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How to Help a Child Struggling with Reading

February 7, 2019 By: Brittany Markercomment

If you have a student that’s struggling with reading, the effects can be heartbreaking. You witness the child’s self-esteem diminish, you hear him acting out in class to avoid reading. As a reading interventionist, I’ve worked with many kids that struggle with learning to read and I wanted to create a site that teaches how to help a child struggling with reading.

books with blends

When a student is struggling with reading, there are several steps you must take. Find out if the student is struggling with:

  • letter sounds
  • short vowel words (like hat, man, hen…etc.)
  • consonant digraph words (like bath, ship, match…etc.)
  • words with consonant blends (like track, drill, still, sand…etc.)
  • silent e words (like make, bike, hope, woke, ripe, Pete…etc.)
  • long vowel words (like mail, sneak, row…etc.)
  • r-sound words (like park, clerk, dirt…etc.)
  • ing/ed words (like timing, tipping, missed, saved…etc.)
  • polysyllabic words (like comment, habit, potion, mumble…etc.)

Introduce sounds one at a time

Reading Elephant offers a systematic phonics book series that introduces sounds in the above order up to long vowels. Once you discover which word type your student struggles with, design lessons using interleaving: mix phonic sounds he knows with only ONE new sound.

Kindergarten Phonics

For example, if he struggles with long vowels, introduce ee/ea only. Then proceed through all the long vowels one at a time. Our phonics book series can help you gradually proceed through each phonics sound. This is the essence of systematic instruction… the child learns one phonics sound at a time.

Does your student know letter sounds?

First, check to see if your student knows letter sounds. Not names. Sounds. Don’t assume you know how to teach letter sounds. I’ve seen many educators distort letter sounds. I distorted letter sounds until I recorded myself and heard my errors.

teaching letter sounds

Teaching letter sounds correctly may not seem like a big deal. However, this site is designed to help struggling readers. To help a kid that struggles, you absolutely must learn the essentials of saying and teaching letter sounds.

If you want to learn how to help a child struggling with reading, take the time to read: best ways to teach alphabet recognition. Another post will help you avoid the common mistakes in teaching letter sounds.

Here’s a summary on how to teach letter sounds:

  • Avoid teaching letter names.
  • Teach 2-4 new letter sounds at a time.
  • Always review old letter sounds, even if your student has mastered them.
  • Hold continuous sounds. (ex. mmmm)
  • Clip stop sounds. (ex. b__ don’t say buh)
  • Start doing phonemic awareness activities immediately.

Make sure your student holds continuous sounds and clips stops sounds

Zachary was unable to recognize letter sounds when I first began working with him. He shrank away from the table, hoping he wouldn’t have to do a reading intervention, because reading to him had always meant failure. After following the principles laid out in best ways to teach alphabet recognition, Zachary knew all his letter sounds. Finally, he could read short vowel words like hat man, men, big…etc. He was ready for short vowel books.

Use systematic phonics instruction

After your student knows letter sounds, use systematic phonics instruction. This means you introduce one new phonics sound at a time. Also, you review old phonics sounds. The child learns incrementally. Sounds are taught explicitly, meaning the teacher explains each new phonics sound: “ex. /ee/ says ee as in tree.” The teacher then displays an ee flashcard and reviews the flashcard with all old sounds.

consonant digraph book

Drew wasn’t learning systematic phonics at school. He just so happened to be in the 30% of kids that are highly dependent on receiving research-based instruction. Therefore, he fell behind in reading. He struggled to read basic words like match, chop and ship. He needed to learn incrementally. His mom was worried about his self-esteem, as she said, “Drew told me, I must be dumb mom. I said no you’re not son. And he said, okay tell me why I can’t read then?”

my child can't read at 8

Kids who struggle can learn to read successfully

After the first lesson, which was focused on the first consonant digraph /sh/, Drew read a phonics book accurately. He was so excited to read his first book that he asked, “When is the next lesson?” Kids are excited to learn to read when the method works! Struggling readers need incremental instruction with constant review.

