Does the Reading Fluency of Children Affect Their Academic Performance?

Let’s begin with a simple question – why do you think reading is important? One of the primary aims of reading is to build up knowledge and potential, to be able to participate in the society, and to have the knowledge to be able to achieve one’s objectives. Thus, teaching children to read fluently and understand what they are reading should ideally form one of the major goals of early childhood education. In fact, the studies showing the persistence of reading disorders across the lifespan also showcase the importance of reading skills for school achievements. We, at the JP International School, believe that reading fluency and comprehension are highly interconnected and it extends considerable influence on thecrucial aspects of academic life, such as thegrades that children get in school.

We have seen that the children who are fluent in their reading abilities understand and appreciate the lessons much quicker than the rest and the effect of that is seen directly in their academic prowess. This is because reading fluency is a skill whose impact is not limited to being better at the English language,but it is something that influences their grip on each and every lesson learned by them in every subject. Let us delve a bit deeper into the interrelation between academic performance and reading fluency of the children in this article below.

The Basic Concept of Enhanced Reading Fluency

By definition, reading fluency is something that encompasses the ability to read accurately, rapidly, and with the right expressions. We believe that the three major components of reading fluency, namely, accuracy, reading rapidity, and prosody, are of equal importance when it comes to one’s performance in academics.

Reading fluency is an essential skill to have and thosewho have mastered it have the ability to integrate perceptual skills to translate the words into ideas quickly. We, at JPIS, have seen through our years of experience in teaching children that the ones who are capable of reading and comprehending with fluencyare better at their cognitive abilitiesand often show better performance at the higher levels of studies that demand better comprehension of the subject and good grasp of knowledge.

Reading Fluency and Academic Outcomes

As mentioned earlier, reading fluency and academic outcomes are strictly interrelated. When children have the ability to read fluently, they can comprehend more of the subject matter within a lot less time. They are able to complete their lessons faster, and that helps them to go through more topics or subjects in a given time span, as compared to others. Reading acumen also influences the writing skills of children as we have noticed that the fluent readers are often avid writers. Such children are better at explaining the facts and figures that they learn since their fluency in reading helps them in developing a deeper understanding of the subject matter. A non-fluent reader invests most of the time in comprehending a text and that is more draining on the mind.

We have seen that in case of many children, the emphasison reading fluency tend to decrease in the later levels and that is something that adversely affects their performance.Our efforts in this regard have always been continuous and begin in the early years of education. We, at the JP International School, an International CBSE School in Greater Noida, are committed to ensuring the holistic development of our students and to that end, we believe helping to build their reading fluency is one of the most crucial aspects that we focus on.

It is a proven fact that reading fluency is a skill that should be nurtured and developed all through the formative years of development, and there are varied ways through which the same can be inculcated.Introducing children to various interactive books as per their age and grade levels and using a variety of tools and learning apps are some of the effective ways to help build up their interest and enhance their reading fluency.

We believe that in order to enhance the reading fluency of children, the first step should be to make them understand the positive effects that it can have on their academic performance. Once the children know the importance of developing a reading acumen, they will start to put in more effort to the process, and that will surely show up in their grades and overall know-how.

- JP International School