For decades, learning to read was often treated as a natural process. We thought it was something children would just “pick up” with enough exposure to books. But research tells us otherwise. Thanks to the Science of Reading, we now have a clear, evidence-based understanding of how the brain learns to read and how we can best support children on their literacy journey.
In 2000, the National Reading Panel reviewed over 110,000 studies on reading and identified five essential components of strong reading instruction. These are known as the 5 Pillars of Reading:
✔️ Phonemic Awareness
✔️ Phonics
✔️ Fluency
✔️ Vocabulary
✔️ Reading Comprehension
Each of these pillars plays a crucial role in helping children become skilled, confident readers. Let’s take a closer look at what they are, why they matter, and how you can support them at home.
1. Phonemic Awareness: The Foundation of Reading
What is phonemic awareness?
Phonemic awareness is your child’s ability to hear and play with individual sounds (phonemes) in spoken words. It’s an essential pre-reading skill because kids must recognize sounds in words before they can match them to letters.
Why is it important?
A child with strong phonemic awareness can:
✔️ Recognize words that start with the same sound (“Run, rake, and risk all start with /r/!”)
✔️ Identify the first or last sound in a word (“The beginning sound in bat is /b/.”)
✔️ Blend sounds together to form a word (“/t/ /a/ /g/ = tag.”)
✔️ Break a word into individual sounds (“Up = /u/ /p/.”)
2. Phonics: Cracking the Reading Code
What is phonics?
Phonics is the connection between sounds and letters. It teaches kids how written letters (graphemes) represent the sounds (phonemes) they hear in spoken words.
Why is phonics important?
Phonics helps kids learn to “sound out” (or decode) words instead of guessing. When a child understands phonics, they can confidently read new words—without needing pictures or memorization!
For example:
📝 A child who knows that “sh” makes the /sh/ sound and “ip” spells ip can blend them together to read ship!Phonics is a critical step toward fluent reading. Without it, children may struggle to recognize words and make sense of text.
3. Fluency: Reading That Sounds Like Speaking
What is fluency?
In their book Reading Fluency, Jan Hasbrouck and Deb Glaser define fluency as “Reasonably accurate reading, at an appropriate rate, with suitable expression, that leads to accurate and deep comprehension and motivation to read.”
Fluent readers recognize words automatically, group words for meaning, and read aloud with expression. Their reading sounds natural—like spoken language.
Children who haven’t yet developed fluency often read slowly, word by word. Their reading may sound robotic or choppy, with little attention to punctuation or phrasing. This makes it harder to make sense of what they’re reading.
Why is fluency important?
Fluent readers can focus on understanding the story rather than getting stuck on decoding words. When a child reads fluently, their reading sounds more like natural speech.Imagine listening to someone read in a robotic, choppy voice versus someone reading with rhythm and excitement. Which would you enjoy more? Fluency makes reading fun and engaging!
4. Vocabulary: The More Words They Know, the Easier They Read
What is it?
Vocabulary refers to the words a child knows and understands. The more words they recognize, the easier it is for them to comprehend what they read.
Why is vocabulary instruction important?
Imagine a child reading the sentence: The enormous elephant ambled through the jungle.
If they don’t know what enormous or ambled mean, they might not understand the sentence—even if they can read the words!
Children build vocabulary in three main ways:
✔️ Everyday conversations (“Look at that enormous dog!”)
✔️ Reading books together (“Do you know what ambled means? Let’s find out!”)
✔️ Learning subject-specific words (like the word trapezoid in math or cocoon in science)
A strong vocabulary leads to stronger comprehension—because kids can’t understand a story if they don’t know what the words mean!
5. Reading Comprehension: The Goal of Reading!
What is reading comprehension?
Comprehension is the ability to understand and make sense of what you read. It’s the ultimate goal of reading. Reading isn’t just about sounding out words – It’s about gaining meaning!
Why is reading comprehension important?
A child with strong reading comprehension can:
✔️ Retell a story in their own words
✔️ Make predictions about what will happen next
✔️ Ask and answer questions about what they read
✔️ Connect the story to their own life
But here’s the catch: Comprehension depends on all the other reading pillars. If a child struggles to decode words or doesn’t know what key vocabulary words mean, they’ll have a much harder time with comprehension.That’s why phonemic awareness, phonics, fluency, and vocabulary all work together to create a skilled reader!
Supporting the 5 Pillars of Reading at Home
Now that you’ve familiarized yourself with 5 Pillars of Reading, you’re already ahead of the game in supporting your child’s literacy journey!
Here’s what you can do next:
📖 Encourage daily reading—even just 10-15 minutes makes a difference!
🎶 Play with sounds—rhyme, sing, and clap out syllables to build phonemic awareness.
🔡 Practice phonics—point out letters and sounds while reading together.
🗣️ Have rich conversations—use new words in daily life to build vocabulary.
📚 Make reading fun—read aloud expressively and talk about stories together.
Each of these pillars plays a key role in helping your child become a confident, skilled, and joyful reader. By understanding each pillar and why they matter, you’re setting your child up for success!
💬 Which of these reading pillars are you most curious about? Drop a comment below—we’d love to hear from you!