Reading Still a Struggle? What that Means for a Soon to be a Fifth Grader
Reading can be challenging, during the initial stages of schooling, especially for a Soon-To-Be-Fifth Grader. As parents, your concerns begin to rise because 5th Grade is the primary prep for Middle School. Fifth Graders also have a sudden pressure to read a high level of content materials such as history and sciences and much harder complex chapter books. Fifth graders are also expected to do group projects and collaborate with peers. Reading skills is also a huge reflection of a 5th graders writing skills. Without the necessary foundation for reading, writing remains a struggle. If reading struggles are also coupled with learning support needs like Dyslexia, becoming a fluent reader is challenging.
Typically Behavior of a Soon to be Fifth-Grader that is Struggling with Reading
Reading struggle most often started by third grade carried over to fourth and has manifested into a fifth-grader who’s a struggling reader. Chances are they have begun to lose interest in reading altogether. Many parents express that their children simply “hate” reading, lack effort, motivation, and sometimes refuse to read at all, regardless of how children express their relationships with reading and books. This translates into a lack of interest in school overall. This process often leaves children feeling helpless and inadequate in completely even the simplest assignments in school.
Once a child is about to enter 5th grade, it’s no longer about how much they need to put forth the effort to read but rather a reset needs to happen to close learning gaps, switch the mindset of what reading means to them, and regain conference that with time and effort they to can and will be fantastic readers. A key change for parents is that your child has become incredibly socially aware and influenced by their peers in and out of the classroom. Children who struggle to read will suddenly take a back seat in school projects in and out of class. They will also not join in complex collaboration projects because they can not keep up with the reading requirements. For maturing students not to participate equally with their peers in class often leaves the feeling of insignificant among their peers, teachers, and even their parents. This experience is heightened for students who are Dyslexia.
It is not easy to watch your peers do something effortlessly, yet you cannot contribute equally. They may begin to feel that their peers are much more intelligent than them especially for reader whom also are Dyslexic. This may heighten their feelings of inadequacy and can lead to avoidance. The avoidance behavior can be so extreme that they may shun schooling in totality or develop aggressive behaviors. Some of the students with these exceptional skills will opt to go through avoidance of school rather than embarrass themselves in front of their peers.
At a great extreme, a Soon-To-Be-Fifth-Grader may prefer to label themselves as problematic children rather than deal with the fear of having the inabilities shown. They are also wise enough to realize that they are behind their peers who are proficient readers. As a result, they can form a lack of motivation to try to improve their reading abilities. What makes their life complicated is a lack of understanding of why they cannot read and the fear that they may never catch up with their peers.
Remember, children with reading struggles are very much capable. With commitment from the student and parent alike, coupled with the right one-on-one support through tutoring or reading programs, they will achieve their goal of becoming a fluent reader. They are as bright and intelligent as other children in their age group.
My Last Thought:
Reading struggles is not who your child is as a person but rather just part of their journey to push and gain tremendous internal growth and strength from that they will carry into their future self. Teachers, tutors, specialists, and parents are a team, and that support system can create any change needed for any child. We shall provide you with different avenues to support your child’s reading growth in our future publications.
