Why Reading Practice Isn’t Helping My Child
You read together every night.
You have been practicing sight words.
You have been sounding things out.
Teachers have told you that reading progress takes time, so you’ve been waiting.
……. And yet reading is still slow, difficult, and causes lots of yelling and tears.
At some point, parents stop asking “What else should we try?” and start asking “Why isn’t this working?”
That question matters because when reading practice doesn’t lead to progress, it’s often not about effort, consistency, or motivation.
It’s about how the brain is processing written language.
Why practice works for some kids & not others
For many children, reading improves with exposure and repetition. Their brains naturally form connections between letters, sounds, and meaning. For other children, it’s much harder to build those same connections.
In these cases:
The child may understand the story when it’s read aloud
They may have strong vocabulary and ideas
They may want to read well
But decoding words on the page takes up so much energy that they can’t read fluently, they don’t know what they read about, and they start to avoid reading! This is often what parents are seeing when reading practice doesn’t “stick.”
What’s really happening in the brain
Reading is not a single skill. It requires:
Phonological processing skills (connecting sounds to letters)
Automatic word recognition
Working memory to hold information while reading
Language comprehension to understand meaning
And MUCH MORE.
When one of these systems is not working properly, the brain starts to compensate. So children may:
Guess words instead of sounding them out
Memorize familiar texts
Rely on context clues
Read accurately but extremely slowly
From the outside, it can look like progress. From the inside, it feels exhausting.
Can practice make things worse?
When the underlying reading difficulty isn’t addressed, more practice often leads to increased frustration, more anxiety, or avoiding reading altogether.
Parents are often told:
“They just need to practice more.”
But practice does not change how the brain processes language. It only strengthens whatever strategy the child is already using, even if that strategy is inefficient.
This is why some children read more but don’t read better.
Here’s The Thing…
Children don’t say
“Reading is neurologically demanding for me.”
They say:
“I hate reading.”
“I’m bad at this.”
“Can you read it to me?”
“I don’t care.”
Over time, many children internalize the struggle as a personal failure.
What actually helps
Progress happens when the support or intervention is aligned with how reading is processed, not just how often reading is practiced.
This includes:
Understanding whether a language-based learning difference is present
Identifying where reading breaks down (decoding, fluency, comprehension)
Reducing shame and performance pressure
Using interventions that change processing, not just give more exposure to reading
For many families, the turning point comes when they stop asking “How much more should we practice?” and start asking “What’s actually getting in the way?”
That shift alone can be profoundly relieving.
Why families often seek a comprehension evaluation at this point
When reading is still very difficult despite a lot of practice and support, families often benefit from a comprehensive neuropsychological evaluation that looks at all the different areas of reading.
Understanding why reading is hard allows parents to stop guessing, stop blaming themselves, and support their child in ways that actually helps. Don’t wait until it’s too late.
