Dyslexia and Decoding: Why We Teach Using Nonsense Words
Nonsense words are made-up words, which allows for learners with dyslexia to improve their decoding skills. Non-impaired readers can read nonsense words because of their phonological decoding ability. Some examples of some nonsense words are “za”, “din”, “rejune”, and “byrcal”. Non-impaired readers can sound out these kinds of words because they can decode the sounds.
According to Dr. Sally Shaywitz, “The best ability to read nonsense words is the best measure of phonological decoding skill in children. The reader literally has to penetrate the sound structure of the word and sound it out, phoneme by phoneme; there is no other way” (Overcoming Dyslexia, Dr. Shaywitz, 2003, p. 133-134). These nonsense words have not been seen before or memorized. Therefore, dyslexics cannot hide behind the words, guessing, and hoping they are right. They either have the decoding skills necessary or they do not.
Not only are nonsense words used in diagnosing dyslexia, but they are also used in teaching reading to dyslexics. They are used to eliminate guessing; there is no way to guess a nonsense word. If a student cannot guess the word, that means they have to use their decoding skills. These words help them to focus on sounding words out from left to right. Using nonsense words helps retrain the dyslexic’s brain and gets them back on track with their phonological decoding.
Teaching students to decode pseudo words or nonsense words is one of the reasons our software is so effective at improving reading fluency. We teach fluent, automatic decoding skills using seven different types of nonsense words:
CV/VC examples: ze, ba, da, ux
CVC examples: zip , piz, pux, bax
CVCV examples: zune, pupe, dode, bode
CVCC examples: zemp, bilt, rult, vish,
CCVC examples: zlit, plon, druf, clep
CVVC Group 1 examples: zeen, beaz, heek, toam,
CVVC Group 2 examples: zaut, beup, foud, gooz
The student learns to automatically decode these letter patterns in both our visual match and auditory-visual match decoding lessons. We explain to our students that the key to rapidly and automatically decoding multisyllabic words is to know these pseudo words. Words like “homogenous”, “surreptitious”, and “automaticity” are all made up of pseudo nonsense words. When decoding becomes automatic, comprehension soars.
