“Your Child Will Read When They’re Ready” and Other Reading Myths
Chances are you’ve heard at least one of these before (and to be honest, maybe you’ve even said them). While well-intentioned, often, adhering to any of these reading myths can hold your child back from growing in his or her reading skills as quickly or as easily as possible.
Reading Myths You May Have Heard (or Even Said)
Reading Myth #1: “Just Read to Your Kids; They’ll Catch On.”
Are we saying don’t read to your kids? Absolutely not. Reading to your kids is an amazing time of connection and learning for both of you—but it’s not the best way to teach your child to read for themselves.
Reading to your kids exposes them to a wide range of words, situations, experiences, and facts that they wouldn’t encounter otherwise. However, it is not building the foundational brain skills that are so essential for learning to read effectively.
If you use this strategy, you may find that your kids:
- Are not independently motivated to try to read for themselves
- Heavily rely on audiobooks
- Struggle in other subjects because of an inability to read instructions, textbooks, math problems, etc.
- Become good guessers at common words but struggle when trying to decode an unfamiliar one
These setbacks are frustrating to both kids and parents, but often the advice you get is our next major myth.
Reading Myth #2: “It’ll Click, Just Give It Time.”
Under the guise of being supportive and understanding, many will tell you that it doesn’t matter when your child learns to read. In fact, research shows that if children learn to read at a younger age, they will have a better vocabulary, writing skills, articulation, and increased curiosity and desire for learning throughout life.
If you hold on to reading myths like “when it’s time, he or she will read,” you’re deflecting much of this huge responsibility onto your kids instead of equipping them with the tools they need to learn reading effectively.
Building effective reading skills and strategies from the get-go is the best way to enable your child to make gains on their ability to decode words, read fluently, and understand what they’re reading.
Kids don’t just outgrow cognitive struggles in most cases. Dr. Amy Moore, head of research for LearningRx, found in her extensive research that weak skills actually get worse with age if you don’t intervene early.
So if your kindergartener or 1st grader is constantly misreading words, switching sounds, or struggling with basic spelling and decoding, fixing the problem NOW can save you from years of repeated struggles.
Reading Myth #3: “You Just Need to Find the Right Reading Curriculum.”
There are so many reading curricula available, yet if you’ve been trying them and not seeing a change in your child’s reading, there’s a reason.
Different types of reading curricula may work for some kids, but the answer to your child’s reading struggles is not in switching to a different curriculum or program.
It’s in changing how his or her brain learns in the first place.
If you’ve been on a curriculum carousel for years trying to find something—anything—that will work for your child, we sympathize with the pain and struggle you have been through.
But instead of just waiting another year and finding another curriculum to try, what if you could identify the WHY behind your child’s struggles with reading?
What if, instead of another year of trial and error, you could have a clear plan of action that will target your child’s weaknesses to help them succeed long-term?
That is where cognitive skills come into play.
For more on why most reading programs fail, watch this presentation:
Root-Cause Reading Support That Starts With the Brain
Instead of just making accommodations or saying “it’ll click,” LearningRx takes a deeper look. We look at the way the brain interacts with the world through skills like working memory, auditory processing, thinking speed, and visual processing in order to find out WHY each learner struggles. Then, we can use these insights to create a plan to help your child strengthen these skills so learning across all subject areas becomes easier.
Clients who complete a brain training program with LearningRx gained an average of 5.3 years in Auditory Processing, and an average of 3.6 years in cognitive skills across the board. This is a HUGE time-saver to help you catch your child up to where they need to be!
So if your child is reading at a level below where they should be for their age, you don’t have to settle for trial and error and continued years of struggle. Check out our brain-based reading intervention here to learn more!
