Back-to-School: Making Reading Click for Your Child
- Rita Santos
- Sep 5
- 5 min read
Updated: Oct 6
It’s officially back-to-school season! 🎒
Maybe you’ve just wrapped up supply shopping. Maybe your child is walking through those classroom doors with a mix of excitement and nervous butterflies.
And maybe—you’re secretly wondering:
“What if this is the year reading finally clicks… or what if it doesn’t?”
You’re not alone. Every fall, I hear from parents who hoped summer would help things settle. Instead, they notice their kids exhibiting the same frustrating patterns:
Avoidance of reading homework
Guessing at words
Slow or choppy reading
Low confidence (even when the child is smart in every other way)
Feeling ashamed or dumb
And you feel:
Frustrated that your child isn't getting the help they need and deserve
Anxious about their future
Angry your concerns are falling on deaf ears
Exasperated when told to give it time
Disappointed when yet another tutoring program—especially one you've been told is the "gold standard"—doesn't help
The good news? There’s so much you can do right now to make sure this year is different.
I’m going to walk you through some simple, powerful ways to start this year strong—whether your child is just starting to learn to read or still struggling after years of school and tutoring.
🍁 Why Fall Is THE Best Time to Intervene
Tutoring any time of the year can be effective. But fall? Fall is the sweet spot. Here’s why:
Your child hasn’t hit burnout yet.
They’re still fresh and open to new routines.
Teachers are just starting to assess, so intervention now can keep your child from falling even further behind.
By starting strong in September, you’re not just “catching up”—you’re laying a foundation to stay ahead.
🔍 Why Struggling Readers Struggle
First, let’s address something that causes a lot of confusion:
Struggling readers are not lazy. They are not behind because they aren’t trying hard enough. And they definitely aren’t destined to stay stuck.
Most struggling readers haven’t been taught in a way their brain can actually process. Traditional print-to-speech reading instruction and Orton-Gillingham based tutoring programs focus on:
Memorizing sight words
Phonics and syllable rules—and exceptions
Whole word guessing based on context or pictures
But here’s the problem: Those strategies bypass the brain’s natural speech-to-print learning pathway. They overload working memory and don’t support long-term fluency. That’s why my approach is different.
🗣️ Speech-to-Print = Reading Success
At Success Tutoring, I use a sound-based method that aligns with how the brain is wired to learn language and how to read: Structured Linguistic Literacy (SLL), also known as speech-to-print (S2P) instruction.
This means:
Kids learn to connect sounds to letters, not letters to rules.
Reading, spelling, and handwriting are taught together to reinforce the brain’s motor memory.
No memorizing hundreds of sight words.
Eliminating phonics "rules" that have exceptions.
No need to apply 6+ syllable types when reading and spelling.
No more confusion about “magic e” or “bossy r” tricks that don’t actually help.
The result?
Kids start reading at grade level (or beyond) with accuracy, fluency, and confidence—often in just a few months.
✅ What You Can Do Right Now at Home
If you're not ready for tutoring yet but want the answer to the question, "How can I help my child with reading?" here are some high-impact ways to build better reading habits starting today.
1. Create a Daily Reading Routine
Set aside a consistent time each day. Keep it short and stress-free. Ten focused minutes is better than thirty minutes of battling. Let your child read aloud to you, or take turns. Pick material that interests your child. Start slow and add a couple of minutes every week to build reading stamina.
2. Ban Guessing—Gently
If your child guesses a word, don’t say “sound it out.” Instead, point to a letter or letter combination and tell them what sound the spelling represents: “Say ____. ” Point to a letter or letter combination and ask, "What's another sound it could be?" Point and read the word aloud, then say, "Your turn to read the word." These prompts guide kids to decode using sound-letter mapping, not context clues.
3. Use Whiteboards - Kids LOVE Them!
Hands-on reading tools make a huge difference. Ask your child to write a word like “ship” by saying each sound as it is written. Then tell them to write other words, each one below the last one, like "shin," "chip," or "clip," with a reminder to say each sound as it is written. Why it works: It gives visual + tactile reinforcement that the letters control the word—not the picture or the guess.
4. Read TO Them More Often
Reading aloud to your child—even in 4th grade and beyond—builds vocabulary, fluency, sentence structure awareness, and comprehension skills. Let them follow along with their finger to keep their "eyes on print." Stop now and then to talk about new vocabulary words, unusual spelling patterns, what has happened in the story so far, or to predict what might happen next. These practices build curiosity without pressure.
5. Avoid Tapping Under Each Word
Glide your finger across the line of print as you read and have your child do the same when they are reading. Tapping under each word one by one promotes reading like a robot, while moving smoothly across the page reinforces reading like we talk—fluently with expression.
👀 The 1 Thing to Watch For This Month
Watch how your child approaches unfamiliar words. If they:
Look at a few letters and then guess the rest
Say something that starts with the same sound but isn’t the actual word
Skip or replace words
Rely heavily on the picture or context
…after you've tried to help using the suggestions provided here, then it’s time to intervene.
And that’s where I come in.
🙋♀️ Want Help?
I help kids who struggle to improve reading, feel successful, and build confidence in their abilities—without relying on sight word lists or memorized rules. Most of my students go from guessing to decoding in just a few months and even jump whole grade levels!
And the best part? We do it in a way that heals past reading trauma and banishes shame.
📅 I have a few tutoring spots open now—but they won’t last long.
If you’re even thinking about it, let’s talk. There’s no pressure, no hard sell—just a friendly, honest conversation about what’s going on and how I might be able to help.
💬 What Parents Are Saying
“Before working with you, my son would cry when it was time to read. Now he asks to read before bed.”
— Parent of a 2nd grader, Davidson, NC
“No one had ever explained reading to her the way you do. Everything clicked.”
— Parent of a 4th grader with ADHD and Dyslexia, Mooresville, NC
💪 You've Got This.
I believe in your child—and I believe in your instincts as a parent. If something feels off with reading, it probably is. And I’d be honored to help you change the story.
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