Recognizing Reading Delays
Most reading issues stem from language processing delays.
Reading is a miraculous skill. It requires proficiency in many areas – phonemic awareness, vocabulary, working memory, attention, logic and critical thinking.
But most of all, reading is a language skill. You learn the language by listening (word memory), you learn your letters, and then you connect your word memory to text to read. If your language processing is even slightly imperfect – for instance, if you hear |tent| as |ten| – reading delays can surface. This why so many struggle with reading.
Children cannot be considered “good” readers” until all of these skills have been successfully mastered. Generally, this means reading at an 8th grade level, with comprehension and metacognition.
Early Intervention Requires Early Detection
Separating a slow start from more serious reading delays is that not easy. Children want to please and can disguise a phonemic awareness or decoding difficulty early on. However, reading delays become obvious in 4th or 5th grade when comprehension gaps are harder to cover up.
Finding reading delays early is important, and by early, we mean in elementary school. That is the “learning to read” period where there is time to invest in an intervention without your child falling behind.
Look For Clues Outside Reading
How to separate a slow start to reading and more serious reading delays due to a language processing gap? Temporary delays will resolve themselves, deep-seated delays will need remediation. One way to tell the difference is to look for signs of cognitive difficulty away from the reading. For instance:
- Were there speech delays in early life?
- Did your child have ear infections that might have affected early language development?
- Was your child born listening to English?
- Is there a history of dyslexia or reading difficulty in your family?
- Is your child’s reading out of line with other learning development, math for instance?
If there are no apparent language issues, we recommend giving your child a chance to mature into reading. However, if your child has any of the above markers and the reading delays persist, there are almost certainly a need to act.
Most Gemm Learning students are able to make 1-2 years of reading gain in 4-6 months, 30 minutes a day, 3-5 days a week. Our gains are measured using the RPI, a Woodcock-Johnson aligned online reading test. For more info on how Gemm Learning can help reading skills, watch this video.
Three Ways to Help Reading Delays
- Natural maturation
- Instruction – rely on school or tutors
Leaving It To Nature
The problem here is that reading is not natural — it’s a relatively recent human skill. Having said that, the underlying processing delays that hold children back do mature and many children eventually acquire the phonological awareness and vocabulary needed for reading through daily language interactions, listening.
If word memory maps properly, i.e., spoken words and the corresponding text are accurately connected in the brain, then reading is relatively easily. Leaving it to nature is a reasonable strategy up to the age of 7 as long as there are no clues of a language processing issue. The only question is that while you wait for maturation how much learning is being missed and will the current frustrations end up turning your child off reading or learning.
Schools work with students “as is.” If there is a cognitive delay holding back reading, they work around it. Their focus is teaching the fundamentals of reading, not addressing the underlying cause of reading difficulty, the cognitive delays. Tutors mimic what goes on at school.
A reading intervention addresses the cognitive skill gaps needed for reading. The fastest way to solve a problem is to find the cause and then act. Reading is no different. If you can improve language processing skills and therefore improve phonemic awareness, reading skills can accelerate quickly. by tutors.
Your Next Step
There are early signs of reading difficulty to look for. In addition, as a precaution, be aware of the symptoms of dyslexia. But most of all, parents should know the appropriate reading milestones and where their child stands. The school can help you out with this if you have any concerns at all. At home, understanding what the common reading problems look like is also helpful.
Helping guide your child through this all important learning to read phase can be scary. The long-term stakes are high.
Take our reading test