Fluency is a quick assessment of reading skills.  Fluency is considered the “canary in the mine”. When miners would go underground they would take a candle or canary.  If the air quality could not sustain these, they could not sustain a human. If the candle went out or the canary keeled over, they sounded the alarm that the air was toxic.  If your child has low fluency, action is required. 

If there is weakness with fluency, there are areas that need strengthening, such as background knowledge, vocabulary, syntax, phonological awareness, decoding, sight words, along with cognitive development skills such as working memory, processing speed, visual processing, and visual memory.

Reading comprehension is best at 150+ wcpm (words correct per minute).  When less time is spent decoding words, the meaning naturally becomes the primary focus.  A good way to sympathize with this is to imagine you are learning Spanish. In trying to read aloud a Spanish text, so much time is spent just trying to just decode the words correctly that by the end of the sentence or paragraph we have barely comprehended what words were plowed through. “El ga….gat..gato es mu…muy bo..bo..boneet….bonita.” Something about a gato?

How to figure out your child’s reading fluency:

1. Choose an on grade level text the child has not read or heard before.  (Don’t give a 1st grade text to a 3rd grader and vice versa.)

2. Note the starting and ending places and time them for 60 seconds. (This can be done in secret or directly.  If they know you are timing them, say something like “I am going to have you read for 60 seconds.  Do your very best reading.  If you come to a word you don’t know, I’ll help you.  Do you have any questions?  I’ll start timing when you say the first word.”

3. Count errors -deletions, substitutions, additions, skipped words, mispronunciations, and teacher assistance.  If they skip a whole line – count each missed word as an error. 

4. If they go back and “self-correct” their mistakes, do NOT count them as errors. The lost time will be reflected.

5. Count the number of words attempted in 60 seconds.

6. Subtract the errors.  The total is their fluency wcpm.

Note: Speed is not the goal of fluency.  Fluent readers use expression and inflection to emphasize words, communicate meaning/emotion, and pause at commas and periods.  Fluent reading sounds like a normal conversation or an interesting story.

Remember, fluency is considered the “canary in the mine”, warning you of areas that need attention. If your child has low fluency, action is required.  There may be underlying cognitive skills that need to be strengthened before reading can flourish. If you would like a reading assessment and/or cognitive development evaluation contact [email protected], moretogrow.com.

The mission of  More to Grow Cognitive Development Training is to improve learning ability and function through cognitive exercises that meaningfully transfer to all educational and everyday life situations so individuals maximize their potential. 

Darlene Lewis, [email protected], https://moretogrow.com