Recently I’ve started working for this school where a lot of underprivileged kids come and the most common problem which I face while teaching them is their incompetent reading skill problem which in return is the root cause for all the other teaching/learning problems. Classroom teaching is total in vain for such kids as they can’t read and comprehend which turns that they can’t even write or express themselves verbally or on a piece of paper and the only solution which remains with them is cramming few answers from the notebook and copying the same words like a painting on the wall. This made me think, Am I teaching them for real??

So, the next thing in my mind was I’m going to find out a solution for them and I sat on the internet to find the ways to inculcate reading in kids. I found so many ways, “how to inculcate habits of reading in children”, “ten ways to induce reading habits in kids”, “how books can be your child’s friend” and many more. Honestly, these articles helped a little in understanding the concept of reading but as far as practicality is concerned, I wasn’t really impressed to assign them as my daily helpers. Henceforth, I decided to go deeper into the problem and take this as a challenge.

In the next part of this write-up, I’ll try to write about the problems faced by children in reading at different stages and later, challenges faced by teachers and parents followed by their solutions.

Challenges in acquiring English Reading skills

Reading Skill Problem At Elementary Age

When we talk about primary-age reading skills, we generally mention language processing issues. There are numerous issues related to reading at this stage as this age is where children just start adapting the language and creating awareness of new words and style can be mind-boggling.

Reading skill problem 1: Does not identify sounds or poor phonetics knowledge

As a parent or a teacher, you might have done excellent work in teaching them the sound or what we call phonics but still, your child is finding great difficulty in adapting to read simple words and you’re clueless, how to go about it.

Your child must be great with individual sounds of letters but it becomes a big challenge in his head when it comes to combine the sound and read it with a rhythm. For example, the child knows that /d/ for- ‘d’ /o/ for o and /g/ for g but the moment you tell the child to blend it becomes a rocket science to call it /do/and /g/.

How to help children with poor phonetics knowledge?

The term phonological awareness is quite vast to explain and one shouldn’t concern much till the time someone is a language expert. But to teach children, few tips can be followed which are very simple. First, let’s understand how does phonological awareness works; any word is divided into three parts

(a)  syllables: which is how are you breaking the word, for example, /pottery/ which is /ˈpɒt(ə)ri/, a 3-syllable word

(b) onsets: how the first letter(s) are connected with the vowel, for example, the consonant /p/ has to blend with /ɒ/ to sound /po/

(c) rhyme: how the vowels and consonants are blending together.

If the basics of phonological awareness are explained at the beginning to the children the reading will seem easy to the child.

Reading skill problem 2: forgets the pronunciation of the spellings with exceptions even right after help

Once the child has been explained the art of decoding a word and the technique of blending syllables, the child attempts to read all the words with the same formula but English is not that simple to read. There are so many exceptions when it comes to using the sound of a letter, for example ‘would’ is pronounced as /wʊd,wəd/ where ‘l’ is silent, ‘certain’ is read as /ˈsəːt(ə)n/ and ‘curtain’ is /ˈkəːt(ə)n/. There are so many more examples like this.

How to help children in reading when they forget spelling or pronunciation?

English has so many exceptions and rules to spellings. The solution to this reading skill problem is making the child learn and write such spelling as many times as the child reads it so that it becomes one of the most common sight words.  Now, in many cases the child doesn’t remember the word even right after help because the word is a little away from basic decoding, so, retention is poor. But writing the word on a flashcard or writing in own handwriting and then reading from it will help in retention of those difficult words.

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Reading skill problem 3: The child doesn’t enjoy reading and resists it every time

At times the child is not keen on reading. Every time when you ask the child to sit for reading, he will give some excuse and try to avoid it. 

What to do when a child resists reading?

The major reason behind the resistance Is that the reading hasn’t come naturally to the child and the child is still struggling with its basics. Also, the other reason for not enjoying reading is the type of content child is reading if it is beyond his comprehension and not fun, the reading will be a burden. Therefore, before giving them those coursebooks and heavy reading materials start with fun reading hours.

Challenges faced by middle school children in acquiring reading skills

Reading skill Problem 1: Slow reader

The problems with the middle school children are little advanced than the elementary students because they have understood the concept of reading but due to lack of practice and other reasons, they face problems at this stage. Slow readers struggle with the management of time while attempting their tests and completing their homework.

How to help slow readers?

 The problem of slow readers is closely connected to reading skill problem 2 of elementary students. As in middle school, the reading takes a back seat and children are engaged with other tasks where reading should come naturally. Slow readers just lose at many places. Solutions to this problem are similar to the solution of reading problem 2 of elementary-age children problem. Retention of words should be made natural and extra reading practice has to be done for progress.

Reading skill Problem 2: Does not comprehend

When we’re discussing the problems of reading the biggest and dreadful problem in reading is comprehension. Most children lose marks in exams just because they’re not able to decipher the asked questions, many do not enjoy subjects because the child is not able to understand which results in loss of interest.

What can you do to improve comprehension skills in children?

 Since the problem is quite big the solution to this also not so easy, there are few pointers for this problem

• First, most simple solution to this is, read more and earn more
• While comprehending the text try to make the child understand how to interlink the sentences which were easy to understand and try to create sense out of it
• If after reading once still the struggle is the same then give it one more try and this time read aloud
• By this time the brain absorbs 50 % of the meaning and activates senses and tries to retain
• Questioning about the text gives a better comprehension
• When this practice is taken daily comprehension will be meta cognitive and reading becomes a swift activity

Each child’s need is different and might take a different amount of time to reach a satisfactory level but these pointers are very helpful as these are the most natural ways to approach reading. You can make flashcards, sight words as your handy helpers. Language learning is a natural process acquired by humans. It takes a little effort while learning a non-native language but with correct guidance, this is easily achievable. 

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