Rethinking Nonsense Words

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Join Dr. Gina Pepin as she unpacks the hot topic of nonsense words in early literacy! Originally created as an assessment tool to gauge students' decoding skills, nonsense words have made their way into daily instruction—but is this really best for our young readers? In this episode, Dr. Pepin explores the history, purpose, and unintended consequences of practicing nonsense words, including how it can affect the developing brain and even slow down progress for fluent readers. Tune in to learn why meaningful, authentic reading experiences are essential and discover actionable strategies for supporting your students’ real reading growth. If you’re ready to reflect on your instructional toolkit and do what’s best for kids, this episode is for you!

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Episode Transcript

SPEAKER_00 (00:16):
Welcome back to Let's Talk Teacher to Teacher.
I'm Dr.
Gina Puppet, and today we'retaking a deeper look at a
familiar piece of the earlyliteracy landscape, nonsense
words.
If you've spent any time inprimary classrooms or delved
into reading assessments,chances are you've encountered
these quirky made-up words likelat or flim.

(00:37):
But have you ever wondered wherethis practice actually came from
and what it's actually meant tomeasure?
And most importantly, how itaffects our young readers.
Well, let's dive in.
Nonsense words have aninteresting origin story in
reading education.
They weren't created as a funclass activity or a way to stump

(00:57):
our students.
In fact, they were designedpurely as an assessment tool, an
efficient way for educators tocheck how well students can
decode words using theirknowledge of letter sound
correspondences.
So rather than relying just onmemory.
The idea was simple.
If a child can sound out a wordthey've never seen before, one
that isn't in their vocabulary,that's powerful evidence of

(01:20):
their decoding skills.
But somewhere along the line,these assessment tools began
creeping into our day-to-dayreading instruction.
Practice packets, flashcards,reading lists.
Suddenly students were spendinginstructional minutes, sometimes
even homework time, practicingnonsense words.
And this brings me to a crucialpoint.

(01:41):
Practicing nonsense words is notan instructional strategy.
The science is clear.
Our brains, and especially ouryoung learners' brains, thrive
on meaningful patterns.
When students repeatedlypractice reading nonsense words,
they're not just learning todecode.
They're wiring their brains toexpect language that doesn't

(02:02):
make sense.
One area this can impact is thevisual word form area.
It's a critical part of thebrain that recognizes familiar
words quickly and supportsfluent reading.
By focusing on words that haveno semantic meaning, words
they'll never see in a realbook, we actually risk hindering
the development of this vitalneural pathway.

(02:24):
Instead of strengthening theirability to recognize and
remember real words, we'repulling them backwards.
We're reinforcing patterns thataren't supportive of authentic
reading.
This issue becomes even moreapparent for students who have
already cracked the code and canread real words.
For them, being asked to readnonsense words isn't just
unhelpful, it's actuallycounterproductive.

(02:46):
It's like asking a runner who'sjust learned a sprint to go back
to practicing with backwardsteps.
It totally disrupts the naturalprogression their brains have
made from decoding to fluent,automatic word recognition.
So what's the takeaway forteachers?
Let's return nonsense words totheir intended role as a
diagnostic tool, a quickcheck-in to gather data about

(03:10):
decoding, not as a skill todrill or practice.
Instead, let's investinstructional time in reading
real words, sentences, andstories that carry meaning,
context, and joy.
The best way for students tostrengthen their reading brains
is to read and make sense ofmeaningful language over and
over and over again.

(03:31):
Thank you so much for joining metoday on Let's Talk Teacher to
Teacher.
Let's continue to be criticalconsumers of our instructional
practices, always putting ourstudents' development and love
of reading first.