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Most of us don’t remember learning to read

Most adults don’t remember learning to read.

There was no precise moment when it happened. No clear memory of the first sentence read with ease.
Reading simply became part of everyday life.

For many children, reading follows the same path.
Words slowly become familiar.
Letters stop demanding attention, and words are recognised for what they mean, not how they are written.
Little by little, reading happens without effort.

But this is not how reading works for every child.

When reading is always a struggle

For some children, reading never becomes effortless.

From the very beginning, it requires attention, concentration, and conscious effort.
Each word has to be worked out, even when it’s a word they’ve met again and again.
Each line demands focus.

Reading, instead of supporting understanding, becomes the task itself.

When understanding begins to slip

When so much mental energy is spent just getting through the words, there is very little left for meaning.

The child may finish the page, but the understanding is fragile.
Important details slip away.
Connections are harder to make.

Reading is completed, but comprehension is incomplete.

What this looks like in everyday reading

This is why children who read with effort often miss what seems obvious to others.

They may remember the main idea, but not the details.
They may recall what happened, but not how or why.

It’s not because they weren’t paying attention.
It’s because their attention was already fully occupied.

A simple example

Imagine a child reading a short sentence:

“Mum prepares a warm, delicious dinner, and I eat pizza happily.”

The sentence is short. The words are common.
And yet, for a child who reads with effort, it doesn’t unfold all at once.

Longer or less familiar words draw attention away from the rest.
While the child is working through them, meaning is momentarily put on hold.

To avoid getting stuck or losing time, the child may start skipping the words that block their reading.

When asked to explain what they’ve read, the child may give a simplified answer.

They might say that mum made pizza for dinner.

Words like delicious or happily are often left out, not because they are unimportant, but because they were harder to hold onto while reading.

Attention was spent on getting through the sentence, not on building its full meaning.

The invisible emotional cost

When this happens repeatedly, reading becomes tiring, both mentally and emotionally.

The child finishes texts feeling drained.
Remembering details feels hard.
Explaining what they’ve read feels even harder.

Over time, this can lead to frustration, anxiety, and a gradual loss of confidence.

What is often seen as lack of motivation or carelessness is, in reality, the result of sustained effort.

The child is not disengaged.
They are overloaded.

Learning to read, and reading to learn

Silent reading remains an essential skill in everyday life, in the classroom and beyond.

Supporting the development of reading automaticity as much as possible is therefore important.

In the early years, children read in order to learn to read.
Later on, they read in order to learn.

Recognising when reading alone is no longer the best way to access meaning is not giving up on reading.
It is responding to what learning requires at that moment.

A shift in perspective

When reading is not automatic, the answer is not to push harder or demand more speed.

What helps is understanding what the child is actually facing.

Reading with effort is not a lack of ability.
It is a different way of accessing written language, one that requires more time, more energy, and more support.

Giving time is never time taken away from learning.
It is time invested in confidence, inclusion, and long-term understanding.

Because the goal of reading is not to get through the words.
It is to make sense of them.

Learning doesn’t stop, even if reading is hard

Children who struggle with reading can still develop strong ways of understanding, studying, and working with information.
They can build effective study strategies, make deep connections, and reach high levels of learning, when they are supported through channels that work for them.

Reading may take longer, or require support.
But meaning, thinking, and understanding can grow fully.

The goal is not to force every child into the same path,
but to help each one find a way to access learning with confidence.

Because learning is bigger than reading alone.