Homeschooling a Child With Reading Difficulties

By Laura Lurns · Reviewed by Philip Weaver · Last reviewed 2026-09-30

Are you the reading teacher now?

If you teach your child to read, you are the reading teacher. Some families also use a tutor or a class. In our view, someone still has to teach the code in a planned order.

The code is which letters make which sounds.

In our view, much of what is called reading teaching is really practice. That means time with books and questions, with an adult watching. Suppose a child was never taught the code. To us, more time with books will not teach it.

In our view, a parent can learn to teach the code. When your child reads a word right, it is you they look up at.

Teaching your child is not a reason to go without a professional. The section on asking for help says when to reach out.

What should you teach?

Look for systematic, explicit phonics instruction by name. That means teaching letters and their sounds in a planned order. The sounds are not left to be picked up from reading. The National Reading Panel found that systematic phonics instruction significantly improves reading achievement.

One review looked at 22 trials of help for children with reading disabilities (Galuschka and colleagues, 2014). Phonics teaching was the only approach it confirmed for reading and spelling. The other approaches had far fewer trials. So their results are partly thin evidence, not proof they do not work.

Notice what that review names. It names a way of teaching, not a brand.

The order below is our working model, not a measured finding. Children still work on several steps at the same time. It is not a set of gates your child must pass.

1. Hearing the sounds in spoken words. This is done by ear, with no letters. Teachers reason that letters have little to attach to without hearing the sounds in words. Our page on phonemic awareness activities covers this step.
2. Matching sounds to letters. Teachers start with the common, reliable ones.
3. Blending. Knowing each sound is one skill. Running them together into a word is another. Teachers teach the second one on its own.
4. Reading words in text your child can sound out. That way the new skill gets used.
5. Accuracy before speed. Teachers put accuracy before speed. Their reason is that chasing speed first rewards guessing.

Suppose reading words in books is not working. In our view, check the earlier steps before you reach for easier books.

Phonics is necessary. In our view, it was never the whole answer. Some words do not follow the patterns your child knows. In our view, those are taught as whole words, alongside phonics. Reading also means knowing what words mean, and following the story.

How do you teach it?

When your child misreads a word, point back to the sounds. Do not just say the word. Teachers correct this way. We hold no study of this correction on its own.

Here is how it can go. Your child reads hot as hat. Point to the o. Ask what sound it makes. Then ask them to sound out the word again.

Stay calm and keep it quick. In our view, one fix at a time is enough.

Some children guess a word from its first letter and the picture. To us, that is not cheating or laziness. In our experience, children often guess when sounding out is too slow and too hard. Guessing works on early books, where the pictures tell the story. It stops working when the pictures stop.

Cover the picture. You will see quickly whether the sounding out is there.

Pick words with a pattern your child has been taught. In our view, most of the words should be ones your child can read. A few should take some work.

Our position is that short, frequent sessions do more here than long, rare ones. That is for practice. A short practice does not replace the teaching. In our view, stop while it is still going well.

In our view, keep a simple record. Write down the sounds and words your child reads correctly. Write down the ones that are still shaky. Look back at it now and then.

How do you choose a curriculum?

This page ranks no curriculum. It names no company's program but our own. In our view, choose the method first, then the curriculum. This page gives you the method to look for. It also gives you questions to check any curriculum.

A reading curriculum is the full teaching: the order, the scope and the lessons. A short practice works on one part of the job, often and briefly. In our view, the two are not alternatives. A short practice does not replace the teaching.

Ask these questions of any seller. You can also look for the answers yourself.

• What order does it teach in, and may I see it?
• How does it correct a mistake in the moment?
• How often, and for how long, is each lesson?
• What evidence is there for it with children at my child's stage?
• What would change first if it is working, and what after that?

Ask for the order of expected change, never for a date. In our view, nobody can promise a date.

Checking the evidence

Some groups look at programs and are not paid by the sellers. Here are three.

The What Works Clearinghouse is run by the US Department of Education. It screens studies of programs strictly. Evidence for ESSA is run by Johns Hopkins University. It is independent of the companies that sell programs. EdReports is independent too. It rates how well a curriculum is built, not whether it works.

Ask who ran the study and who paid for it. Ask whether it was peer-reviewed. Then ask what the independent registries say.

"No qualifying studies" means no study passed a strict screen. It is not proof that the program fails.

Ask how big the difference was, not only whether it was significant. A very large study can find a difference too small to matter.

Ask what the gains were measured on. Gains on a test built to match the program often shrink on an independent test.

Orton-Gillingham

You may see the name Orton-Gillingham on a curriculum. Orton-Gillingham is a family of reading programs that teach in a multisensory way. Another review looked at studies of these programs (Stevens and colleagues, 2021). Its results for reading were positive but not statistically significant. Its authors said the studies were few and weak. To us, that makes these programs promising but unproven, not debunked.

Programs built on one method can still differ. In our view, check each curriculum too, not only its method. Our position is to look for systematic, explicit phonics instruction by name.

Apps, and our own programs

In our view, a game or app is practice, not the whole of the teaching. Ask whether it follows a planned order, with old patterns coming back. Reading improves with reading instruction.

We ask the same questions of our own programs. No study of any Learning Success program exists. Our reading course is short practice at the word level. It does not teach comprehension, and it does not replace reading teaching.

What does the research we hold cover?

We hold no study of children schooled at home. That is a gap in what we hold, not a finding about teaching at home. We do hold reviews of parents helping with reading at home.

One review looked at parents trained to help with reading at home (Sénéchal and Young, 2008, as reported in Higgins and Katsipataki, 2015). Some parents were taught specific reading activities to use. Their children gained more in reading than children whose parents only read aloud. The summary we hold does not name the activities. We cannot say they match the activities on this page. In Sénéchal and Young's review, gains were smaller, but still real, for children with difficulties. In three of Sénéchal and Young's studies, parents read books to their children. That did not give significant reading gains.

Where do reading aloud and audiobooks fit?

In our view, reading aloud to your child still matters while they learn to read. What they understand by ear is where their own reading is heading. In our view, read aloud for the story and the words, not as reading practice.

In our view, audiobooks are not cheating. To us, they build words and knowledge by ear. Use them alongside reading instruction, not in place of it.

Reading improves with reading instruction.

When to ask for help

Each of these is a reason to ask for help on its own.

• Little change, even with steady practice and good teaching.
• Reading well below grade level.
• A teacher who raises a concern about reading.
• Extreme upset about reading.
• Complete avoidance of reading.
• Hopelessness about learning.
• Sadness or worry that lasts.
• Significant delays in speech, language or motor development.
• A skill that was there and has gone. Our position is that a lost skill goes to a doctor first, not a tutor.

If your child has a teacher or tutor, start there. Say what you are seeing, and what you have tried. Beyond that, the right person depends on what it turns out to be about. If the work is too hard, someone who works on that school skill. If worry or mood is the thing, someone who works with children's mental health. In our view, delays in speech, language or movement are worth raising with your child's doctor. In our view, if you are worried enough to ask, a professional evaluation is worth asking about.

Any talk of hurting themselves is a same-day call to your doctor or a crisis line.

The US evaluation rules we hold do not mention children taught at home. In our view, ask your state or local school district.