Teaching Accuracy Strategies to Help Your Child Read

Has your child started to read books? What an exciting time for your little reader and for you! As your little one begins to read simple sentences and transition to easy reader books, you will want to encourage as much independence as possible. It’s fun to sit and listen to them read. Enjoy sharing in the magic of a whole new world of learning! This is the perfect time to begin to teach children the strategies they need for reading independently. Since they are just beginning to read, we will start with accuracy strategies.

What is Accuracy?

Accuracy is the ability to read the words correctly on the page. Sometimes your little one can read the words easily. These are sight words, or words that they have memorized. The more words read, the more words that you child will memorize and read quickly. Some words must be learned by sight because your child hasn’t learned the phonics skills for sounding out these words while other words do not follow English phonic rules. Other words you child will encounter, sound out and read so often that they will become known instantly.

However, there are many more words that you little one has never been exposed to in print (or even heard). As well as many that have been encountered but just not memorized. There are many different strategies to figure out words that might stump your little one. Teaching the strategies will help your reader to be more independent and have a plan for new words.

Accuracy Strategies

I love to pair these strategies with animals and silly names to encourage the children to not only remember them but use them when reading. It’s such a silly thing but they really work! I learned many of these throughout my years teaching and specifically working with children on reading. Plus so many teachers use them in their classrooms. Many of these strategies are based on The CAFE book by Gail Boushey and Allison Behne. To make these even more fun, you can pair each one with a stuffed animal too! I mean, who doesn’t love reading with a friend!

The most important part is to have fun teaching your child the different strategies while reading together. Maybe even use some of the strategies when you read to your child. It seems silly, but they love to see you use the strategies too! Once your child gets to know a few different strategies, let them pick which one to use for new words. When they get stuck, ask, “What strategy are you using?” This puts the ownership on your child as well as providing the tools to read more independently in the future.

Use these strategies in isolation or use multiple strategies together. In the beginning, our readers mostly use one strategy at a time. Most fluent readers will use a combination of these strategies without even realizing what they are doing. The strategies come so naturally, that fluent readers use them automatically without thought. For our younger readers, we need to break down the task of reading. Just like you need to teach your child the steps for getting dressed to play in the snow, you need to show your child the strategies for reading new words.

Lips the Fish

Encourage your little one to get their lips ready, try to say the first sound or blend of a new word. Sometimes a child can figure out the word based on context (or the other words in the sentence). Sometimes the picture and the first sound will help figure out the word. This strategy is especially helpful when you little one uses a synonym for the unfamiliar word based on the picture. If your little one is a little more advanced, or mixes up a really close word (like home/house), ask them to look at the ending sound to figure out the word.

We pair this strategy with a stuffed fish. Reading with the stuffed fish is very motivating for our children. We also add the motion of pointing at our puckered lips. When our child gets stuck, we prompt them with the hand gesture or the stuffed animal as a gentle reminder of this strategy.

Skippy the Frog

Encourage your child to skip the word, read to the end of the sentence (you will need to teach to stop at the period), and then hop back to try to figure out which word fits in the sentence. This strategy uses context clues but can be combined with the use of pictures and beginning sounds.

Our faithful stuffed frog works well here. We have found our children hopping the frog along as they read. We also add the motion of hopping our hand off our other hand. When our child gets stuck, we prompt them with the hand gesture or the stuffed animal as a gentle reminder of this strategy.

Flippy the Dolphin

Encourage your little one to try a new sound for letters that make more than one sound. This is especially important for vowels that have a short and long sound as well as a few other sounds too. Plus, c and g are common letters with a hard and soft sound too. And of course, we have other letters (or combinations) that make different sounds as well.

We love this strategy when little ones start to read words with the silent e on the end as well as words that have double vowels in them. Such a great way to help develop some perseverance. Just because a sounded out word doesn’t make sense, doesn’t mean it is a word they can’t figure out. Check out the vowels and see if one can make a different sound (or is there a c or g that might be tricking us too).

This strategy is where our stuffed dolphin comes to play. Our children love to read and move the dolphin around while reading. We also add the motion of rolling our hands to remind them to switch or try a new sound. When our child gets stuck, we prompt them with the hand gesture or the stuffed animal as a gentle reminder of this strategy.

Elephant Ears

Encourage your child to cross check the word to make sure that it makes sense in the sentence as well as matches the letters on the page. Many times your little one might just guess a word, but does it really make sentence in the context. If it does fit with the story, does it match the letters on the page. Mine have often mixed up home/house, boat/ship, puppy/dog, etc. This has always been the most difficult one for mine to use independently and takes a lot more modeling.

However, it is my favorite one to use when reading aloud to my child. As you read, mix up one important word from the sentence as see if they spot it. Mine love to call me out on Elephant Ears – “That doesn’t make sense mommy.” Once they get comfortable calling you out, then they are ready to use it in their reading. “I call elephant ears, let’s listen to that again and see if it makes sense.” When they are really comprehending the story, they will start to use it independently too (but don’t get discouraged if this doesn’t happen until second or even third grade).

Of course, we pair this strategy with a stuffed elephant. Just like the lion, you may wish to purchase a slightly larger elephant. We also add the motion of holding our hands up and shrugging our shoulders with a confused look. When our child gets stuck, we prompt them with the hand gesture or the stuffed animal as a gentle reminder of this strategy.

Final Thoughts on Accuracy Strategies

I teach a variety of accuracy strategies to my children. We call them stuck on a word strategies. As they read, I encourage my child to pick the strategy to use on their own as much as possible. However, if they pick one and just aren’t sure where to go next, offer some guidance such as, “I might try Eagle Eyes or Lips the Fish here. What do you think would work?” The more ownership you give them, the better.

A lot of teachers add in an Ask for Help strategy too, but I’ve never included that in my strategy list as my children have never struggled to ask for help. It is their go to when they would get stuck. So I know if they cannot figure something out, they will ask for help. But it is always good to teach your little one that if they have tried a few strategies and just cannot figure out the new word, that they can ask for help. If a word starts to becoming frustrating, it is better to ask for help then quit reading all together or even to let comprehension slip because they don’t know the word.

On a last note, NEVER LET THE WORD WIN. READ ON! You’ve got this! Don’t miss the next post in the series detailing fluency strategies and how to use them. These help your child to become an independent reader. If you found these strategies helpful, leave us a comment and let us know. We would love it if you would subscribe to our newsletter for more helpful tips and tricks as well a freebie from time to time.

Hi, I’m Nicole.

Here at Creatingbutterflies we provide families with practical solutions to real life problems for everything parenting, scouting, dual language, and enjoying time outdoors. We are a family of 6 with 4 wonderful becoming bilingual children who loves scouting, camping, and hiking with their family. Mom is an educator and dad is a firefighter/paramedic.