Intervention Suggestions for
Struggling Readers
Phonemic Awareness
Phonemic awareness is the best single predictor of reading ability in Kindergarten (Share,
Jorm, MacLean, and Matthews 1984). Most children who experience difficulty acquiring
early reading skills can be shown to lag behind in the development of phonemic
awareness.
Instruction in phonemic awareness should move from the easier skills of phoneme
identity and isolation to the more difficult skills of categorization, blending,
segmentation, and deletion.

Read alphabet books to students. Have students work together to create their own
alphabet books.

Have students practice identifying syllables in words by having them clap, stomp,
or tap syllables in their own names and familiar objects in the classroom.

Use music to teach phonemes by having students sing familiar songs. Select key
words from the lyrics and have students name the first sound they hear in each
word. Later, change the first sounds in the words to make “silly” songs. For
example, use the song, “Row, Row, Row Your Boat” and change the first sound
in “row” and “merrily” to a letter being studied:
“Tow, tow, tow your boat,
Gently down the stream.
Terrily, terrily, terrily,
Life is but a dream.”

Rhyme is a very effective tool for teaching ending phonemes. Use poetry and
familiar nursery rhymes to aid students in identifying ending phonemes. Use
picture cards for students to play “matching games” by identifying pictures that
rhyme.

Use two-sound picture cards. Without showing the picture, say the onset and
rime in a word (for example, /h/ /at/). It may be helpful to use counters as you
say the words. Have the students guess the word and then show the picture and
say the word accurately. When ready, students can progress to three-sound
pictures. Students can play this game with others by drawing their own picture
cards and having other students guess the words.
Examples of two-sound words: hay, ape, egg, ear, pie, one, bee, knee, tie, pea,
bow, hoe
Examples of three-sound words: bat, boat, cup, cake, deer, dice, fox, feet, game,
hat, hill, jeep, jet, lid, mop, pen, pig, rain, soap, sun, tire, van, web

Have students identify words that begin with the same sound. Start with three
pairs of picture cards and have the children sort through the pairs that are alike.
Students can progress to more picture sets as they become more comfortable with
this skill. Students can then progress to identifying words that end with the same
sound and words that have the same vowel sounds in the middle.

Give students cards with three phonemes that can be blended together to make a
word. Students can place their phonemes in order and pronounce the word for
their partner. The partners can then see whether they can combine any of their
phonemes in a different order to make another word.

Use different colored counters for children to push on a flat surface as each
phoneme of a word is said. The counters can also be used for children having
difficulty identifying separate words in a sentence or syllables in words.

For older students, have them play with “Word Ladders.” On a simple photocopy
of a ladder, write a word on the first step of the “Word Ladder.” Explain to the
students that they will start with the word on the first step of the ladder and
change one letter to create a new word for the second step. For example, if the
first word is “step,” the second word might be “stop.” The students continue up
the ladder, changing one letter on each step and seeing how high they can go.
Letter Identification
If a student does not show that he or she has a solid foundation in phonemic awareness,
letter identification will be difficult for the student to master. A student must understand
that words are made up of individual sounds, and those sounds are represented by written
letters.

Use as many tactile experiences with letters as possible. Examples would be
foam letters, magnetic letters, tracing letters in sand, tracing letters in shaving
cream, and tracing letters on sandpaper. Also try letting students use gross-motor
skills by “sky writing” letters with arms locked at the elbows as they move their
arms to “write” letters in the air.

Use a game board with letters. Students roll the die and move the number of
letters on the die. If the letters are correctly identified, the students stay where
they land. If not, students return to their previous spot.

Play Letter Bingo.

Play Letter Tic-Tac-Toe. The teacher prepares tic-tac-toe boards ahead of time
with nine different letters on each board. Students take turns calling out the
letters they wish to mark with either an “x” or an “o.” The first student to get
three in a row on the card wins.
Writing Reversals
Many emerging readers and writers will make letter reversals. There are many myths
regarding children who make reversals such as, the child is learning disabled, the child
has some type of neurological dysfunction or the child will become dyslexic. It is not
uncommon or unusual to see children 4, 5, 6 and even 7 years of age making letter and/or
number reversals. There may be a need for some concern if a child continues with letter
reversals or mirror reading/writing into and beyond the 3rd grade. Letter/word reversals
are for the most part due to a weak memory or the lack of enough previous experiences.

Rule out any vision problems.

Print a word, making the first letter green (go) and the last letter red (stop).

Do activities that require awareness of left to right directionality (i.e., Simon Says
and The Hokey Pokey).

Have the student construct the word or letter in different ways with a variety of
materials such as magnetic letters, MagnaDoodle, with chalk, in the air, on a
whiteboard, etc.

Use a hole punch as a tactile anchor to indicate where to begin writing.

Provide the student with an individual alphabet strip for easy reference while
writing.

Trace over dots to from letters.

Have the student write letters in sand and/or salt with their fingers or use
sandpaper letters.

Use a “school font” that has arrows to show directionality. Enlarge the letter with
a copier or in a Word document, and place in a plastic sleeve for tracing activities.
Learning Sight Words
While children are developing phonemic awareness skills and learning the names and
sounds of letters, they are also ready to learn some words. Students need to become
familiar with the words they will read most often in text.
The most common method used to teach sight words is with flash cards. However, most
children will need more experience with these words to learn them by sight. Using word
walls daily provides ways to teach these words through a variety of activities. Every
classroom should have a word wall that is a physical location for commonly read words.
Words should be written large enough so all students can see them. See your reading
specialist or literacy coach for specific word wall activities that should be practiced with
all students.

Highlight sight words in language experience charts and familiar texts. Number
and counting rhymes make great language experience charts, as well as familiar
nursery rhymes.

Play Word Bingo and Word Tic-Tac-Toe.

Say, write and read words many times to develop automaticity.

Use multi-sensory techniques such as “sky writing” words, tracing words on
sandpaper, etc.

Provide opportunities to practice fluency by rereading text on a student’s
independent reading level.

Reread predictable books for multiple exposures to high frequency words.

Play “Concentration” with sight words.

Teach useful, meaningful sight words first: names, days of the week, months of
the year, school subjects, etc.

Have students find and circle important sight words during demonstrated or
interactive writing such as a “morning message.”