Need For Brain Reprogramming For Reading in Older Kids
In 2021, I realised that my home help's kids were reading my books but not understanding
The brain is not born ready to read — it uses parts meant for seeing, speaking, and remembering. Many older kids pick up the habit of guessing words instead of sounding them out, which slows their progress. The good news is that the brain can learn new habits at any age.
Biological Reasoning For Our Approach
Reading is not natural for the brain—it has to be trained. Many older kids build the wrong habit of guessing, which blocks progress.
- Neuroplasticity: The brain can change its wiring through practice. When kids repeatedly decode words (sound them out), the left side of the brain (especially the visual word form area, left occipito-temporal cortex) gets trained to quickly recognize word patterns.
- Faulty habits: Guessing uses the right brain (context and picture clues) but doesn’t build strong pathways for word recognition. This is why many struggling readers stay stuck.
- Rewiring through decoding: By breaking words into sounds, syllables, and roots, children activate the phonological loop(auditory + memory systems) and strengthen the left-to-right decoding circuit.
- Fluency and comprehension: With practice, decoding becomes automatic, freeing up working memory for comprehension. Repeated reading strengthens myelination (insulation on brain pathways), making reading faster and smoother.
Pointers from the 5 week program
Week 1 Break the Guessing Habit
Week 2 Read Smoothly and Accurately
Week 2 Read Smoothly and Accurately
- Learn: Reading is training the brain, not guessing.
- Warm-up: Try tricky words → see guessing vs. decoding.
- Practice: Break words into parts (un + happy, re + play).
- Fluency: Read short passage after teacher.
- Vocabulary: Root struct = build (construct, structure).
- Comprehension: Close eyes, picture the story.
- Reflection: “My brain can change if I stop guessing.”
Week 2 Read Smoothly and Accurately
Week 2 Read Smoothly and Accurately
Week 2 Read Smoothly and Accurately
- Warm-up: Sound out real + nonsense words.
- Practice: Break long words into syllables (trans-port-a-tion).
- Fluency: Read same short passage 2–3 times, notice improvement.
- Vocabulary: Root port = carry (transport, report).
- Comprehension: Teacher “thinks aloud” to show understanding.
- Reflection: Track reading speed/progress.
Week 3 Unlock Big Words
Week 2 Read Smoothly and Accurately
Week 4 Understand What You Read
- Warm-up: Try long, funny words.
- Practice: Break words with endings (-tion, -ment, -ology).
- Fluency: Paired reading with a partner.
- Vocabulary: Root bio = life (biology, biography).
- Comprehension: Group work → predict, question, summarize.
- Fun: Share silly sentences using new words.
Week 4 Understand What You Read
Week 4 Understand What You Read
Week 4 Understand What You Read
- Warm-up: Word game with pre- words.
- Practice: Break and read longer words.
- Fluency: Read short nonfiction text.
- Vocabulary: Root auto = self (autograph, automatic).
- Comprehension: Use “Stop & Check” after each paragraph → ask Does this make sense?
- Reflection: One-line summary of the passage.
Week 5 Showcase and Celebrate
Week 4 Understand What You Read
Week 5 Showcase and Celebrate
- Warm-up: Word game → split and read long words in teams.
- Review: All roots learned during the week.
- Fluency: Performance reading (poem, script, or short story).
- Vocabulary: Create a “Word Wall” with all root families.
- Comprehension: Read short passage → fill organizer (main idea + details).
- Showcase: Students read aloud, share progress: “I used to read like this… now I read with confidence.”