Northern California reading expert created card games to boost kids’ reading fluency
When children struggle to read, going through drills of so-called “sight words” can feel like a chore. That’s why Northern California fluency expert Bonnie Terry, owner of Scholar Within, designed card games to help kids catch up while having fun.
One line of her games is called “Scooch”. Players combine letter combinations to create words and score points. Other games are based on rhymes, compound words, and other building blocks for reading fluency. Terry got the idea as she began her teaching career about five decades ago and attended a conference that focused on using games to build skills.
“I thought, I could do that with my students because they came in and hated reading, they struggled,” explained Terry during a live demonstration of a game on California Tonight.
Her series of card games teaches students common letter patterns and how they blend to make words, along with the sounds associated with letters and words, and other foundational skills. Once those become automatic, reading becomes easier. The games also help with spelling.
The card games are the latest in a series of tools Terry has created to help parents support their struggling readers at home. Her son Nick Terry, a co-owner of Scholar Within, also created a free tool that parents can use to assess their child’s reading level. (You can find that test here.)
Reading fluency in the 4th grade is one of the strongest predictors of whether a child will graduate from high school. According to the 2024 reading assessment, only 31% of fourth graders were at or above the proficient reading level, a drop of two points from 2022 and four points from 2019, before the pandemic. This means 69% of children have partially developed reading skills or struggle with foundational reading and fluency. Among eighth graders, only 30% performed at or above the proficient level, showing that many children who were behind in fourth grade remain behind years later.
Bonnie Terry says the issue is not a matter of intelligence. Many smart kids struggle to learn to read. The problem often stems from one or more processing challenges.
“We all process information through seeing, hearing or doing, and within each of those areas there’s nine areas of processing,” said Terry.
When there’s a problem with even one of those areas of processing, it can delay grade-level reading fluency and comprehension. Fortunately, there are ways to help struggling readers clear those hurdles.
For more information about reading fluency and other tips for parents, scroll to the bottom of the scholarwithin.com website for Bonnie Terry’s blog.
This story was featured as part of our new California Tonight show. It airs Monday-Friday at 7:30 p.m. Watch on KCRA and KSBW.