Eve’s Reading Improvements
Eve was struggling with reading despite reading interventions and practice at home. Trying to read 30 minutes each night at home was difficult as Eve resisted reading. She was strong in other areas like math but hated reading and was below her grade level.
Eve, who is now in 4th grade, just completed her LearningRx 1-on-1 training. Her training changed all of this as her parents shared, “Prior to LearningRx my daughter never wanted to read. Once training began, she became more interested and now loves reading! We’ve seen a drastic change in her reading skills!” In fact, Eve’s ability to blend and decode words has increased by 3 years!
Addressing the Root Cause of Reading Struggles
When your child is reading it may be common for them to struggle with reading fluency or have to read a passage multiple times. There are common underlying reasons students struggle in these areas:
- If a child struggles with decoding and sounding out words, reading fluency will suffer. It also means their brain must work hard to just get through the text and they are not in the flow of the story. They are focused on reading one word at a time which limits their ability to comprehend and absorb the material.
- Their working or long-term memory may not be enabling them to retain and process the information. Memory is a critical reading skill enabling the recognition of sight words and non-phonetic words as well as for strong reading comprehension.
- Visual processing is your child’s ability to picture what they are reading which makes reading more enjoyable but also enables them to visually associate and retain.
- Lastly, they may be a strong reader, but poor sustained attention makes it hard for them to stay with it as their mind wanders, and they struggle to absorb what they are reading.
The Science of Reading
Why the jump in reading for Eve despite trying other strategies like reading tutoring? Because LearningRx reading training follows the Science of Reading guidelines with one critical additional component – we ensure our clients have a strong cognitive skills foundation. Other methods, like Orton-Gillingham, can be helpful as they work on auditory processing skills and phonetics which are important reading skills.
LearningRx Woodbury differs from methods like Orton Gillingham in that our training ensures all foundational cognitive skills are strong. This is important as often weak cognitive skills are the root cause as to why a child is struggling to read. If the root cause of reading difficulty is not identified and addressed, the results of any reading intervention will likely be more limited. For example, If there are weaknesses in areas like memory, visual processing or processing speed then word recognition, reading fluency and reading comprehension will be a struggle.
Whatever reading intervention you choose, make sure it follows the Science of Reading guidelines and is also focused on addressing the root cause of the reading struggle which is usually a combination of weaker cognitive skills. If these weaknesses are not addressed, as reading expectations increase year-after-year, students can get stuck in the constant loop of academic catch-up.
If you are seeking reading help for a loved one, call LearningRx Woodbury to learn more.
Results are from past clients. You or your loved ones may or may not achieve the same outcomes, but you can learn more about our research and results here.