Types of Reading Skills and How to Develop Them in Kids

Reading is a blend of multiple skills that gives meaning to the written text. There is no one-size-fits-all. There are different types of reading skills; each serves a specific purpose. Is your child facing difficulty in reading? This could be because they haven’t developed the right skills.

Whether it’s reading a book or quickly scanning a newspaper, the correct kinds of reading skills can help. You need to make your child understand the purpose and the correct approach to reading. Lack of understanding towards the right approach may lead to frustration. Your child may find the reading task boring. However, once your kid is aware of reading types, they can easily learn to read.

Let’s find out how you can make the reading experience of your child smoother and enjoyable.

What are the Reading Skills? & How to Foster Them in Young Learners?

Reading skills are the ability that helps your child decode, interpret, and respond to words. These are a blend of various skills that make reading helpful. Once your child has a clear idea of reading skills, you’ll see a boost in academic success. As well as it will help build confidence too.

Here are 7 fruitful kinds of reading skills:

1. Decoding

   The first step towards reading is to teach your child decoding. Decoding is one of the reading types, which helps to recognize letters and their sounds. After this, your child practices to blend these to read words efficiently. Phonemic awareness helps children hear, identify, and manipulate the sounds of letters.

2. Phonics

   Phonics is the best way to build a strong foundation for reading skills. It helps children understand the relationship between letters and sounds. Your child learn to blend words and read unfamiliar words using phonics rules and spelling patterns.

   You can introduce online phonics classes to enhance their reading skills.

3. Vocabulary

   Vocabulary is crucial to make progress through different reading stages. It’s challenging to master reading without even understanding what the words mean. So, guide your children to build a strong vocabulary. You can help them know the meaning of unfamiliar words, so they’re able to use context clues.

   Make learning fun for your kids. You can keep a vocabulary jar, and every day, your child can learn a new word.

4. Reading Comprehension

   The ultimate goal of reading is to understand what you’re reading. Help your kid identify the idea behind the words. Moreover, summarizing and making conclusions about what has been read. Your child will develop logical thinking skills and vocabulary. Story reading can be the best option to develop reading interest and enhance skills.

5. Sentence Formation

   Learning sentence formation is crucial to developing reading. It helps to understand how words are connected in a sentence. A clear sentence will make reading easier and make more sense. If your child can frame a sentence, it’ll be easier to remember and understand the information better.

6. Critical Reading

   Critical thinking involves thinking deeply about what you read. It’s a skill to identify the purpose of the written text. Let your child ask questions like, Why has this been said, What does this mean, What if, etc. This skill will enable them to understand implied meanings, make predictions, and identify assumptions.

7. Staying Focused & Working Memory

   This is one of the most effective types of reading skills. This skill helps children stay focused and remember what they read. Instead of getting distracted, working memory helps to hold on to important facts while reading. If you’ve ever noticed that your kid finds it difficult to understand longer texts. Or gets disinterested in reading easily. Then you need to work on their memory power and attention skills.

Thus, teaching different reading skills types, enhances focus, speed, and comprehension. These powerful skills will surely make your child a confident reader.

Final Thought

Reading skills are not limited to pronunciation. It’s a blend of versatile processes that involve identifying, understanding, and analyzing words. It’s very important to develop the skills in your children at an early age. Skimming and scanning strategies are best for reading. Whereas comprehension and critical reading help to understand the text's meaning.

Each skill will enhance the reading fluency of your child. Build a strong foundation of reading skills in your child’s learning journey. Make their journey enjoyable with fun activities. So, they don’t feel overwhelmed or lost.

Hence, your child will not only read, but truly learn, think, and grow through these reading skills. Over time, you will see your child as an independent and confident reader.

Learn2Read helps to build strong reading skills and provides the right tools and support for your children. Book a free trial class now!

Frequently Asked Questions (FAQs)

1. What are the 4 types of reading?

The 4 reading types your child can learn are skimming, scanning, intensive reading, and extensive reading. This helps to enhance your child’s skills and make their mind sharper.

2. What are the 5 basic reading skills?

The 5 pillars of reading skills are phonemic awareness, phonics, fluency, vocabulary, and comprehension. Your child learns to understand words better and boosts confidence.

3. What book should a beginner read first?

The best beginning reading books for kids are The Cat in the Hat, Green Eggs and Ham, Goodnight Moon, and Sheep in a Jeep. Moreover, you can explore Learn2Read story-reading courses. Their effective courses are tailored to your child’s growth and understanding. Whether you’re looking to develop their reading skills or gain a strong foundation in other subjects.