Why Can't My Child Read? My own Struggles as a Parent to find Answers

I attended a very nice tea party yesterday with my seven year old daughter. It was her friend's 8th birthday and everyone was excited to celebrate. We walked in and picked out a pretty hat with a big white bow, white gloves, and a pearl necklace....it was a high end affair!

I sat around the table with other moms and we all watched our daughters behave in a very "civilized" manner. I think it was the white gloves, they were so well behaved and focused on their friend and a magic show that just started.....and then the moms started talking.....

At a table of six moms, three were very concerned about their daughter's reading scores. We had just received their first reading testing the week before, and they were very nervous about teacher conferences coming up. Some of the girls had already been pulled out for interventions and it wasn't working, their scores were still low. The moms worried about what would happen in the next year, would their daughter still struggle? I know the feeling.

My daughter's older brother Finn is a very bright child, he loves to take things apart and build things, he is an explorer and creator of things, one of those kids that always found math easy....but when he was her age, he too struggled in reading. He was put in a special reading intervention in first grade and in the third grade, two years worth of special intervention had landed him at the 18th percentile in reading skills, lower than when he had tested in first grade. The problem was, he struggled not because of a need for more reading instruction, but because he had poor cognitive skills that made reading very difficult for him.

We enrolled him in LearningRx training after learning that his processing speed was in the 5th percentile (which means out of 100 kids his age, 95 kids would rank above his score). He had above average skills in areas I thought would be weak because of his reading struggles. As a preschooler, I had worked very hard on auditory processing skills because I knew how important they were for reading, he was at the 96th percentile, so although this is normally the #1 skill kids are weak in if they struggled with reading, it wasn't his issue. Testing his cognitive skills was the key to finding out why he struggled with reading. Training his processing speed first, and then giving him good reading instruction turned it around for him. The next time his school tested three months later, his scores had changed drastically. He had moved from the 18th percentile to the 56th. When he completed his reading training, his school testing showed him at the 86th percentile. Which really showed me that when you focus on weak cognitive skills, reading doesn't have to be a struggle.

My suggestions to the moms at the tea party were the following:

1. Before enrolling in an intervention or retaining a child, find out what the school's track record is with those in special programs, how many improve, what happens to those they retain? National studies do not show either work well, and it's normally because they take an instructional approach to a cognitive issue.
2. Get your child tested. Find out why they struggled to read in the first place. As an expert in this area, I still was surprised at my son's test results. I had worked diligently in the areas I thought would be needed, and he was strong in those areas. But until I knew where his struggles were, I couldn't offer him the help he needed. In a study of over 2000 clients that enrolled in our brain training programs with dyslexia, auditory processing (phonemic awareness) was not always the weakest skill, working memory and processing speed were lower. So most of the students we work with need training one several skills before we even start reading instruction.
3. English reading is difficult, and there is a better way to learn to read than what is offered in most schools. The nation's report card shows that only 37% of 4th graders were at or above proficient reading levels. That score has gradually increased, but is not close to where I would hope we would be with all the research and focus on higher reading scores. The problem is English reading is difficult and poor reading habits are hard to break. I suggest a sound to code approach, with intense drill and nonsense words for problem readers (those that have already been taught a system and formed poor reading habits). ReadRx, which is the program that we developed at LearningRx averages about a 3.5 years gain in reading in three months (after 3 months of cognitive training). Make sure that whatever reading program you choose, it has research backing the approach and historical outcomes that make sense for your child.
4. Don't "wait and see what happens" anymore. I wished I had put my son through our training when he was younger. Going along with the school's suggestions had weakened his motivation to read and attend school. It's very difficult to get that motivation back. I am happy to report he reads for fun almost every night, but getting him to do get good grades in school can be challenging, and I think it would have been different if he had gotten the help sooner and had more success in school at a younger age.

If you would like to learn more about how to help your struggling reader go to www.learningrx.com/webinars to watch: 5 Facts Every Parent Needs to Know About Reading & Why Most Programs Fail to Help”

To learn more about LearningRx research,visit: www.gibsonresearch.org