Education

Why Can’t Our Children Read?

Why Can’t Our Children Read?

It is reported that reading achievement has declined since 2019 and continues to decline. Why is this happening after teachers have worked so hard to improve reading scores?

First, it’s essential to understand that reading is based on early language development. Evidence has shown that COVID-19 brought changes that affected early language development. These are the children in the early grades that we are testing nationwide. Of course, their reading scores will be low.

Secondly, many children from 3 through 6 years of age who needed additional help to learn to read during the Pandemic did not receive it. If they did, it was over Zoom or behind masks, which muffled the sound. These children were already having difficulty recognizing letters, connecting sounds to these letters, and writing their names. They are now in third through eighth grade and are still struggling because they do not have foundational reading skills. Of course, their reading scores will be low.

Thirdly, many of these children spend much of their time on screens, perhaps as a result of COVID-19, and school is hard for them. It’s worse for the ones who would have struggled without COVID-19. These children did not have the typical experiences children had before the Pandemic. Of course, their reading scores will be low.

What do we do at this point?

Teachers working with children severely affected developmentally and academically during COVID-19, from Pre-K through High School, need at least one course in foundational reading skills to recognize and help the students in their class who need additional reading support.

Schools need more reading specialists to work with struggling readers from pre-K through high school. Even though they are needed in specific situations, teacher aides and assistants are not the answer for struggling readers. Struggling readers need the support of professional reading and literacy specialists to help them make up for the years they lost during COVID-19.

In addition to a structured literacy program, struggling readers need small group instruction to keep them focused and reduce their anxiety. The supplementary program must follow the Orton-Gillingham approach and engage them. Purposeful programs that include hands-on game-based learning have been shown to raise the reading levels of struggling readers. These programs reduce anxiety and increase focus. Gamifying activities where the struggling reader is learning through play is the key. Children want to play. If the play is reading instruction in game form, with the teacher or other students, not on a screen, children will be practicing without realizing it. In addition, attendance will improve.

Teachers need to examine the year-end reading test to determine why a student is struggling. They need to determine if the reason for a low reading score is poor vocabulary, poor decoding, focusing issues, high anxiety, working too slowly to finish the exam, or a combination of the above. Only then will teachers know the source of the reading issues so they can turn their struggling readers into successful readers.

—Linda Silbert, Ph.D.

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