The Science of Reading: Foundational Reading Skills for ALL Learners

The foundational skills of literacy are essential components of a child's development of strong reading and writing abilities.

Foundational Reading Skills:

Oral Language

Also known as spoken language, it is a foundational skill that forms the basis for literacy development. It refers to the ability to listen, speak, and communicate effectively through spoken words. Strong oral language skills are critical for reading comprehension, vocabulary development, and overall academic success.

Phonemic Awareness

The ability to hear, identify, and manipulate individual sounds (phonemes) in spoken words. This skill is crucial for understanding the sound structure of language and is a key predictor of reading success.

Phonics

Phonics is the understanding of a predictable relationship between phonemes (sounds) and graphemes (letters) and the ability to use this knowledge to decode and encode words.

Vocabulary Development

Acquiring a wide range of words and their meanings is essential for comprehension and effective communication.

Fluency

Reading text accurately, quickly, and with appropriate expression allows for greater focus on comprehension rather than decoding.

Reading Comprehension

Comprehension is the ability to understand and make meaning from what is read. It involves various skills, including making connections, inferencing, summarizing, and analyzing text.

When a learner needs more than core instruction, see our guide to effective reading interventions for a practical framework covering assessment, dosage, explicit teaching, and progress monitoring.

Writing Skills

Writing is expressing ideas, thoughts, and information, including understanding sentence structure, grammar, punctuation, and organization.

Need help identifying which foundational skills are holding a learner back? Explore Learning to Learn’s literacy intervention and advocacy services for personalized next steps.

For learners developing English, pair these foundations with the oral-language and vocabulary practices in our multilingual reading development guide.

For learners in grades 4–9 who need advanced word-reading support, use our upper-elementary decoding strategies.