We know that students who struggle in reading often have a motivation problem.  No, I am not saying that students struggling in reading are lazy.  What I am saying is that students who struggle to learn to read or have failed in reading for multiple years have developed what Dr. Kerry Hempenstall calls “self-blame.”
 
Think about it.  If you are struggling to learn to read, trying, feeling totally confused, and still failing—year after year, would you continue to work as hard as you possibly can even though you know that you are going to fail?  The answer for most of us is no.  Unfortunately, the same is true for students who are returning to school this fall still struggling to learn to read.  For this reason, all of my reading programs teach vowel clustering and intrinsic (internal) motivation (see my 2019 book After-School Programming and Intrinsic Motivation.     

We cannot continue to ignore reading failure:

• Reading failure is an education problem because it leads to academic failure and increases the number of students dropping out of school before graduation.  The Nation’s Report Card states that 63% of students tested cannot read proficiently at the fourth grade level (see my post of 1/2/2018).   It has been estimated that two thirds or approximately 6.6 million students are at high risk for dropping out of school before graduation because of reading failure.  Reading failure is a major educational problem but one that we could solve—if we’d only change how we teach reading. 

 

• Reading failure is a mental health problem because reading failure increases the risk of mental illness—anxiety, anger, depression, and even suicide.  Approximately 80% of teens diagnosed with depression have also been diagnosed with reading failure.  Children and teens are very vulnerable to feeling different than their peers.  The fear of criticism from peers, teachers, or parents over reading failure, sometimes causes students to feel inferior, even ostracized. 

 
As Morgan, Farkas, & Wu (2012) stated:  “poor readers in third grade were about twice as likely to consider themselves as angry, distractible, sad, lonely, and unpopular in fifth grade as those who had not been poor readers in third grade. Being poorly skilled in mathematics increased children’s risk of feeling sad or lonely but not of feeling angry, distractible, or unpopular. The results provide additional empirical evidence that reading failure contributes to generalized socioemotional maladjustment in young children.” (p. 360)  
 
Such feelings of inferiority can lead to anxiety and/or anger. Reading failure has been documented to show an increase in unacceptable behavior, bullying, and violence. 

• Reading failure is a criminal justice problem because 60% of adult prison inmates in the U. S. cannot read or write; 75% of these inmates dropped out of school before graduation.  About 85% of juveniles going through the courts are illiterate and cannot read or write. (National Center for Adult Literacy 2007).    

 

• As Michael Brunner (1993) of the Department of Justice explains, “The link between academic failure and delinquency, violence, and crime is welded to reading failure.”   

We can solve each of these problems by changing how we teach reading in the classroom and in after-school programs.  Poverty does not cause reading failure.  Incorrect teaching methods cause reading failure.  Neuroimaging research proves that, if we change how we teach reading, even children who have previously failed can be taught to read.  Neuroimaging research shows that intensive training in phonemes (letter sounds) changes the “brain and the way it functions.” This change allows even struggling at-risk students to make significant improvement in reading (Meyler, Keller, Cherkassky, Gabrieli, & Just, 2008).  
 
Vowel clustering  teaches students to decode or break words down into letter sounds and then to encode or reassemble those sounds back into pronounceable words.  Vowel clustering does not stop at simply decoding and encoding.  Vowel clustering also teaches spelling, oral reading fluency, comprehension, and writing.  Vowel clustering has been tested and proven to work with struggling, at-risk, and failing students (Clanton Harpine & Reid, 2009).
 
Yes, we can teach children to read.  We have the teaching methods to do so.  Research proves it.  If you need statistical research to bring change to your school, my forthcoming book (hitting the shelves in September), After-School Programming and Intrinsic Motivation (2019), demonstrates eight years of research showing that children who had failed in the classroom under whole language, phonics, and balanced literacy could indeed be taught to read successfully at their age level with vowel clustering, even children from low socioeconomic neighborhoods.  We had children who moved up four grade levels in reading in one year. 
 
Yes, we can end reading failure today.  We can help all struggling students learn to read.  We just need to change how we teach in the classroom.
 
I’ll be teaching a free training workshop on vowel clustering, September 9, 2019 at 4:00 PM in Corpus Christi, Texas.  Come join us.   Click the email button at the top right of this page and ask for more information on the training workshop.

