Maybe your child is near the end of first grade. You see that he doesn’t know how to decode many single-syllable words like “bland,” “cope,” “strain” or “leap.” He struggles to read even beginning kindergarten level books. The school has brushed off your concerns. They’ve assured you that your child will “catch on.” They even have the nerve to cast you as the “anxious” parent, the one with invalid concerns. However, internally, you know something is off. You begin to realize that your child is a struggling reader.
You are on a journey. This involves your child. You know reading is an essential skill. If you were to rank responsibilities of an elementary school, you would probably rank “teaching children to read” as number one. Schools are supposed to teach kids to read. If they fail at this, they fail at their primary duty. You resent being labeled as the anxious parent when you know the problem lies with the school’s inability to teach kids to read correctly.
There is a correct way to teach kids to read. You might wonder what this is. You’re not an expert of teaching decoding skills, and you never imagined you’d have to research an entire profession while trying to maintain your own career and at-home life.
First, you realize you need to learn what the problem is: how do children learn to read? What sort of instruction was my child missing? Next, you need to advocate for your child to make sure he gets the reading intervention he needs. Throughout this process, you might feel belittled and ignored. You will need thick skin.
Find 100+ printable decodable books in our shop.
What is the problem? Why is your student behind in reading?
Explicit, systematic phonics instruction with decodable text is the most effective way to teach a child to read. The research is clear. The National Reading Panel (2000) conducted a meta-analysis of all the available research and found that explicit, systematic phonics instruction substantially reduces the occurrence of reading failure.
Furthermore, the NRP reading studies involve kids in real world classrooms. The studies are practical in nature and based on outcomes of real students. Over 30 years of research proves that explicit, systematic phonics instruction works. Many kids simply will not learn to read without this method.
“The effects of systematic early phonics instruction were significant and substantial in kindergarten and the 1st grade, indicating that systematic phonics programs should be implemented at those age and grade levels” (from Reading Rockets, https://www.readingrockets.org/article/phonics-instruction).
Explicit
Explicit means the teacher directly tells the student the spelling-sound correlations. For example, the teacher might write “ai” on the board and say, “ai says /ai/ as in train, sail, and rain.” Next, he’ll write “ai” on a sound card and students will practice the sound daily. In sum, the teacher takes out the guesswork. Kids do not have to “pick up” phonics on their own.
Systematic
Systematic means the kids learn one phonics sound at a time. They are not bombarded with all the phonics sounds at once. The teacher will introduce one spelling-sound correlation, give an explicit lesson on that phonics sound, and have the kids practice that sound with decodable text. Gradually, over time, the kids learn more and more phonics sounds.
Decodable texts
Decodable texts are early readers that allow children to read sound-by-sound. With these texts, the educator never has a child look at pictures to guess or figure out the word by context. Instead, the child decodes the phonics sounds: sss-ai-lll… sail. Decodable texts, if they are done well, should introduce one phonics sound at a time.
Reading Elephant has 100+ printable decodable books that allow children to master one phonics sound at a time. Over the Reading Elephant series, kids gradually increase their phonics knowledge. In this way, they can practice sound-by-sound reading skills with success.
Unfortunately, many schools teach kids with unsystematic, sloppy, haphazard phonics. Parents see that their child is learning with phonics. However, they often don’t understand that their child is NOT learning with research-based phonics. This can cause confusion. To be effective, phonics needs to be explicit and systematic with decodable texts. Sloppy, fill out this “sh worksheet” and read this repetitive book 3x sort of instruction is not at all effective.
Why aren’t children learning with explicit, systematic phonics in schools?
The answer is startling.
Teacher training programs do not teach future teachers how to implement explicit, systematic phonics instruction. These teacher training programs result in teachers who know generally what phonics is, but who have no idea how to teach a child how to read. Teachers can often explain the difference between phonics, whole language and balanced literacy. They often know theory. However, the vast majority of teachers have NO practical training in research-based, explicit, systematic phonics instruction.
This is unfair to teachers. They often spend tens of thousands on credentialing programs. They leave without an inkling of knowledge on how to get a struggling reader to decode. Worse, they don’t know they don’t know.
When Reid Lyon started teaching 3rd grade, he saw significant reading failure. However, he didn’t know how to improve his students’ reading scores:
“What struck me when I got in my third grade classroom was about thirty percent of these nine year olds couldn’t read well at all, some not at all. I couldn’t understand that because reading to me was not laborious and I took it for granted… by the end of the year the thirty percent that I didn’t help had actually extended to about forty percent because I screwed another ten percent up. I just didn’t have any idea what I was doing” (Reid Lyon, taken from Children of the Code, see link below).
Even though Lyon was a certified teacher, he didn’t know how to teach a child to read.
You may think his experience is an anomaly. Unfortunately, his story is typical. The teacher training program taught him that rich, interesting literature would improve decoding problems. His education professors swore that reading was a natural process, and that if you expose a child to literature, they’ll “catch on” to reading.
