My Child has a Learning Disability in reading

This page is dedicated to Learning Disability in Reading. See separate pages for a description of Learning Disability in Writing and Learning Disability in Math.

Essential skill: Phonics

The essential skill that is critical for reading success is called “phonics.” You can also call it ‘reading decoding.’ Phonics refers to how the sounds of language are represented by printed letters and words. Letters and letter combinations represent the sounds of Spoken language. Children who struggle to master phonics may be referred to as having a reading disability. They may also be referred to as having dyslexia.

Even though it’s critical to know about the skill of phonics, your child will need to master all of the reading skills of the Reading Skills Framework before they will show good progress in reading. You can see the full framework of skills by clicking on the button at the bottom of the page

what it looks like when phonics (reading decoding) is developing successfully

Phonics has to be learned. Your child will only master reading if they are able to speak and listen, if they see words in print, and if they receive instruction in sound-symbol relations (phonics). In English speaking countries, children start learning phonics as early as late kindergarten, and continue to learn phonics up until mid-way of grade three. with the right instruction in place, your child should master phonics in about 2.5 years. Phonics is harder to master in English is because the sound-symbol relations are not as consistent in English as they are in other languges. To start with, it’s useful to know that English has 26 letters, but has 45 sounds. The young reader has to learn that each letter might have a sound attached to it, but they also have to learn that letter combinations also can represent sounds. For example, the “ch” or “th” letter combinations have their own sound attached to them. The letter ‘e’ has more than one sound attached to it. Unless your child knows the sounds of each letter of the alphabet, and the sounds of letter combinations of English, they will have difficulty mastering reading.

Phonics is a two-way skill. Reading and writing both require phonics. When reading letters or words, the student is ‘decoding’ the word. Decoding means knowing the sound that each letter makes and being able to sound out the words. When writing letters and words, the student is ‘encoding.’ Encoding means knowing the sounds of words and transcribing them into printed letters and words. Decoding and Encoding are two sides of the same coin: These two skills are inter-dependent and support each other.

When children are mastering phonics successfully, they move from letters and letter combinations that are consistent, then inconsistent, and then irregular. grade three is dedicated to mastering all of the unusual letter-sound combinations in English, such as knowing that the letter combination “-ough” can represent the sound “ooh” or “oh” and even “uff.” most children master honics mid way through their grade three year. They are also making the connection between reading/ decoding and writing/ encoding.

what it looks like when reading decoding is missing or under-developed.

If your child is struggling with phonics, they are struggling with decoding and encoding. The struggle can show up in more than one way. Your child might struggle to learn all of the letters, and be unable to identify them. They might know the letters and be able to print them, but always get confused about the sound that each letter makes (or, the sound that letter combinations make). They often dislike having to read, and try to avoid reading. Some of the time, readers can memorize what common words look like. They seem to be able to read some words successfully. Sometimes, they can even seem to be reading a lot of words, but actually, they’ve just memorized what certain words look like and can say those words when they see them in print. For example, they can recognize short words such as “house” or “farm” or “the” and “and”, but when they encounter a new word (e.g. “terrific” or “synonym”) they do not know what the word is because they cannot sound it out. Some struggling readers get really smart at making accurate guesses about the word they see on the page. When they are accurate often enough, it can be hard to know if they are struggling with phonics until you test their knowledge of unfamiliar words or nonsense words (words that look like real words but that do not mean anything, such as ‘lum’ or ‘giff.’

ready for a deeper dive?

If your child is struggling to read, you will likely need to look at the entire Reading Skills Framework. Phonics is the critical first skill that your child needs to master, but there are other skills that your child also needs to develop before they will become a good reader. Click on the button below to learn more.