A child can be bright, articulate, and able to understand complex ideas—and still have a serious reading problem.
That disconnect can be confusing for parents. A child may understand everything when a story is read aloud but struggle to get through the same material independently. An older student may avoid class, resist homework, or appear disengaged when the real problem is that reading has never become automatic.
In a recent episode of StressFree IEP, special education attorney Frances Shefter spoke with Tara Giddings, deputy director of LearnUp Centers, about how children learn to read, why some students fall through the cracks, and what parents should look for when choosing reading support.
Reading Problems Do Not Disappear When Children Get Older
One of the biggest challenges arises when a student reaches the point where school shifts from learning to read to reading to learn.
By the upper elementary and secondary grades, teachers generally expect students to access information through reading. But some students reach middle or even high school without the foundational decoding skills they need.
That creates a difficult cycle. A child may be given help with writing, comprehension, or grade-level assignments while the underlying reading problem remains.
Giddings explained that older students may need direct work on foundational skills even though the instruction has to look different from what would be used with a young child. A middle school student who reads at an elementary decoding level should not necessarily be handed books written for elementary-age interests.
The reading level and the maturity level of the material are two different things.
Age-appropriate, high-interest material can allow older students to practice the skills they need without making them feel as though they are being treated like much younger children.
A Child Can Understand the Story and Still Struggle to Read It
Frances described something many parents of children with dyslexia recognize: a child may have strong comprehension and may even be able to sound out words, but trying to decode and comprehend at the same time becomes overwhelming.
Giddings compared it to driving somewhere unfamiliar.
When you are concentrating intensely on the map and looking for your next turn, you are probably not noticing the scenery around you. A struggling reader can experience something similar. So much mental energy is going toward connecting letters and sounds that there is less capacity left to follow the meaning of the passage.
That does not mean the student lacks intelligence or comprehension.
As Giddings emphasized, these can be very smart children who understand vocabulary, remember details, and discuss sophisticated ideas when the barrier of decoding is removed.
For parents, that discrepancy matters.
If your child understands significantly more when listening than when reading independently, it may be worth looking more closely at the foundational reading skills underneath the academic struggle.
What Should Parents Look for in a Reading Program?
Parents searching for help can quickly become overwhelmed.
There are tutors, reading specialists, branded programs, different certifications, online services, and competing approaches. Frances described the experience well: parents can end up with “analysis paralysis” because there are simply too many choices.
Giddings recommended looking beyond the program’s name and asking how reading is actually being taught.
Strong reading support should address areas such as:
- Phonemic awareness—the ability to hear and work with the individual sounds in words
- Phonics and sound-symbol relationships
- Vocabulary
- Fluency
- Comprehension
- Oral language
- Applying decoding skills while reading actual text
Learning sounds in isolation is not enough if the student cannot transfer those skills into a book.
That transfer is important. Giddings described students who can recognize a sound perfectly during an instructional exercise and then encounter the same sound in a word and become stuck.
A good program should help close that gap between knowing a skill and independently using it.
Good Intervention Should Start With the Child, Not the Program
One of the most useful questions parents can ask is simple:
How will you determine where my child should start?
Frances summarized the point during the conversation: a strong tutor or reading program should have some form of assessment to identify what the child already knows and where the gaps are.
The answer should not automatically be, “Every child starts at lesson one.”
Students arrive with different skills. One child may need intensive work on basic sounds. Another may already know those sounds but struggle with syllable division, multisyllabic words, fluency, or applying decoding skills to connected text.
Starting at the child’s actual challenge level can save time and keep the student more engaged.
After a Few Months, Ask for More Than “They’re Doing Better”
Parents should also be able to see evidence of progress.
Giddings encouraged families to ask whether a program has baseline information, a defined scope and sequence, specific goals, and regular progress monitoring.
In other words, parents should be able to ask:
- Where did my child start?
- What skill are you currently teaching?
- What is the next skill?
- How are you measuring progress?
- What does the data show?
- If progress is not happening, what will change?
The personal relationship between a tutor and child still matters. A student needs to feel comfortable and engaged.
But a great relationship alone does not tell a parent whether the intervention is improving the child’s ability to read independently.
Sometimes Frequency Matters, Too
LearnUp Centers uses a high-intensity model that typically recommends four to five 50-minute sessions per week.
Giddings described the philosophy behind that approach with a memorable phrase:
“It’s a sprint. It is not a marathon.”
The goal is concentrated repetition rather than allowing a reading intervention to stretch indefinitely while the student continues falling further behind grade-level expectations.
That does not mean one schedule is automatically appropriate for every child or every program. But it gives parents another valuable question to ask:
How often does my child need this instruction for your approach to be effective?
The answer should be connected to the student’s needs and the program’s methodology—not simply to whatever appointment happens to be available.
An IEP on Paper Is Not the Same as Effective Reading Instruction
Frances also raised an important practical issue for families navigating special education.
A student’s reading needs may be addressed through an IEP, but writing a service or goal into an IEP does not by itself guarantee that the student will receive the type of specialized instruction needed to close a significant reading gap.
That issue may become especially visible with older students.
Frances explained that when a student reaches middle school before significant dyslexia or reading needs are fully recognized, parents may need to think carefully about both the child’s school-based services and whether specialized reading instruction outside the school’s existing capacity is needed.
The ultimate question is not simply whether a support appears on paper.
It is whether the child is actually learning to read.
Parents Can Ask Better Questions
Parents do not need to become reading specialists themselves. But they can ask questions that reveal a great deal about the support their child is receiving.
What exactly is my child struggling with? How was that determined? What method is being used? How will the skills transfer into real reading? What progress data will I receive? And what happens if the intervention is not working?
Those questions can help families move beyond labels and program names and focus on the outcome that matters most: helping a child become a more confident, independent reader.
And when a reading problem is also becoming an issue involving evaluations, IEP services, implementation, or a disagreement with the school, families can also consider getting guidance about the special education side of the problem.