School will be starting soon and many parents will be told that their child has a learning disability in reading.  Unfortunately, some children do, but even worse is the fact that many children are misdiagnosed with a learning disability in reading.  I always encourage parents to learn as much as possible about learning disabilities, and I also encourage you to go to reputable Internet sites.  Don’t just take advice from anyone.  There is a lot of information available on the Internet that is completely and totally wrong.  There is also good information on the Internet, so, check the source.  Does the person know what they’re talking about?  For example, I recently read a blog post by Amanda Morin, a teacher who earned her bachelor’s degree in education from the University of Maine.  She also states that she had special education advocacy training from the Council of Parent Attorneys and Advocates.  Unfortunately, she gives inaccurate information.  She presents the following list as “signs of a learning disability:"

"Has trouble understanding and/or following verbal or written directions.

• Loses her place while reading.
• Confuses words that look similar when reading. For example: word/world.
• Reverses letter order when reading. For examples, reads "was" as "saw."
• Avoids reading or reads under protest.
• Fails to follow tasks through to completion, such as schoolwork, homework or chores.
• Tries to avoid activities that call for long periods of concentration."

​
Wrong.  These are not necessarily signs of a learning disability.  They can also be signs of a poor teaching method, inadequate teaching curriculum, poor classroom management….  The list can go on and on.  Let’s go to some reputable sources on the Internet and find a real list of learning disabilities in reading.

In a Psychology Today article written for the general public, authors give a definition and a list of learning disabilities:
 
"Learning disabilities are disorders that affect one's ability in the domains of spoken or written language, mathematical calculation, attention, or the coordination of movements. They can occur in young children but are usually not recognized until a child reaches school age. An estimated 8 to 10 percent of U.S. children have some type of learning disability….

"Some specific categories of learning disabilities include:

• Dyslexia, which causes difficulties with word recognition, spelling, and comprehension
• Dysgraphia, which results in impaired handwriting, impaired spelling, or both
• Dyscalculia, which affects the ability to learn arithmetic and mathematics
• Nonverbal Learning Disorder, marked by trouble receiving and interpreting nonverbal forms of communication such as body language and facial expressions
• Apraxia of speech, which involves difficulty saying what one intends to say
• Central Auditory Processing Disorder, which involves difficulty with recognizing and interpreting sounds

 
"For diagnosis of a Specific Learning Disorder, the affected skills must be markedly and measurably below what is expected for the individual's age, and the difficulty must significantly interfere with performance or daily activities."
 
There is a difference between poor reading habits and dyslexia just as there is a difference between sloppy handwriting and dysgraphia.  There is also a major difference between a child losing their place while they are reading and the child having dyslexia. 

Children often refuse to read or read only under protest not because they have a learning disability but because they have not been properly taught how to read.  Every day, I encounter more and more students who have been taught using balanced literacy, systematic phonics, or even whole language who are struggling, sometimes even failing, and yes, occasionally refusing to read.  These students do not necessarily have a learning disability.  Some do, but most just need a new approach to teaching them how to read. 

That is why we have been so successful with the vowel clustering teaching method.  Vowel clustering is a completely and totally new approach to teaching reading. Vowel clustering is nothing like phonics or whole language. Vowel clustering helps students relate the words they are reading to the oral language system in the brain. There is no memorization, no sight word lists, and no phonics rules.
Some of our success stories have been:

• A student who failed for nine straight years in public school is now reading.
• A student diagnosed with ADHD and failing in reading moved up two grade levels in one year.
• A student diagnosed with dyslexia and whose parents tried everything, including expensive private one-on-one systematic phonics tutoring, learned to read, and moved up to beginning chapter books in one year.
• Six children who entered the program reading at the pre-K level ended the year reading at the 2nd grade reading level.  Only one child in the group was a first grader.
• One student started at the pre-primer level (pre-K) and ended the year at the third-grade reading level while a second grader started the year reading below first grade and ended at the fourth-grade level.
• Three students moved up four grade levels in reading, four students moved up three grade levels in reading, and eight students moved up two grade levels in reading in one year. 
• A fifth-grade student moved up from the 3rd grade reading level to the 6th grade reading level in only five months using the vowel clustering teaching method. 

 
So, be careful as you read on the Internet.  Be careful when you label children or identify learning disabilities.  Be careful not to blame children for not learning when it is often a failure to teach.  No, I’m not blaming teachers.  I am blaming administrators, public school systems, and anyone and everyone who maintains teaching methods that have been proven not to work.  Whole language, systematic phonics, and balanced literacy have been proved to be failed approaches to teaching reading.  It’s time for a change.