5 Reasons-Why is it SO Hard for your kid to read.

5 Reasons-Why is it SO Hard for your kid to read.

Picture listening to your favorite song while reading Shakespeare! (If you can do it you are either old as dirt or not a struggling reader).

Here are 5 catchy ways to think about the struggle.

1. All Shook Up. Reading problems are brain-based so letters, numbers and spoken directions are all shook up in the neurological process.
   
2. The struggle is real. If it is always difficult to struggle to read the easiest words then this struggle is too much and kids shut down.
   
3. Comparing themselves to others. Kids see other kids in the classroom read this book and that book and they notice the difference. Then like they know who is the fastest runner, who is a great singer, and who is the best at art, they view themselves as different. This is a natural process for all people which begins early on. It happens whether or not teachers, coaches, and parents try to hide these differences. Like giving everyone on the soccer team participation medals.
   
4. Mixed messages. Our kids get the message that they are struggling readers from parent expectations, teacher expectations, and their own expectations. We tell kids they are doing a good job and when they go to pick up the next popular 300 pagers we cringe and hold our breath. We celebrate their progress but the outcome isn’t always as fast as kids that struggle want it to be.
   
5. The Stakes Change. Kids that struggle continue to struggle because when they get better at reading it changes. The topics they read are harder to understand. Then grade-level text we even ask them to read is difficult like The Constitution!