When More Reading Isn’t the Answer

On 20 June 2026, Ezeh Ebube Maureen — Early Literacy & Reading Intervention Specialist — posted the following on LinkedIn:

 

“When a child struggles to read, the common response is more reading. More practise. More exposure. Read to them more. Let them read to you more. Surround them with books.

That advice is not wrong for a child who already has the foundational skills.

But for a child who hasn't cracked the code yet, more reading is like asking someone to get better at swimming by spending more time drowning.”

 

My thoughts:

Well said, and I agree. 

Maureen: 

What struggling readers actually need is explicit, systematic instruction in how the English language is structured.

My thoughts:

I have read this multiple times on social media. But what does it actually mean when talking about a child who cannot read?

Maureen: 

Not guessing from pictures. Not memorising words as shapes. Not reading for meaning before they can read the words at all.

My thoughts:

This has been hyped up. Who really guesses from pictures? Pictures or images in books are meant to confirm what a child thinks a word is. Memorising words as shapes has been implanted in the minds of many teachers, and this is inaccurate to say the least.

Maureen: 

Children need to know that words are made of sounds. That those sounds are represented by letters and letter combinations. That there is a system — learnable, teachable, and logical — underneath every word on the page.

My thoughts:

Yes, but why is it that no teacher even clicks “like,” let alone comments, on my numerous posts on this matter? A majority of the kids who can’t read due to confusion are wrongly classified as dyslexic.

Maureen: 

Research consistently shows that children who fall furthest behind are largely those who did not receive explicit, systematic instruction in the structure of language.

My thoughts:

This is what has been repeated for decades without understanding. The phrase “explicit, systematic instruction” has become a mantra, but without clarity on what it actually entails. What matters is accuracy in teaching sounds — not just repeating the label of “systematic.”

 

The Real Issue

Surrounding a child with books without teaching them how to decode is like throwing them into deep water without teaching them to swim. The tragedy is not that children fail, but that they are failed by instruction that confuses rather than clarifies.

 

The problem is not phonological awareness deficits, nor the so-called opacity of English. The problem is wrong teaching. Children are told to guess, to memorise, to read for meaning before they can read the words. And when they fail, they are labelled dyslexic.

 

Until educators confront this reality, functional illiteracy will persist — no matter how many times “systematic instruction” is repeated.