How Cognitive Skills and Reading Are Related, and Why Some Kids Struggle

For some kids, reading is just plain difficult. No matter how hard they try, it doesn’t “click” for them…it doesn’t make sense.

For these children, learning to read can be a frustrating, seemingly fruitless endeavor that erodes their self-confidence. As a parent, watching your child struggle like this can be stressful and heart-wrenching. 

Reading is a complex skill, requiring many different areas of the brain to work together. The cognitive skills our brain uses to take in, comprehend, organize, store, retrieve, and use information all play important roles in our ability to read. 

If even one of these areas is weak, it can make learning to read very difficult.

Read on to learn more about the relationship between cognitive skills and reading, what causes reading comprehension struggles, and how you can help your child achieve reading success.

Cognitive Skills Required for Reading

Cognitive skills and reading are closely tied together. Our brain uses a variety of different cognitive skills at once to enable us to understand written words and their meanings, including:

Attention

Being able to stay focused on what we’re reading is crucial. If your child has attention struggles, they may:

• Find their minds wandering partway through a word or sentence, so they have to start over again 
• Struggle with decoding words, reading fluency, and reading comprehension
• Have difficulty shifting smoothly from one word, line, or paragraph to another

Logic and Reasoning 

The ability to problem solve and logically process situations has a huge impact on our ability to read. If your child’s reading struggles stem from weak logic and reasoning skills, they may:

• Not be able to figure out words based on context or pictures
• Have trouble understanding the basic rules of phonics, reading, or spelling or when to apply them
• Struggle to figure out new words
• Guess at new words instead of working to figure out what they are
• Struggle with math or other subjects that use problem-solving and planning skills

Visual Processing 

This is the ability to take in visual stimuli, then interpret it and manipulate it. If your child struggles with this skill, they may:

• Regularly misread letters or words that look similar
• Have difficulty keeping letters or words in the right order in their mind
• Have a hard time visually tracking lines in their reading material without help
• Become overwhelmed by too much text because they can’t visually select a focus point

Processing Speed 

When we read, it’s crucial to be able to quickly take in what a word says, apply meaning, and build a visual image to help us comprehend it. A child with low processing speed may:

• Frequently start and stop while reading
• Have trouble decoding new words
• Struggle with poor reading comprehension

Auditory Processing 

You might not realize it, but auditory processing is a cornerstone of learning to read. This is your brain’s ability to hear a word or sound and be able to segment, blend, replace, or change it into different words or forms. If your child’s auditory processing skills are weak, they may:

• Be unable to blend a word based on its sounds
• Have trouble with sound recognition tasks like rhyming or identifying first, last, or middle sounds
• Have poor reading fluency, with lots of stops needed to sound out words (even familiar ones)
• Struggle with reading comprehension

Working Memory 

Also called short-term memory, this cognitive skill allows your brain to hold onto information long enough to use it. When it comes to reading, this can look like remembering sounds in a word or words in a sentence long enough to grasp their meaning. Kids with weak working memory may:

• Forget what they just read, so they constantly have to go back and re-read
• Have trouble segmenting, blending, or decoding longer words
• Figure out a word, then forget it the next time they see it (even if it’s only a sentence or two later)
• Struggle with lack of reading comprehension and motivation for reading

Weak working memory is also a foundational cause of many symptoms attributed to ADHD, so kids with ADHD often particularly struggle with reading. 

Causes of Poor Reading Comprehension

There are two aspects to learning to read: basic reading skills like recognizing and sounding out words; and comprehension, or understanding the concepts behind the words.

When a child has difficulty with reading comprehension, it can be caused by a number of factors, including:

• Attention disorders, such as ADHD. An inability to maintain attention can make it difficult for kids to focus on what they’re reading, which in turn contributes to reading comprehension struggles.
• Learning disabilities like dyslexia can make it very difficult for a child to learn to read and to understand the words they have read.
• Varying learning styles. Every child learns differently—for instance, some are more visual, while others learn better by listening. If a child isn’t able to learn within their preferred style, it can be harder to build foundational skills like reading and reading comprehension.
• Weak cognitive skills like processing speed, auditory processing, and working memory make understanding words and sentences a struggle for many children. 

How You Can Help Your Child Boost Cognitive Skills and Reading Comprehension 

Reading difficulties are not something that will resolve on their own. Children don’t grow out of reading struggles, so you can’t just wait them out and hope they get better. If you want to see your child improve their reading and comprehension skills, you need to address the root causes of their reading struggles.

Here are a few ways to address the causes of your child’s reading difficulties and help them improve:

• Games. Playing games is a low-pressure way to strengthen reading and spelling skills while having fun! Word games like Scrabble and Boggle, as well as games that are less obviously related to reading skills like Hedbanz and Apples to Apples Jr, can all help boost the skills needed to be a strong reader. Try implementing some of these literacy-boosting games into family game night.
• Read something—anything! One of the best ways to encourage kids to keep working at their reading skills is to simply read. Focus on books that are at a level that’s comfortable for your child (even if it’s below their grade level) to help make reading more fun and accessible. This will help them feel less “behind” or “slow” and more successful in their reading attempts.
• Read out loud. Reading out loud with your kids helps them improve their phonetics and fluency. When you practice reading out loud, choose reading materials that are at or slightly above their comfort level to help boost their confidence.
• Work on active listening. If your child struggles to listen, it will be difficult for them to learn to read well, as listening skills are needed to develop phonetics and fluency. Playing audiobooks or podcasts or reading out loud together will help develop your child’s active listening skills.
• Celebrate wins—even the small ones! If your child has struggled with reading, they likely need to rebuild their confidence. Celebrating small successes can boost their self esteem and encourage them to keep trying.
• Cognitive skills training with LearningRx. Similar to working with a personal trainer to identify your weaknesses and help you get physically stronger, cognitive skills training with LearningRx focuses on the skills the brain uses for reading to help your child strengthen their reading skills and become a more confident reader.

We have two programs to help struggling readers: ReadRx^Ⓡ, which helps to build basic reading skills; and ComprehendRx^Ⓡ, which focuses on improving reading comprehension.

If you’re unsure if cognitive skills training is the right fit for your child, take our free brain quiz to find out. Then contact us to schedule a brain skills assessment to discover your child’s cognitive strengths, learn the root causes of their learning difficulties, and get started on their personal training plan.