By: Meghan Randig, M.A., CCC-SLP
Why Do We Read Words That Aren’t Real?
At first, it may seem odd to read words that are ‘not real’ or ‘made up’, however, the ability to decode nonsense words lays an excellent foundation for future reading success! Nonsense words are words without meaning in our traditional spoken and written language.
A nonsense word might look something like this: id, pak, cit, oop.
A higher-level nonsense word might look something like this: pech, tigup, nizure, repa.
Nonsense words follow predictable phonics rules and patterns. Accuracy in decoding a nonsense word gives insight as to whether a child can recognize and say individual phonemes (letter-sound correspondence), blend them together, and identify the most common sounds for groups of letters.
Nonsense words are great for students who tend to guess at new words, or only read the first or second half of a word. If the student knows that all of these words don’t make sense, they are more likely to focus on the individual sounds they see, rather than guess a predictable or logical word.
Throughout reading and learning, students will always encounter new words, especially as they build up their vocabulary. Knowing how to read unfamiliar words, even if they have no meaning to the student yet, is part of becoming a fluent reader!
Nonsense words should be practiced in conjunction with common and familiar sight words. Nonsense words are used as a supportive tool to bolster automatic recognition of high-frequency short vowels, long vowels, digraphs, and other phonics rules. You can challenge your young reader or speller by having them add a sound to a nonsense word in order to turn it into a real word! For example: oop + /h/ in the beginning, turns into “hoop”! Mastering the ability to manipulate sounds within words sets a great foundation for further reading and spelling success!
Enrichment Therapy & Learning Center has locations in the Iowa City, IA area and Des Moines, IA area. We provide individual speech-language therapy and tutoring as well as offering small group academic programs. At Enrichment Therapy & Learning Center our passion is to help kids achieve effective communication skills and gain academic success. Contact us for more information on how we can help your child succeed.
info@enrichmenttherapies.com
740 Community Drive, Unit A
North Liberty, IA 52317
319-626-2553
infodm@enrichmenttherapies.com
5530 West Pkwy, Suite 300
Johnston, IA 50131
515-419-4270
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