Printer-friendly Version: Print Skills (Alphabetics)



Print Skills (Alphabetics) What goes into the activity of word recognition, of "seeing" a spoken word? Fluent readers do this effortlessly, but the ability is a result of a developmental process. We know that a predictor of learning to read for children is rapid recognition of all the letters. Rapid is important because fast, accurate performance means that a task has not only been mastered but that the learner has achieved a level of automaticity for that task. Learning the basics of the alphabetic system--that is, understanding the predictable correspondences that exist between sounds and letters--develops alongside letter recognition. We found that among the learners in the ARCS, 100% of those who tested below fifth grade level (21% of our sample) did not know all the consonant sounds, the basic building elements of word analysis and word recognition. The purpose of achieving automaticity in print skills (alphabetics) is to free a reader's attention for comprehension - the real purpose of reading. Reading Components Pages - Sequence Each Print and Meaning Skill has its own page on this website. You will get the most out of these sections if you follow the sequence we have laid out, starting with "Phonemics," proceeding to "Word Recognition," "Sight Words," "Word Analysis" and so on, right through "Silent Reading Comprehension," the final page in the Reading Components sequence. For your convenience, the sidebar follows this sequence, and at the bottom of each component page, we give you a link to the next component in the sequence.