Why Your Child is Struggling with Reading After Years of School

Are you frustrated with Ds and Fs that keep coming home from your child’s reading tests? Are you concerned about how to handle that or overall improve the situation? It’s difficult to ignore!

After all, the child is seeing those grades on a weekly basis. What is that doing to his or her self-perception of intelligence or capability? Frankly, it sends the message, “You can’t. You’re not smart enough.”

If I got regular marks like that week after week in my job how I would feel even as an adult! Sometimes we forget about that.

Grades are commonly used as a way to communicate to parents how their child is performing academically in school. (Side note: this is why grades aren’t as important to me as a homeschool parent. I already know how much material my child is learning since I am the one there interacting with the child). But in different schools, grades are handed out in different ways.

It seems that in elementary school there is still this tradition that exists of sending weekly papers home. I love the weekly communication! I love the fact the parents can actually see the work that is done. The problem is there is also a tradition of giving test after test on Fridays. One. right. after. the. other. Parents end up scrambling to study, study, study to prevent a stapled set of F graded papers. What time is left to actually practice reading at home?

I DON’T love seeing elementary children overly tested.

I DON’T love seeing elementary children who struggle with grades week after week even when a parent is doing all that is possible at home. (Remember, after pick-up or bus drop-off and supper there is only so much time that exists before a proper bedtime.)

To be honest, I am seeing children who are needing to improve their reading skills—and giving more tests isn’t helping. There are still some basic decoding, fluency and accuracy issues that that need “cleaned up” before one can expect improvement in comprehension. In other words, the child is displaying reading behaviors such as:

—substituting or saying the wrong word

—skipping words or an entire line of words

—giving no attention to the punctuation and pausing where appropriate

—inability to break the word down into chunks or syllables

—lack of understanding phonics rules like the soft c, soft g and certain groups of letters that make specific sounds

Let me paint a picture for you.

The child is in second, third or fourth grade. They’ve made some improvements with reading but now the teachers have been told they MUST prepare for multiple choice standardized tests. Translated, many teachers take that to mean they must inundate the children with multiple choice worksheets over and over. Do you see this with your child or a child that you know?

• The child is still struggling with words that contain 3-4 syllables.

• The child MOST OF THE TIME has had no systematic instruction on how to divide syllables. (Many teachers weren’t even trained in this!)

• The child is deficient in vocabulary of some of those longer words that might be encountered. After all, with so much time in the evenings spent on preparing for the next tests (FRIDAY), there really isn’t time to sit and have Mom read aloud a book with bigger vocabulary.

• There really isn’t much time for the child to practice actually reading aloud to a parent to practice those skills of decoding and accuracy.

• The teacher is micromanaged in the classroom and bound to specific grade level standards (If you ask me, there are too many of these standards and the most important and basic ones of all don’t get the time they deserve). If the child is reading below that particular grade level, there is not specific instruction to help that.

In my state there is a new law involving the end-of-the-year state test and reading. Many parents are fretting over it. Teachers aren’t happy about it either. Teachers are fed up with the focus on testing. For regular practice during the week, third graders are given essays to read (yes, at least 5-6 paragraphs) and then expected to answer a series of questions with multiple choice answers that are one sentence each in length. So basically, each of those questions could comprise a 5 sentence paragraph. That’s a lot of reading! That’s especially difficult for a child who is displaying the reading behaviors above.

So to answer the title of this blog entry, THIS is why your child is continuing to struggle with reading after years of school:

—lack of continuation of phonics instruction

—lack of practice reading, applying the phonics to appropriate reading material

—too much time spent on choose A, B, C or D instead of improving decoding, fluency, and accuracy.

What are some options you can try?

—Find a systematic curriculum/program for teaching phonics. Teach it to your child. Many homeschool programs can be purchased and used by even public and private school parents in whatever time they set aside to do so. If your child is in third or fourth grade, you might need to find something on a second grade level in order to help fill gaps.

—Use your evenings and weekends to purposefully practice actual reading—the phonics rules and actual books (nonfiction and fiction) so that your child can apply the rules with your support.

—Use a computer program or app to help fill gaps in phonics instruction. You’ll still need to sit with your child and help read material, but it might be a time saver for some parents.

Finally, I must be honest. If your child has already been in school for several years, five days a week and still not reading well then you need a different plan. Consider having your child in a small group or one-on-one environment. If you can homeschool your own child, I recommend that first. If you aren’t able to do that immediately, there are other options, such as a private tutor to help your child during the school day. As hard as many teachers work, their time is limited to provide one-on-one time. Nothing beats that customized attention.

Remember, you are your child’s most influential teacher. You don’t have to struggle night after night studying for an insane amount of tests and never help your child read better. There are other options—even if you might be new to those options or nervous about them. Step out of your comfort zone and consider what might be possible.

Remember, you are your child’s most influential teacher.