Dear Sue,
I’m really worried about my child’s reading, and I’m not sure if I’m doing the right thing. Everyone keeps telling me that the solution is simply to get my child to read more—read every day, read aloud, read anything they can get their hands on. I’ve been trying to follow this advice, but it’s becoming a struggle. My child resists reading, gets tired very quickly, and often makes mistakes or guesses words instead of reading them properly.
At the same time, I feel guilty because I don’t want to push too hard or make reading something they hate. I also worry that if I don’t insist on more practice, they will fall further behind. I’m confused because some people say practice is the only way to improve, while others suggest that something else might be going on.
So my question is this: will reading more actually improve my child’s reading, or could I be making things worse by pushing them to read when they are clearly struggling?
Dominique
Dear Dominique,
This is one of the most common—and most misunderstood—questions I receive, and your concern is completely valid. You are trying to help your child, and you are being told something that sounds logical: if you want to get better at reading, you should read more. That advice is not wrong, but it is incomplete. Whether more reading helps depends entirely on what is happening when your child reads.
If a child can already decode words accurately, read with reasonable fluency, and understand most of what they are reading, then more reading is one of the most powerful ways to improve. In that situation, reading builds vocabulary, strengthens comprehension, and gradually speeds up and automates the process. This is why strong readers tend to keep improving—they can practice effectively, and that practice compounds over time.
However, the situation is very different when a child struggles with the fundamentals of reading. When decoding is weak, reading becomes slow, effortful, and often inaccurate. The child may guess words, skip parts of sentences, or lose track of meaning altogether. In this case, asking the child to simply “read more” is not only unhelpful but can also reinforce the problem. Each incorrect attempt strengthens the wrong patterns, and over time, those patterns become harder to change.
This is why your piano analogy is so important. If someone practices a piece incorrectly, they do not gradually improve—they become more fluent at playing it incorrectly. The same principle applies to reading. Practice does not automatically lead to improvement. Practice leads to permanence. What matters is whether the practice is correct.
There is also an emotional component that should not be ignored. When reading is difficult, children know it. They feel the effort, the frustration, and often the embarrassment of making mistakes. If they are repeatedly asked to engage in an activity that feels overwhelming, avoidance is a natural response. What appears to be a lack of motivation is often a reflection of difficulty. In other words, your child is not resisting reading because they are unwilling, but because reading is currently too hard.
So what should you do instead? The first step is to shift your focus from quantity to quality. Instead of asking, “How much is my child reading?” the better question is, “What happens when my child reads?” Are they decoding accurately? Are they reading at a manageable pace? Are they understanding what they read? If the answer to these questions is no, then the priority should not be more reading, but better reading instruction.
This often means going back to the foundations and strengthening the underlying skills that support reading. Decoding needs to become accurate and reliable. Fluency needs to be developed so that reading is not a constant effort. In many cases, cognitive skills such as memory, attention, and processing also play a role and need to be addressed. When these elements improve, reading becomes easier, and once it does, children naturally read more.
It is also helpful to reduce pressure around independent reading while you are working on these skills. You can still expose your child to rich language by reading to them, discussing stories, and keeping books part of your daily life, but without turning reading into a daily battle. The goal is to protect your child’s confidence while you address the root of the problem.
So, to answer your question clearly: more reading will improve your child’s reading only if the basic reading skills are already in place. If they are not, more reading may reinforce errors and increase frustration. The solution is not to stop reading altogether, but to ensure that the reading your child does is supported, accurate, and built on a solid foundation.
Once that foundation is in place, something important happens. Reading becomes less of a struggle and more of a skill. And when that shift occurs, the advice you were given in the beginning becomes true again—because then, and only then, more reading really does lead to better reading.
Warmly,
Sue
More about Sue
Sue is an educational specialist in learning difficulties with a B.A. Honors in Psychology and a B.D. degree. Early in her career, Sue was instrumental in training over 3,000 teachers and tutors, providing them with the foundational and practical understanding to facilitate cognitive development among children who struggle to read and write. With over 30 years of research to her name, she conceptualized the Edublox teaching and learning methods that have helped thousands of children worldwide. In 2007, she opened the first Edublox reading and learning clinic; today, there are 30 clinics internationally. Sue treasures the “hero” stories of students whose self-esteem soars as their marks improve.
