Older students without automatic single-word reading skills are likely to have which issue?

Students who struggle with automatic single-word reading skills often face multiple interrelated challenges that hinder their overall literacy development.

Phonological awareness deficits can manifest as an inability to recognize and manipulate sounds in words, which is crucial for developing reading skills. When students cannot effectively perceive the sounds that make up words, their ability to decode and recognize words quickly is compromised.

Additionally, difficulty mapping letters to sounds is another significant issue. This refers to challenges in understanding the relationships between written letters and their corresponding sounds. If students do not grasp these mappings, they will find it hard to sound out words, contributing to slow or labored reading.

Spelling issues often accompany these reading difficulties. Since spelling requires an understanding of how sounds correspond to letters, students with reading challenges may also struggle to encode language when writing, resulting in misspellings or poor spelling skills.

Given that these challenges are all interconnected and can adversely affect a student's literacy, selecting the option that includes all of the issues accurately reflects the multifaceted nature of the problem students with gaps in their reading skills typically encounter.