If you want to learn how to help a child struggling with reading, selecting a systematic phonics curriculum is essential. The research is clear. About 30% of kids simply will not learn how to read without explicit, systematic phonics instruction. Many, many kids depend on receiving gradual instruction.

Reading Elephant phonics books

If you want to learn how to help a child struggling with reading, you can use our systematic phonics books to guide your pedagogy. Our books introduce phonics sounds gradually. Here is the order Reading Elephant uses:

Reading Elephant Book Sets 1-5- Short Vowels

phonics books for preschoolers
Our short vowel books, like all our materials, are systematic.

a_ as in hat     (use apple as a mnemonic)

i_ as in lit        (use igloo as a mnemonic)

o_ as in hop    (use ostrich as a mnemonic)

u_ as in cup    (use up as a mnemonic)

e_ as in met    (use elephant as a mnemonic)

Reading Elephant Book Set 6- Consonant Digraphs

Our consonant digraph books are beautifully illustrated.

sh as in ship

th as in math

th as in then

ch as in chop

_tch as in match

_ck as in back

_ng as in long

_ing as in king

_ang as in sang

wh_ as in when

Reading Elephant Book Set 7- Consonant Blends

books with blends
Our consonant blends books only use short vowel words, as they gently guide the reader to a higher level.

Consonant blends- Consonant blends are 2 or more letter sounds in a row. Do not teach students to memorize blends. Teach them to decode blends sound-by-sound. Some samples include: fl as in flop, br as in brim and cl as in click. There are two exceptions. Teach kids to memorize tr as in truck and dr as in drop, as these two have a sound change.

Reading Elephant Book Set 8- Silent e

silent e reading passages
Our silent e books help the student learn the different sounds each vowel makes.

a_e as in make

e_e as in Pete

i_e as in kite

o_e as in hope

u_e as in use

u_e as in duke

Reading Elephant Book Set 9- Long Vowels

long ea words
Our long vowel series begins by teaching ee and ea words phonics.

ee as in tree

ea as in seal

Reading Elephant Book Set 10- Long Vowels

ai phonics stories
Next, kids learn ai as in tail and _ay as in bay.

ai as in rain

_ay as in bay

Reading Elephant Book Set 11- Long Vowels

oa and ow phonics
Kids gently proceed to the oa and ow phonics sounds.

oa as in boat

ow as in glow

Reading Elephant Book Set 12- Long Vowels

igh phonics
Our igh books are full of enchanting pictures

igh as in light

Reading Elephant Book Set 13- Long Vowels

y at the end phonics
Next, kids learn that y at the end of a word can make different sounds.

_____y as in funny

_y as in my

Reading Elephant Book Set 14- oo/ew- coming soon

oo as in moon

oo as in look

ew as in new

Reading Elephant Book Set 15- r-sounds- currently not available

er as in clerk

ir as in bird

ur as in turn

ar as in dark

or as in fork

Reading Elephant Book Set 16- inflectional endings- currently not available

ing as in tipping (first vowel is short)

ing as in timing (first vowel is long)

ed as in missed (takes on t sound)

ed as in saved (takes on d sound)

ed as in rested (takes on id sound)

es as in saves

es as in matches

est as in fastest

Other vowel digraphs- At this point, your student can read many books that are not phonics-based. However, still teach using systematic instruction.

ow as in town

ou as in pouch

au as in launch

aw as in lawn

oi as in soil

_oy as in joy

c and g rule- At this point, your student can read many books that are not phonics-based. However, still teach using systematic instruction.

c (e, i, y) as in face, city and cycle (the c changes to the s sound)

g (e, i, y) as in gem, gist and gym (the g changes to the j sound)

If you’d like a printable PDF of the order in which Reading Elephant books introduce phonics sounds, click the following link:

Order of Sounds

Reading Elephant phonics book series

Would you like to purchase our books? If so, please check out our online shop of systematic printable phonics books.

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