Is my child a struggling reader and what can I do?

Learning to read is one of the most complex milestones a child will ever face. Unlike speech, which comes naturally to us, reading requires the systematic development of neural pathways to decode written symbols into meaningful language. Because children develop at different rates, it can be difficult for parents to know whether a child is just experiencing normal growing pains or genuinely struggling.

As parents, we worry that our children may be struggling and that we may miss the signs. Recognising the early warning signs of literacy difficulties allows us to step in before frustration damages our child's academic confidence. Here is a comprehensive guide to identifying the red flags of reading struggles and the exact next steps you should take to support them.

Recognising the warning signs of a struggling reader

Identifying the red flags can be challenging since the struggles of learning to read looks different for each child. However, problems generally fall into three categories: behavioural avoidance and anxiety, word decoding issues, and comprehension gaps.

Often, the first sign a child may be struggling with reading has nothing to do with books. Parents and teachers often notice uncharacteristic behaviour developing, particularly around reading. If reading is exhausting or even embarrassing for the child, they will often build defences to avoid and protect themselves. These may manifest in the following ways: physical complaints, such as complaining of sudden headaches, stomach-aches, or extreme tiredness whenever it is time to open a book; defiance and stalling, which may consist of creating distractions, throwing tantrums, constantly delaying reading or being the class clown; anxiety surrounding reading aloud, which can be exhibiting intense nervousness or refusing to read in front of peers, teachers, or parents; and extreme book selection habits such as choosing the exact same simple book repeatedly to rely on memorization, or picking books with heavy illustrations and minimal text.

Perhaps the most obvious sign your child may be struggling is weak phonological awareness and decoding. Phonological awareness is the ability to recognise and manipulate the individual sounds in our spoken language. Without it, a child cannot properly link letters to sounds (phonics) to blend them into words. Common signs of weakness in this area are: trouble with rhyming, seen in  an inability to recognise, match, or generate simple rhyming words (e.g., cat, hat, sat); wild guessing in the guessing of unfamiliar words based strictly on the first letter or the pictures on the page, rather than sounding them out; skipping or adding words with the skipping of small connector words (the, on, it), dropping word endings (-ed, -ing), or inserting words that aren't there without stopping to self-correct; inability to retain sight words leading to continually stumbling over common, high-frequency "sight words" (like what, because, or there) even after seeing them dozens of times; and letter and word reversals with frequently flipping letters (confusing b and d, or p and q) or reading words backward (e.g., was instead of saw) past the age of 7 or 8.

Often, while a child can decode and ‘read’, a lack of fluency and comprehension can still elude them. Fluency acts as the bridge between recognising a word and understanding its meaning. When decoding takes too much brainpower and effort, comprehension is often impossible. Some signs of fluency and comprehension-struggles are: choppy, laboured oral reading resulting in reading in a word-by-word, mechanical monotone rather than "reading like they talk"; sounding out the same word repeatedly, sounding out a word on line one, and then having to sound it out again when it appears on line two; poor text recall such as being able to listen to a story and fully understand it, and yet being completely unable to explain the plot or answer basic questions about a text they just read themselves.

Steps to follow after recognizing signs of a struggling reader

So, what should you do once you have identified one or more red flags over a couple of months? It is now time to transition from observation to action. Early intervention is highly effective and vitally important to prevent the gap between your child and their peers from widening and overwhelming them.

A simple way of visualising the important flow of assisting your child is laid out in this basic flow chart.

Process Flow

Observe Signs ➜ Consult Teacher ➜ Adjust Home Habits ➜ Request Evaluation ➜ Find Qualified Support for You and Your Child

1. Observe Signs ➜ Consult Teacher

Step one after observing the red flags is scheduling a teacher consultation. Remember to be as equally open to discussion if a teacher observes any red flags, since your child's teacher sees how they perform relative to their peer group every day. Schedule a dedicated meeting to voice your concerns and to ask questions. Be sure to go in prepared with specifics about what you have observed. Be clear and begin your statements with, ‘I notice’.  For example, ‘I notice my child struggles with the books brought home from school.’ Some of the questions you may want to have cleared up are:  Where does my child fall compared to the grade-level benchmark?  Do they participate when reading happens in class, or do they withdraw? What specific reading interventions or small-group instruction is available at school already to provide extra support?

2. Adjust Home Habits

While waiting for more formal assistance, the next stop would be to shift the strategies you use at home to support your child to lower their stress levels and anxiety around reading:  Stop the ‘guessing’ game, meaning if your child gets stuck on a word, don't let them guess. Teach them to look back at the basics - look at the letters, break the word into syllables, and blend the sounds. Show your child that reading doesn’t always have to be serious, it can be fun. Embrace Audiobooks and shared reading and to keep their vocabulary and love of stories alive, read to them, or use audiobooks. Try ‘choral reading’ where you read the text aloud together in unison, allowing your voice to pace theirs. Keep practice short and sweet and avoid gruelling marathon reading sessions. Break reading homework into 10-to-15-minute blocks interspersed with movement or play.

3. Request Evaluation ➜ Find Qualified Support for You and Your Child

One of the most important steps in the flow to help a struggling reader, is a formal educational evaluation. This assessment looks at processing speeds, phonological processing, and memory. This can identify specific learning profiles, such as dyslexia, and qualifies the child for tailored accommodations like an Individualised Education Program (IEP). It is important to voice this request clearly to your child’s teacher during the scheduled teacher meeting. 

If you seek outside help, look for specialists or programmes rooted in the Science of Reading. Programs that utilise an explicit, structured, and multi-sensory approach to phonics (such as the Cellfield reading programme) are proven to be an effective way to help struggling readers unlock the code of written language.

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The most important thing to remember is that a reading delay is not a reflection of a child's intelligence. With the right diagnostic approach and patience, nearly every child can become a capable, confident reader.