“No one had ever talked to me about how reading develops and what you do when kids come to it differently. I had been taught in these education courses that reading was a natural process and that what you needed to do was provide kids with rich, interesting literature and motivate them, and that they, in fact, would then inculcate the principles and move right along. In fact, I was taught not to deal with specific skills… that would be de-motivating. But I tried that and I didn’t help anybody” (Reid Lyon, taken from Children of the Code).
As a parent, if you notice that your child is not learning to read, the school system is likely not providing your child with research-based instruction. As Lyon documents, teacher training programs do not teach future educators research-based reading instruction. Instead, they claim that rich, interesting literature, and guess-by-context strategies will improve decoding problems.
However, over 30 years of reading and cognitive science research show that kids do not “catch on” to reading. Your struggling reader needs explicit, systematic phonics instruction with decodable text. Your student does not need to read Shakespeare again and again to spontaneously “catch on” to word attack skills.
In fact, when schools fail to teach phonics with research-based methods, parents who can afford it, begin to outsource reading instruction to private tutors and companies.
“Phonics never went away; it was outsourced. If the schools were not providing adequate basic skills instruction, concerned parents could try to fill the gap by other means.”
― Mark Seidenberg, from Language at the Speed of Sight
Our 100+ printable decodable books allow kids to practice reading common phonics sounds.
How to advocate for your struggling reader…
Make sure your struggling reader receives explicit, systematic phonics instruction with decodable text.
You can start by purchasing decodable text. Some good decodable texts include Primary Phonics books, Dr. Maggie’s or our step-by-step printable phonics books.
Next, hire a private tutor trained in research-based instruction. These trained reading specialists tend to be expensive at $100-$135 per hour. If you cannot afford this, try to learn a phonics scope and sequence. Make sure your child learns one sound at a time. Explicitly introduce each sound. Gradually, over time, your child should expand his phonics repertoire. Remember that excellent research-based instruction involves decodable text, phonemic awareness, sound cards (flashcards with phonics sounds on them), mixed lists (lists of words with past and new phonics sounds the child has learned), and sound-by-sound spelling activities.
Document everything. Later on, you might decide to hire a lawyer.
None of us can predict the future. The school is likely providing all sorts of interventions, like occupational therapy, special education classes, speech pathology…etc. At first, you believe it’s unlikely that none of these professionals know research-based phonics instruction.
However, over time, you see that their interventions aren’t working. Your struggling reader learns how to say the /sh/ sound and completes a “sh worksheet” in speech pathology. You believe this will help. You struggle to identify research-based instruction. Over time, you see that none of these professionals were trained in explicit, systematic phonics instruction. They simply have deceptive phonics days and phonics worksheets with no scope and sequence.
At this point, some parents want to contact a lawyer. The school has wasted precious time. They’ve gaslit you with reassurances that your child will “catch on.” Now you have a 2nd grader that can’t read. If you decide to hire a lawyer, documentation will be a critical piece of your case. Document everything.
Connect with other parents of struggling readers. They’ll understand your situation.
Your struggling reader is not alone. There are other kids who aren’t learning to read at your child’s school. In fact, approximately 30% of kids will struggle with reading if educators do not use research-based phonics instruction.
At first, it might be scary to confide in other parents. Some will tell you nonsense like, “just read a lot of books to your child.” You’ll think to yourself, “Well, I’ve been reading him tons of books since he was born.” This sort of parent doesn’t understand. This parent has a child in the group of 70% of kids who will learn to read no matter the type of instruction.
In contrast, parents of struggling readers will share a lot of your feelings. They know their struggling reader is intelligent. They know they read aloud to their child since birth. There’s a problem, but it does not lie in the child or themselves: the problem is the school’s lack of research-based phonics instruction.
I highly recommend listening to Emily Hanford’s Hard Words podcast. It will likely illuminate a lot of what you are going through.
Develop a thick skin so you can advocate for your struggling reader.
You will likely be gaslit with the following:
“Your child will catch on to reading. Don’t worry.”
“You didn’t read your child enough books.”
“Just have him memorize books and it’ll be okay.”
None of the above are true. The truth is: many children need research-based phonics instruction. These children are smart and capable. They just need a certain type of instruction. Explicit, systematic phonics instruction has been validated by decades of reading and cognitive science research. Research-based instruction includes a scope and sequence. Kids walk through the sequence one sound at a time. Teachers explain sounds explicitly: “ee” says /ee/ as in tree, bee and seen. Sounds are not dropped from instruction. Instead, the child constantly reviews while she gradually learns new phonics sounds.
Ask the school for their phonics scope and sequence.
A phonics scope and sequence is critical. The phonics scope is the list of phonics sounds. The phonics sequence is the order in which the educator teachers those sounds. If the school cannot provide you with a phonics scope and sequence, this is a major red flag. If they can, ask where your struggling reader is in the sequence. What phonics sounds does your child know? What sounds does he have to learn? Try to pinpoint exactly where your child is in this scope and sequence.
Try your best to have a thick skin. Gather information. Find out how the school is teaching your child. Document everything. Find someone in your community who can give your child research-based phonics instruction.
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