Page 22 - The Inquiry into the Development and Implementation of a Multimedia Resource to Help Improve Parental Involvement in Their Child’s Reading Literacy During the Primary School Years.

comprehension strategies, they will then be able to practice becoming a fluent

reader.

Reading fluency is defined as “the ability to read expressively and meaningfully, as
well as accurately and with appropriate speed” (Padak & Rasinski, 2008, p. 3). It is

the bridge between word recognition and comprehension and involves three primary

skills; accuracy, automaticity and prosody. Accuracy is the ability to identify words
correctly; automaticity is the ability to recognise words rapidly and effortlessly,

saving mental energy for comprehension; while prosody is the ability to read with
expression and intonation to support understanding and to convey meaning to others

(Doherty, 2012). Beers (2003) describes a range of activities to help improve reading

fluency that can be practised at home with a parent as well as in school. These
include:

• modelling best practice fluent reading at school and at home.

• practice the fluent reading techniques with a parent or teacher as opposed to
in isolation.

• read developmentally-appropriate texts using expression and intonation
through guided reading activities.

• opportunities to engage in fluent reading in a variety of texts at both their

independent and instructional levels.

Lastly, attitude and motivation to read is the fifth component of reading. According
to The National Literacy and Numeracy Strategy, Literacy and Numeracy for

Learning and Life (2011), a child’s positive attitude and motivation towards reading

are vital for progression in both literacy and numeracy. It is important for the parent
to promote a positive attitude towards learning and this can be achieved by reading

regularly with the child in the home and providing a wide variety of texts, mediums
and genres such as books, comics, eBooks and online articles (Murphy, 2014).

It is evident that the parents’ role in their child’s reading development during the
primary and pre-primary school years is fundamental to their literacy development.

As the literature has established, reading is a complex cognitive process that requires
skills and strategies to construct meaning. The goal of my multimedia resource the

13