Why All That Practice Isn’t Giving Your Struggling Reader the Progress You’d Expect
“Practice makes perfect,” so the saying goes. So it makes sense that for most parents of struggling readers, the focus is on putting in those reps, racking up those reading minutes, and wearing ourselves out trying to make it at all inviting or fun. (We all know our reluctant readers aren’t putting in those minutes willingly and with smiles on their faces.)
But the truth is: practice doesn’t help much if you don’t know what to be practicing in the first place.
In other words, practicing does a lot better job strengthening a skill than it does building one. And if we don’t have an idea of the right way to do something, our practice looks a bit like a game of pin the tail on the donkey. We’re making the effort, we’re going through the motions, but it’s nearly impossible to get that tail where it actually needs to go.
Instruction is the difference between blindly trying to get better and actually taking steps toward it. Instruction is what makes putting in those reps really count.
Someone can practice the violin for a few hours a week and probably even see improvement. But pair that practice with violin lessons and you’ll have a violinist before you know it.
I don’t know about you but when it comes to our struggling readers and all those minutes of painstaking effort and work, I want nothing less than the very most bang for my buck for each and every one of those minutes of practice. For my kiddo’s sake… and for mine!
However, it’s at this point most parents are wondering: How do I know if my child still needs reading instruction? Didn’t she already learn what she needed to at school? She still needs practice, doesn’t she?
They’re all valid questions and so I suggest a Quick and Easy Reading Check (which you’ll be happy to know really is as quick and easy as it sounds).
Here’s the gist. Your child reads a passage outloud. Step 2: You follow along while they read. Step 3: Look for signs that they’d benefit from instruction.
Practically, it’ll look something like this.
Find Out If Your Child Needs Reading Lessons in Under a Minute (Really)
Step 1: READ
Choose a book for your child to read from (or better yet, have them choose!). They’ll only be reading to you for one minute, literally, so even a cereal box or paper from school works.
Have a reader who’s extra reluctant and unwilling? Here’s what you do: Trade this for reading practice for the day. You can say something like: “Instead of your regular reading practice, we’re going to switch it up for today. Go pick anything you want to read to me out loud then I’m going to set the timer for one minute while I follow along with you. When the timer rings, you’re done for the day!” Your child thinks they just won the jackpot and you have a willing reader at your side for a full 60 seconds. That, my friend, is a win-win.
Step 2: FOLLOW
Follow along as your child reads aloud. This is key. So often I’d listen to my son read aloud and have no idea that what he was saying out loud wasn’t fully matching up what was actually on the page. Which is exactly what we’re looking for…
Step 3: NOTICE
This is not complicated or requiring precision or expertise. You’re simply noticing (without judgement!) how their reading compares to what is actually on the page.
The 5 Signs You’re Listening For That Point to Missing Reading Skills
Your child may benefit from reading instruction if you notice them…
- Guessing at words instead of reading them
- Falling apart when a word is big or unfamiliar
- Sounding choppy or word-by-word instead of smooth
- Skipping right over small words like a, the, or of
- Still sounding out words that should feel automatic by now
Even one of these is worth paying attention to. All five? Definitely worth paying attention to.
I’ll tell you why in a second, but long story short: your child’s reading isn’t automatic yet. They’re still working hard to figure words out instead of simply recognizing them — which means there’s a lot less brainpower left over for actually understanding what they’re reading.
What These Signs Really Mean (And Why It’s Not Your Fault)
If you found yourself nodding along to one of these, or two, or if you’re honest, all five… take a breath, friend.
Here’s what I want you to hear: this isn’t a sign that something is wrong with your child. It’s a sign that something is missing.
Big difference.
Picture for a minute our violinist from earlier? The one practicing for hours a week without ever having a lesson. If you watched her play, you’d notice things too. Fingers in the wrong spot. Notes she reaches for but misses over and over again.
You wouldn’t look at her and think, “I’m sure she’ll get it tomorrow.” You’d think, “We need to get that girl some lessons.”
Your child, reading out loud to you just now, is doing the exact same thing. Guessing at words, stumbling over the long ones, skipping the small ones because there’s no mental energy left to spare. That’s not a lack of effort. That’s a child playing a song she’s never been shown how to play, and playing it with everything she’s got.
She just hasn’t been given lessons yet.
So no, it’s not your fault. (I know that’s easy for me to say and hard for you to believe, especially at 8pm after the fourth meltdown of the week over a homework page.) And it’s not your child’s fault either. They’re not lazy. They’re not bad at reading. They’re missing pieces nobody’s handed them yet.
Practice, no doubt, will keep polishing whatever skills they already have. But it can’t hand them the skills they don’t have yet. Only reading instruction can do that.
And that’s where I can help.
Let’s Get Your Child Those Reading Lessons
If your Quick and Easy Reading Check turned up one or more of these signs, your child would likely benefit from real reading lessons, not just more reading practice. And I’d love to help you give them that.
The best part: I’ll do all the teaching for you. I’ve recorded every lesson myself, so your job isn’t to figure out how to teach your child to read — it’s just to hit play, let me take it from there, then connect with your child for a few minutes after each lesson over a fun, screen-free practice game.
The Truly Reading Starter Pass is a simple, low-risk first step — a full week of short, focused reading lessons and practice games, plus a slew of parent resources designed to make it easy to help your struggling reader, all for $37. And if you decide to keep going, that $37 counts straight toward full enrollment.
Let’s start making those practice minutes really count, friend!
I’m cheering for you both,
Anne