Writing is a code. Deciphering the written code is a universal goal, a daunting challenge all children face. For some, regrettably, the effort is frustrating and, at times, seemingly futile.
Children's reading abilities depend upon many different factors and influences. During their preschool years, future readers develop an interest in books, a fascination with letters and words, and the ideas they convey on paper. This spark can be ignited when children are read to often during the years leading up to their formal education. At the same time, preschoolers acquire an appreciation of the sounds that make up words in our language. They come to realize that words are composed of combinations of these individual language sounds (called phonemes), and that words can be broken down into their basic sounds and put back together again (a realization known as phonemic awareness).

Breaking the Code
Fascination with the code combined with an appreciation of the appearance of letters and strong processing of the language sounds enable kids to pronounce, identify and understand words on paper. That aspect of reading is called decoding.

Some children experience delays in mastering decoding. In many cases, these are kids who are having problems with phonological or phonemic awareness; either they cannot process language sounds with sufficient speed and accuracy, or they have trouble perceiving that words are composed of sound units. Other children have trouble recognizing the visual patterns of symbols and whole words. They too endure delays in early reading. Trouble with phonemes or difficulty with visual patterns can make it hard for a child to associate sounds with combinations of letter symbols (the so-called graphemes). Learning to read becomes an arduous and often unsuccessful ordeal.

Decoding Difficulty: Impact on Comprehension
Over time students develop an ever-increasing number of words they can identify instantly and effortlessly; these automatic words comprise a child's sight vocabulary. Students with word decoding problems may fall seriously behind in accumulating a sight vocabulary. Their reading suffers, and sometimes they expend so much effort decoding individual words that they have little or no energy left to figure out the meaning of whole sentences and paragraphs. In this way, poor decoding can take its toll on reading comprehension, a very common phenomenon among middle school children.

Getting the Message
Reading comprehension also depends upon overall language ability. To understand what they read kids first must be able to understand what they hear. They need to be effective with word meaning and the interpretation of increasingly complex sentences and texts. Poor oral comprehension is a common source of delays in reading comprehension, especially as kids get older and their texts contain harder and harder language.

Reading and Memory
Memory plays a significant role in reading. In addition to remembering the sounds, symbols, and words in one's sight vocabulary, students need to recall what they already know in order to interpret the new material in a book. They must use active memory, the capacity to suspend several things in the mind simultaneously, to retain what they are reading while they are reading. They must also remember what they read at the top of the page while proceeding through subsequent paragraphs. And, they must remember particular concepts, ideas, and information from their reading, so they can apply them later.

Some students literally forget what they're reading as they read. The arrive at the end of a page or chapter and have little or no idea of what they've just read. They are "leaky readers."

Reading and Attention
Good reading also requires strong attention. Children with attention deficits may focus on the wrong aspects of the text. Or they might not focus at all, thereby missing important information during reading. They may superimpose their own meaning over what the author intended (so-called "top-down reading").

Reading the Difficulty with Reading

To help kids with reading problems, it is essential to identify where the breakdown is occurring in the reading process. Is the child having a decoding problem? If so, is there an auditory or a visual problem, or both? Is comprehension a problem? If so, is this the result of poor decoding, or weaknesses in semantics or other aspects of language ability? How well is the child using memory during reading? Are weak attention abilities interfering?

There are many curricular methods, techniques, and other interventions to help kids with reading problems. Often these approaches make use of intense drill and multi-sensory channels of input. Pinpointing where child's reading breakdowns are occurring will help determine which kinds of treatment are likely to be successful. With skillful help, all kids can become readers.

Read ways to help students master the Challenges of Reading

Explore the Reading section of the Parent Toolkit