Reading is an essential skill that sets the stage for school success and a lifetime of learning. But for other kids, it is difficult to read. Kids may have a variety of reading issues that, left unaddressed, can influence their confidence, school success, and enthusiasm for learning. Fortunately, the proper instruction—that is, from a qualified reading tutor—can reverse everything. Let us look at some of the most prevalent reading challenges and how a reading tutor can help.
Common Reading Challenges
Decoding Challenges
One of the most basic reading challenges is decoding challenges—segmenting words into separate phonemes and spinning them back together. Decoding struggling students will have difficulty learning to read unknown words by sounding them out and lose their ease and comprehension reading.
Limited Phonemic Awareness
Phonemic awareness is a skill to hear, recognize, and play with individual sounds (phonemes) within words. Children lacking this skill will thus be unable to connect sound and letter, and thus read and spell.
No Reading Fluency
Fluency is possessing the skill to read accurately, quickly, and with expression. Those who lack fluency will read incrementally or flatly, and that is not good for comprehension and makes reading tedious.
Reading Comprehension Difficulty
Students read individual words accurately but have trouble with comprehension. They can’t recall having read what was placed before them, have trouble summarizing paragraphs, or are even unable to make inferences about an author’s intended meaning.
Dyslexia
Dyslexia is a typical variation in learning that impacts reading, spelling, and writing. Dyslexic students normally have such characteristics as forgetting sight words, spelling words backward, and reading at lower rates. Dyslexia does not imply that a student is not intelligent, and with the right intervention, the student will be aware of how to thrive.
Restricted Vocabulary
A limited vocabulary has an influence on reading skill and also on expressive language. If a child possesses a limited word bank, he will not be able to accrue the full significance of what he is reading, and his own writing will be inaccurate and lack depth.
How a Reading Tutor Can Help
A reading tutor offers individualized instruction according to the unique needs of a child. Here is how the ideal tutor can assist in addressing reading difficulties:
Personalized Learning and Assessment Plan
Each child is unique. A good reading tutor starts with an assessment test that identifies the child’s strengths and weaknesses individually. From this, the tutor creates a tailored learning plan focusing on the source of the problem—perhaps decoding, fluency, or comprehension.
Phonics-Based Instruction
Many reading difficulties stem from weaknesses in phonics. Explicit, phonics-driven instruction can start with a reading tutor to teach letter-sound associations and decoding. This is particularly beneficial for beginning readers and dyslexic students.
Orton-Gillingham Tutoring for Dyslexia and Struggling Readers
One of the best ways to provide assistance to students with dyslexia is through Orton-Gillingham tutoring. The multisensory, sequential, systematic method uses the visual, auditory, and kinesthetic modalities to lead the student through learning. Orton-Gillingham tutors segment language into small parts and loop back through information, employing repetition and practice. The method has been found to assist struggling readers to become more fluent and assured as well as independent readers.
Fluency Practice and Confidence Building
Fluency comes with experience and practice in written language. A reading tutor chooses reading material at the appropriate level and age and instructs the student in expression, pacing, and accuracy. Reward and success in more demanding texts can give power to students to become confident readers.
Comprehension Strengthening and Critical Thinking
Tutors instruct students in strategies such as summarizing, predicting, questioning, and making inferences to enhance reading comprehension. Tutors promote active reading behaviors and enable students to relate what they read to their own experiences.
Vocabulary Development
Direct instruction and guided reading enable a tutor to facilitate a child’s vocabulary development. Tutors instruct meanings, functions, and word clues to support students’ understandings and applications of new vocabulary.
Final thoughts
Reading difficulties are common, but they don’t have to be permanent. With adult reading instruction, youngsters can work their way through the hindrance and develop high-quality literacy skill sets that will help them through a lifetime. If your child is struggling with the phonic aspects of reading, reading comprehension, establishing fluency, or dyslexia, evidence-based approaches like Orton-Gillingham tutoring can deliver the methods that they require to get it done. Investing in one-on-one tutoring is not just about improving grades—it is about building lifelong learners.
