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How can I help my child read?

Lisa Murphy, M. Ed. · March 23, 2021

As someone who has taught hundreds of struggling readers, this is the question I am asked most often, usually by a parent who has already tried a lot. Here is the honest answer: it depends on why your child is struggling, and you can do useful detective work on that question at home before you spend a dollar on tutoring.

Some background first. A surprising portion of the population learns to read with very little direct instruction; for everyone else, reading has to be taught explicitly, skill by skill. Fluent adult readers rarely notice this because for us reading is not a process, it just is. But successful reading involves two separable jobs: decoding the symbols on the page (getting the words "right") and deriving meaning from them once decoded.

So the first step is figuring out which job is breaking down for your child:

A decoding problem. Your child misreads, guesses from the first letter, or labors word by word. Decoding and fluency depend on phonological awareness (hearing the sounds in words) and orthographic processing (forming, storing, and recalling the visual patterns of words). A child can be weak in either, or both, and the intervention differs depending on which.

A comprehension problem. Your child reads the words accurately but cannot tell you what the passage was about. The words come off the page fine; the meaning does not stick.

Listen to your child read something unfamiliar, then ask them about it. Which job failed? That one observation, repeated over a few evenings, tells you more than most report cards will.

I will not pretend a blog post can substitute for assessment: knowing that it is decoding does not yet tell you whether the cause is phonological, orthographic, or both, and that distinction drives which program will work. But identifying which job is breaking down is genuinely the right first step, and it is one you can take this week.

Curious what a full assessment looks at? Read: Getting Started: Assessment Before Your Child's First Lesson. Wondering which programs address which deficit? Read: Finding the Right Program or Curriculum for Your Learner.

Start with a free 15-minute consultation.

We will hear your child's history, review any assessment data you have, and recommend a starting point.

Book a free 15-minute consult
207.426.4267 lisa.murphy@pinestatelearning.com
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