What are some signs my child needs reading help?

Do you wonder if your child could use some additional help with reading? As a parent, you are likely to be the first to notice if your child would benefit from reading help because the earliest signs begin to show in preschool and kindergarten years. 

But how do you know if your child needs help with reading, given that we all learn at our own pace? Reading is also not something children typically learn overnight; it is a complex process to become a reader, usually requiring direct and systematic instruction. 

One of your clues can come directly from the school if they do regular academic assessments, usually starting in kindergarten. If they do, your child’s teacher should be sharing those results with you. If your child is below the 25th percentile, the school may recommend and provide extra help during the school day. 

Whether or not your child is getting extra support at school, it helps to be aware of signs your child may be struggling with reading. This article will identify some signs you can look for to help you decide whether you should seek out additional help like a reading tutor!

Signs of reading challenges in preschool

In preschool, learning to read is often done through fun parent-child activities. 

You can play rhyming word games (“I have a cat and she is wearing a [“what rhymes with ‘cat’ and wait for response] and playing with her [what rhymes with ‘previous response’ and wait]” or word games that practice recognizing words that start with the same sound (“what toys in here start with the “b” sound?”). You can also practice the alphabet through games with letter flashcards.

When playing rhyming and alphabet games, you can listen for clues that your child may be struggling. For example, are they struggling to come up with or hear the rhymes, or are they naming toys that don’t start with the same letter sounds? Have you noticed they are struggling to recall letter symbols after repeated opportunities? 

Signs of reading challenges in early elementary

In early elementary years, students build on foundational skills like letter sounds and rhyming skills and are introduced to the concept of “learning to read.” They will have direct, systematic instruction in letter-sound correspondence, letter formation, and phonological skills. 

During this phase, you may want to seek reading tutoring if your child is having trouble:

• making letter-sound associations, including pronouncing new words and remembering them

• breaking apart words into sounds and/or blending sounds together to make words

• remembering names and sounds of letters

• learning and retaining sight words. By the middle of first grade, students should generally be able to read 100 common sight words (i.e., the, and, is, etc).

Or maybe you’ve noticed some other signs of challenges, such as:

• frequent guessing at unknown words due to weak phonological skills (sounding out/blending together)

• they resist reading aloud

• they skip words in sentences and don’t attempt to self-correct

• they repeatedly sounds out the same word on a page

• their oral reading is choppy/slow/laborious rather than smooth and fluent (i.e., reading word-by-word or even sound-by-sound) 

• they read words in the wrong order in a sentence

• they substitute similar-looking words (e.g., will for while, when for then)

Signs of reading challenges in elementary school

In third grade, students start transitioning from “learning to read” to “reading to learn.” Pictures and context cues start to become more limited, and signs of reading difficulty are likely to become more pronounced. 

Signs of challenges in this developmental stage can be: 

• Confusing letters that look similar (b/d/p) or letters that sound alike (f/v/d) 

• Ignoring punctuation

• Inserting extra letters in a word when reading (e.g., “range” instead of “rage”)

• Flips order of letters/sounds (e.g., “left” for “felt”)

• Losing their place on the page, skipping lines or rereading lines

• Struggles with multisyllabic words

• Having difficulty with reading comprehension

• Omitting word endings (“s” “ing” “ed”)

• Using inconsistent spelling errors. Are they misspelling the word the same or different each time? (e.g., “clothes”: “cloze” “close”; “again”: “agen” “agan”; “because”: “becuz” “beacuz” “beecuz”)

• Skipping small words in sentences, such as “a” “the” “to”, etc.

• Substituting words with similar meanings when reading aloud (e.g., “explain” for “exclaim”)

If any of these signs sound like your child, please contact us! We’d love to help through reading tutoring or specialized multi-sensory instruction like Orton-Gilingham tutoring. For related reading, read a student’s perspective on how tutoring helped her with spelling or tips for improving reading fluency. 

About the author:

Tulin S. Akin is a certified school psychologist who has been working as a tutor and Executive Function coach with Chicago Home Tutor since 2015. Prior to CHT, she worked in public schools (elementary and high school) for eight years, after getting her specialist degree in school psychology for Illinois State University. Her articles are based on reviews of current research literature, texts for practitioners, and hands-on supports for students through college age.