The good news is that it is easy to correct.

The Pattern of Failure

Things often start out well. A child will learn most of the alphabet fine and then even a few words without seeming to have a problem.

As things move on, the child starts to guess more words, sometimes with no relation to the word on the page.

Then the books get more complicated and the child's reading seems to go into reverse.

Eventually it all gets too much and the child's confidence collapses. By now it can be very difficult to progress in any direction because there will be heavy resistance to reading at all.

This can become a permanent situation, without the right help. That will destroy the child's changes of reaching anything like his or her full potential. And yet we find it can usually be fixed in a few weeks.

Why This Happens

Reading is a complex task and it is natural for a child to use whatever approach seems easiest. If your child has a good visual memory, then remembering words by sight seems the best option.

Any child will almost certainly be being taught phonics in the classroom. But, in a whole class setting, it is easy to be quietly baffled, without the teacher really knowing or having the time to work through it one-on-one in any case.

Most early reading systems start with books using a very limited vocabulary, which is repeated heavily through each book. This actually encourages the memorisation technique that the visual child has developed.

But, unfortunately, the child's reading is not really progressing at all. And eventually you reach the end of the blind alley.

We need to guide the child out and carefully into the right direction.

The Solution

The first thing is to give the child a method by which to remember all the different phonemes. For instance, in the Easyread Coaching System we do that by using bright and active visual images which are very easy for the child to remember. They become the hooks by which the child can remember all the different sounds. This is a classic memory enhancement technique first developed by the Ancient Greeks.

The next goal is to move the child away from the shortcuts being employed of memorisation and guessing. In Easyread we have developed games and exercises specially for this.

And finally, the child needs to be able to practise reading without fear and loathing. In Easyread we achieve that by showing the text with the phoneme images floating above them. It allows the child to read the text unaided and build experience and confidence each day.

With these changes in place, we see children who have been struggling for years crack the reading puzzle in a matter of weeks.