Reading Struggles Are Rarely Just One Problem
When a child struggles to read, the problem you can see (sounding out words, skipping lines, guessing instead of decoding) is usually only part of the picture. Underneath it, a child may also be working against weaknesses in attention, memory, processing speed, or auditory and visual processing: the cognitive skills that reading actually runs on.
That’s the central finding behind a 2023 real-world study from the Gibson Institute of Cognitive Research, which looked at outcomes for 3,527 children who completed ReadRx, LearningRx’s combined cognitive-training-and-reading program.
The takeaway for parents: kids rarely fit into one neat diagnostic box, and reading support that only targets phonics or only targets cognitive skills may be missing half the equation.
Quick answer
Reading requires both a knowledge of written language and the cognitive capacity to attend to, process, remember, and use that information efficiently. Structured literacy instruction addresses the first. Cognitive skills training addresses the second. A 2023 study of children who received both, through LearningRx’s ReadRx program, found statistically significant improvements in cognitive skills, basic reading ability, and psychosocial measures, plus parent-reported changes in confidence, academics, and everyday learning.
Direct Reading Instruction Is Essential, But It’s Not the Whole Story
To be clear about where LearningRx stands on this: direct, systematic reading instruction is non-negotiable. Children need explicit teaching in how spoken and written language work: how sounds map to letters, how words are built, how meaning is constructed from text. Cognitive training is not a replacement for that instruction.
That’s also the caution raised in recently published dyslexia research, which identifies phonological processing (the ability to recognize and manipulate the sounds in language) as the most firmly established contributor to dyslexia, while also noting that attention, working memory, and processing speed influence literacy development.
In other words: the research supports structured literacy as the foundation, and it supports the idea that other cognitive skills shape how well that instruction sticks.
That’s precisely where ReadRx sits: structured literacy with cognitive skills training built around it, not instead of it.
The Cognitive Skills Behind Reading
Reading isn’t a single skill; it’s the product of several working together. In parent-friendly terms, here’s what’s happening under the hood every time a child reads:
- Auditory processing — distinguishing and manipulating speech sounds
- Working memory — holding sounds and syllables in mind while blending them into words
- Long-term memory — storing and retrieving sound-symbol patterns, vocabulary, and familiar words
- Processing speed — decoding efficiently enough to read fluently, not just accurately
- Attention — staying engaged and filtering out competing information
- Visual processing — working accurately with letters and text on a page
- Logic and reasoning — organizing language and drawing inferences to support comprehension
When one or more of these skills is weak, a child can receive excellent phonics instruction and still struggle to apply it, not because the instruction failed, but because the underlying cognitive capacity to use it hasn’t been built yet.
What the 2023 Study Found
The Gibson Institute of Cognitive Research study followed 3,527 children with dyslexia or reading challenges through 24 weeks (120 hours) of ReadRx, LearningRx’s one-on-one program that pairs structured literacy instruction with cognitive skills training. Researchers measured change across cognitive skills, basic reading ability, and psychosocial outcomes, and also collected parent-reported feedback.
Two things stood out:
1. Measurable gains across cognitive and reading skills. Pretest-to-post-test analysis showed statistically significant improvements across the cognitive skills tied to reading including attention, processing speed, and memory, alongside gains in basic reading ability.
2. Parents noticed changes beyond test scores. In their own words, parents described improvements in three broad areas: confidence and self-esteem, academic performance, and cognition and everyday learning. Increased confidence was the most frequently reported change alongside better attention, memory, reasoning, perseverance, and school performance.
That second finding matters as much as the first. Standardized scores tell part of the story. For most families, progress also looks like a kid who’s willing to try the hard book, or who stops dreading homework time.
(As with any intervention, individual results vary based on the child, the skill gaps involved, and consistency of training; this study reflects group-level outcomes, not a guarantee for any individual student.)
How ReadRx Delivers This in Practice
The research points to combining structured literacy with cognitive training. The delivery matters too. ReadRx sessions are built on a few consistent principles:
- Explicit, systematic instruction
- Cumulative practice and repetition, so skills stick
- Immediate, responsive feedback from a dedicated trainer
- Individualized pacing based on mastery, not a fixed calendar
That one-on-one structure is what allows both halves of the approach, the reading instruction and the cognitive skills work, to be adjusted in real time to what a specific child actually needs.
The Bottom Line
Reading is a cognitively demanding process, built on attention, memory, processing speed, and reasoning. The 2023 ReadRx study offers real-world evidence that children who received both kinds of support, structured literacy and cognitive skills training, made meaningful gains in reading and cognition, with many parents also reporting improvements in confidence and everyday learning.
ReadRx brings those together on purpose. It’s not a brain-training program hoping reading skills come along for the ride, and it’s not a phonics program hoping attention and memory sort themselves out.
It addresses the reader — not just the reading problem.