Why “Let’s wait and see how they go”, could cost you and your child.

Reading research has shown that children who face challenges in learning to read often continue to struggle with reading as they progress through school. This is referred to as the "Matthew Effect" where the gap between struggling readers and their peers continues to widen over time. Early reading relies on the development of the knowledge that letters or groups of letters represent sounds and mapping those sounds with their representation. Children who don’t develop these skills are forced to rely on less reliable strategies such as guessing the word from the initial sound, sometimes based on the length of the word. Research shows we are successful at achieving the correct word about 25% of the time, using this strategy.

Unfortunately, some schools do not identify struggling readers for intervention until the third year of school, by which time the child has already been significantly impacted emotionally and academically by their reading difficulties.

To prevent reading failure, it is crucial to identify children who are at risk of struggling with reading as early as the first year of school. This can be achieved by monitoring their progress and paying close attention to their ability to associate letters with sounds.

If a parent expresses concerns about their child's reading, it is important to encourage them to seek support and intervention as soon as possible. This will not only help the child overcome their reading difficulties but also prevent the “Matthew Effect”, wherein the gap between a struggling reader and their peers grows as a result of avoiding reading and therefore falling further behind.

Keith Stanovich (1986) put it this way …

Slow reading acquisition has cognitive, behavioral, and motivational consequences that slow the development of other cognitive skills and inhibit performance on many academic tasks. In short, as reading develops, other cognitive processes linked to it track the level of reading skill. Knowledge bases that are in reciprocal relationships with reading are also inhibited from further development. The longer this developmental sequence is allowed to continue, the more generalized the deficits will become, seeping into more and more areas of cognition and behavior. Or to put it more simply – and sadly – in the words of a tearful nine-year-old, already falling frustratingly behind his peers in reading progress, “Reading affects everything you do.”

If you know a parent who has a niggling concern in the back of their mind that their child is struggling with reading, please encourage them to trust their gut instinct and seek help. Early intervention takes less time and is less expensive than having to undo habits that have been developed as a result of poor reading practices. By working proactively, we can help these children achieve their full potential and break the cycle of reading difficulties.