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By Daniella Gray
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If you’ve noticed your child guessing at words, avoiding reading aloud or struggling to explain a story they just read, then you are not alone.
New national data suggests many young children are quietly lagging in reading, even as schools move further away from the pandemic years.
A recent report from education research group NWEA found that, while early elementary math scores have slowly improved, reading scores for first‑ and second‑graders remain stalled below pre‑pandemic levels.
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For parents, that raises an important question: How do you know if your child is quietly falling behind in reading?
Dr. Tiffany Peltier, a former educator and literacy expert at HMH, NWEA’s parent company, told Newsweek that the early warning signs are often subtle and easy to misread.
Peltier encouraged parents to think about reading through what researchers call the "Simple View of Reading," which breaks the skill into two "buckets": word recognition and language comprehension.
"When one of these buckets is weaker, reading can break down in ways that are easy for parents to misinterpret," Peltier said.
Slow, careful sounding-out of words, for example, is not necessarily a problem in early readers. In fact, it is a normal and important stage of learning.
What concerns experts more is when children guess at words or rely heavily on memorization instead of sounding them out.
"Guessing is a warning sign because it bypasses the decoding skills children need for long‑term reading success," Peltier added.
Another common misconception is assuming comprehension should be strong, even when reading is slow.
Peltier said that, when children have to work hard just to recognize words, it uses up their mental energy, leaving little capacity to understand the story.
A simple test at home is to notice whether a child understands a story when it is read aloud but struggles when reading independently—often a sign that word recognition, not comprehension, is the issue.
For children who started school during or just after the pandemic, reading challenges can show up in uneven ways.
By the middle of kindergarten, children should be able to sound out simple three-letter words within a few seconds. By first grade, reading should become smoother and less effortful. By second grade, most children are expected to read simple chapter books with growing fluency.
If those milestones aren’t being met, Peltier said parents can help by focusing on sounding out words and spending about half of reading time reading aloud and talking about stories.
"Children’s books often contain more advanced vocabulary and language structures than everyday conversation, which helps build the knowledge and language skills that support comprehension," Peltier said.
If concerns persist, then the most-important next step for parents is to talk with their child’s teacher. They could ask how their kid compares to classroom and national expectations and whether difficulties stem from word recognition, comprehension or both.
"At home, continued practice is important, but progress should be visible over time," Peltier said.
If progress remains limited after several months, she recommended that parents follow up in writing with the teacher and principal to raise concerns and flag a potential reading disability.
Making the request in writing helps initiate the school’s official process for assessing whether extra support is needed.
"Early, clear communication helps ensure concerns are addressed before gaps widen," Peltier said.
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