What's stopping children from learning to read - and how to fix it

It's been five years since the pandemic shifted schoolchildren to distance learning, and the results are still alarming: according to the 2024 National Assessment of Educational Progress report, two-thirds of fourth-graders in the U.S. are not reading at their grade level, The Conversation writes.

To remedy the situation, many schools have turned to the now-fashionable "science of reading," an approach that emphasises phonics. Children learn first to recognise letters and their sounds, and then to put them together into simple words like "bat" (bat) or "cat" (cat).

This method did help, for example, in Louisiana, where students performed better than before the pandemic. But it didn't turn out to be so clear-cut.

💼 One method is not for everyone

As literacy specialist C. Dara Hill points out, phonics is not suitable for every child. For example, children with developmental disabilities such as autism or ADHD often perceive information differently. Even Hill's own son had difficulty when his school abruptly switched to a phonetic approach, even though he could already read fluently.

Another problem: phonics disconnects reading from real life. The child memorises lists of words but has little exposure to the engaging stories that develop comprehension of text.

⏳Balance is what is needed

Many schools used to use 'balanced literacy' - where children were taught not only to recognise letters but also to read real books aloud, to look for rhymes in stories like Mark Brown's 'Arthur in the Shuffle', to put words together from cards after reading.

This approach builds on the idea that learning should be tailored to each child's individual characteristics, rather than cramming everyone into one scheme.

⏱️ Why phonics is crowding out other methods

Following criticism of 'prompting' based programmes (such as the Lucy Calkins Reading Project), schools across America have begun to switch exclusively to the phonics method. Although the clues themselves - where children are helped to guess words from pictures and context - are based on quite scientific principles, as research has shown.

For example, Eric Carle's books "The Very Hungry Caterpillar" and "Brown Bear, Brown Bear, Who Do You See?" vividly illustrate how words and images work together to help children read whole phrases.

🧐What the expert advises

According to Hill, there is no one-size-fits-all recipe for teaching reading - and there can't be. Here's her advice for parents and teachers:

1. Connect school and home. Read age-appropriate books with text and pictures at home regularly.

2. Reading everywhere. Menus, magazines, signs - all help build vocabulary.

3. Phonics - but with fun. Learn sounds through interesting stories, not boring lists.

4. Book series. Series of children's books that increase in complexity as reading skills grow work well.

5. Individual lessons. Sometimes you can't do without extra help. Tutoring sessions of 30 minutes a week can make a huge difference.

The key is to remember: every child learns differently. And the more options for learning, the more likely reading will be a joy, not a punishment.