09/08/2026
When blending is effortful, pay attention to what happens between the sounds.
A few instructional clues can tell you where to go next:
👉 Long pauses between sounds?
Try continuous blending. Have the student keep a finger under the letters and briefly hold each sound as they move through the word so the sounds don’t fall apart in working memory.
👉 Blending gets harder as the words get more complex?
Return to simpler VC and CVC words. Build smooth, accurate blending there before adding blends, digraphs, and more complex patterns.
👉 They can blend correctly, but only with a lot of effort?
More practice may be the right next step. Accuracy comes first, then increasing automaticity. Moving faster through the sequence isn’t always progress.
👉 They’re struggling even more in sentences?
Make sure the word can be read accurately in isolation before adding the demands of connected text.
These small observations give you much richer instructional information than simply asking whether a student “knows their sounds.”
Building these behaviors carefully in kindergarten can help prevent blending difficulties from becoming entrenched for older struggling readers.
📚 Want practical fluency support?
The Reading Fluency Guide in our free PreK–12 Resource Library breaks the research into scripted routines, including exact language for feedback, error correction, and comprehension.
Get the Fluency Guide here: https://www.stephaniestollar.com/prek-12/free-resources?utm_source=Facebook&utm_medium=Post&utm_campaign=26_09_08_Classroom_Instruction
