Should I Worry About How My Child's Reading Struggles Will Impact Their Future Learning?
Do you worry, as you watch them struggle, that your child will "be alright?"
If this question is on your mind and your heart, you are not alone. It is extremely common for parents of struggle readers to wonder and worry about whether the current reading challenges your child faces will impact their future learning as well. While this is definitely a possibility, taking targeted actions today can mitigate the effects dramatically, and pave the way for your child's future learning to be successful and without as much struggle.
Let me walk you through 5 simple ideas that will help you move from that worry to a more active and productive place.
Be Proactive
First, try to push that anxiety aside, as much as any of us parents can, and instead focus on being proactive. If early intervention is available, or you have the ability to help your child through a tutor or some extra support, do it!
Don’t take a wait and see approach if your gut is telling you that you child needs extra attention with reading. Remember, nobody knows your child better than you. Waiting really just tends to lead to compounded issues down the line, so it's better to be overly cautious and give your child more support versus less.
Not sure where to start or what exactly has your child stuck? Take this
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Confidence is Key
Second, really zone in on your child’s strengths. One of my essential pillars for unlocking literacy for kids is to build their confidence intentionally. It's really difficult to motivate a child who assumes that every task they take on will result in failure. They need to feel small bits of success to keep them moving forward.
Praise more than you correct, and try to keep the pressure as low as possible. If the end goal is for your child to experience a smoother path in their future learning, then we want to keep. the long-game at the front of our minds. Sometimes, it pays big dividends down the line when we pull back on the intensity in the present moment.
Normalize Struggle
Building confidence is super connected to the third idea, which is normalizing needing help and reframing the struggle simply as your child’s unique journey to gain the skills they need.
In my house and classroom, we constantly say that "everybody struggles with different things," and "everyone has different strengths." Some things come naturally, and other things require more work, and this will differ for each person.
Help your child to see that their struggle isn’t a reflection of them as a person or their intelligence, (and remind yourself that their struggle isn't a reflection of your parenting!). The struggle is just an indicator that we need to put in a little extra work to make things click, and that is totally normal for us all.
Use A Team Approach
Fourth, check in with your child’s teacher or any other academic supports they have, and work with these people as a team. If you're homeschooling, anyone who teaches your child in any academic capacity can make recommendations to you that can guide what interventions or supports you seek for them.
Advocate with your child’s teacher or the school if you think your child needs extra support or accommodations like extra time, larger print, a colored overlay over their paper to help stabilize the letters, or extra support from an interventionist. Whatever your child's needs are, working as a team is a game-changer. Each person on the team can play a specific role in helping your child, and each person will notice different details that can ultimately be the key to your child's success.
Celebrate With Intention
Finally, celebrate progress with intention. Whether using visual charts to show progress, skill mastery, improvement, or any other method to track what you’re working on together, having a visual aid is a perfect way to make sure your child sees and celebrates every success, no matter how incremental or small. Visual tracking makes it easy for your child to share their progress with friends or family who visit, or for you to easily remind your child of a recent success.
This will build momentum, and momentum breeds magic. When kids get on a roll with their learning, their struggles become so much more manageable for you both, and the light at the end of the tunnel begins to appear. Those magical moments when your child learns something new, finally enters a new phase of learning, or masters a challenging concept that took weeks to understand are what make the journey all worth it.
The Bottom Line About Future Learning
Remember, no matter what the cause of your child’s struggle is, you can get to the bottom of it, and your child can meet with success when the right interventions are in place! Your child's future learning doesn't have to suffer when you're proactive, positive, and informed.
Your child is lucky to have you working toward solutions for their struggles, and with intention and dedication, they will get back on the right track before you know it!
Want to dive deeper into the root causes of your struggling reader's difficulty with literacy?
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