly.
What’s in it?
Evidence-based, plain English summaries answering our 24 most frequently asked reading questions.
How to use it
Read the bit (or bits) that seem most relevant to you, and then go from there. We’ve included hundreds of clickable links between the articles, so you can choose your own adventure through the book, at you own pace.
We hope you find it useful. If you have questions or feedback, please get in touch.
Banter Speech & LanguageBanter Speech & Language is owned and managed by David Kinnane, a Hanen- and LSVT LOUD-certified speech-language pathologist with post-graduate training in the PreLit early literacy preparation program by MultiLit, the Spalding Method for literacy, the Lidcombe and Camperdown Programs for stuttering, and Voicecraft for voice disorders. David is also a Certified PESL Instructor for accent modification.
David holds a Master of Speech Language Pathology from the University of Sydney, where he was a Dean’s Scholar. David is a Practising Member of Speech Pathology Australia and a Certified Practising Speech Pathologist (CPSP).