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Does your child guess at unknown words instead of sounding them out?<\/p>\r\n\r\n
The \u201cword guessing\u201d habit can stand in the way of learning to read. In this post, you\u2019ll learn why kids guess and how you can solve the problem.<\/p>\r\n\r\n
Kids don\u2019t guess to annoy us or because they\u2019re lazy; they may simply be using the process that seems most logical or intuitive to them.<\/p>\r\n\r\n
Some kids guess because they have been taught<\/span> to guess. Believe it or not, guessing is taught as a reading strategy in many schools, so previous teachers may have encouraged a student to look at the pictures or use context clues to see if he could figure out what the unknown word was.<\/p>\r\n\r\n Guessing is common among children who have been taught with the whole word or sight word method. They are accustomed to looking at the beginning letters and shapes of the words instead of paying attention to each phonogram in the word.<\/p>\r\n\r\n Some kids guess because they don\u2019t know what else to do. They haven\u2019t been taught phonics or strategies for breaking down multisyllabic words.<\/p>\r\n\r\nThe 4 Types of Word Guessers<\/h2>\r\n\r\n