Learning to read is hard. It is a skill your child has to work on constantly, so it’s not surprising that many children develop a “reading gap,” or a difference in their current reading ability and where schools think their ability should be at for their age.
A reading, or literacy gap, is the space that exists between your child’s ability to convert letters on a page into meaning, and the projected ability to do that at a given age that was determined by school districts and governments. Reading gaps lead to achievement gaps, because being able to make meaning out of different kinds of text is the basis for every subject in school and most skills in life.
Let’s talk numbers. Of the approximately 6,000 waking hours your child has in a year, only about 1,000 of them are spent in school. That is 5,000 hours of time awake spent with family and friends outside of a structured learning environment. In the United States, children only spend about six hours a day in actual education, and in most states are in school about 180 days of the year (some more and some less depending on the state).
Even then, those six daily hours are not all spent purely on instruction. Whether or not the traditional school structure is effective is different conversation. What do you think could be achieved putting any of those 5,000 extra hours to use helping your child fill in the educational gaps out side of class time? You don’t have to rely on your child’s teacher to close this gap, there are ways you can help your child gain ground on their reading skills.
Closing the reading gap at home
You do not need to be an education professional to help your child develop their reading skills at home. You may not even need to add a lot of dedicated time to improving reading, all you need is to spend your time intentionally.
Think about all the different kinds of things you read in a day. You read Google Maps, you read your email, street sigs, birthday cards, recipes, prescriptions, instructions on reheating left overs, food labels and more. Not only do you read those things but you make meaning out of them and then make choices that can effect your life. That is pretty impressive!
Reading experts will tell you that the best way to close the literacy gap is to spend more time reading, and yes that is true. But that doesn’t work for everyone. Where you can, please do work in time to either read together or have your child read independently (it really only takes 30 minutes a day), but where you can’t try these three tips that any parent or caregiver can do from home to help close your child’s reading gap.
Reading is the foundation for educational success and opportunities in life, yet many children are not given the time and skills to build this foundation. Children without the necessary literacy skills can fall behind quickly, and the consequences last a lifetime.
The Literacy lab
Tip 1: Talk to your child using real words
This one does not even involve reading and it will help your child’s reading skills because it will improve their vocabulary. The more words your child knows, the easier it will be to read because they will spend less time trying to decipher a word’s meaning and more time reading fluently. So use real words when you speak to your child. Explain your choices at the grocery store or why you’ve separated the laundry the way you did. Not only will you grow their vocabulary, you will also grow their general knowledge of the world (more on that here).
Tip 2: Use positive discipline
Praise your child when they do something well, rather than only commenting on behavior when it is not what you would like it to be. Avoid using rewards and punishment for behavior, especially for reading. Teaching your child that reading (or not reading) will either gain or harm them in some way takes the joy out of reading and teaches them that it is a chore to be finished and put away, rather than a life long skill and joy.
Positive parenting also reinforces both self confidence and the trust your child has in their relationship with you. If your child feels confident enough in their own abilities to ask questions when they do not understand, and they feel confident enough in their relationship with their parent to ask them questions, then they will ask when they get to a hard word and feel safe even if that is a vulnerable moment. A child who fears ridicule will never ask what that word means and may come to resent reading altogether for putting them in a vulnerable space.
Tip 3: Help your child read more nonfiction books
Nonfiction is a great way to spark your child’s interest in reading (read more about why in this post). Choose a beloved subject, you know the one, the one they never stop talking about. There is almost always a book on that subject either on Amazon or at your library. When they have exhausted every book on that subject, choose one that is in a similar category and help them branch out.
If you can, try to encourage your child to read books about STEM subjects (science, technology, engineering, math). Careers in these fields are growing more rapidly than any other, getting them to read about it at a younger age could spark a life long interest.
Who is most effected?
Reading and achievement gaps most directly effect children of low-income families. A family that lives in a lower income neighborhood send their children to poorer schools that are part of that neighborhood, which will do worse when testing season comes and score lower than their peers in middle and upper class schools. American children of Black, Hispanic and American Indian or Native Alaskan decent also tend to experience a greater reading gap, as reported by the United States Board of Education.
You can visit the Nation’s Report Card website (linked above) and calculate the data for each subject, if you are interested in learning more there. The results can be calculated as far back as the early 1990s and for multiple subjects. Below are the results from the fourth and eight grade reading tests from the five most recent years of data available.
Fourth Grade Reading Assessments: National Average
| Ethnicity | 2019 | 2017 | 2015 | 2013 | 2011 |
| White | 230 | 232 | 232 | 232 | 231 |
| Black | 204 | 206 | 206 | 206 | 205 |
| Hispanic | 209 | 208 | 208 | 207 | 206 |
| Asian/Pacific Islander | 237 | 239 | 239 | 235 | 235 |
| American Indian/Alaskan Native | 204 | 202 | 205 | 205 | 202 |
| Two or More Races | 226 | 227 | 227 | 227 | 227 |
Eighth Grade Reading Assessment: National Average
| Ethnicity | 2019 | 2017 | 2015 | 2013 | 2011 |
| White | 272 | 275 | 274 | 276 | 274 |
| Black | 244 | 249 | 248 | 250 | 249 |
| Hispanic | 252 | 255 | 253 | 256 | 252 |
| Asian/Pacific Islander | 281 | 282 | 280 | 280 | 275 |
| American Indian/Alaskan Native | 248 | 253 | 252 | 251 | 252 |
| Two or More Races | 267 | 272 | 269 | 271 | 269 |
Fourth Grade National Reading Average Based on School Poverty
| School Poverty Levels | Low Poverty | Mid-Low Poverty | Mid-High Poverty | High Poverty |
| National Reading Scores | 240 | 227 | 217 | 206 |
This table reflects the testing rate for fourth graders the year 2019 based on “school poverty level,” defined by the United States Board of Education. A school is considered to be ‘high poverty’ if 76-100% of students require free or reduced price lunch (FRPL), mid-high poverty if 51-75% of students require FRPL, mid-low poverty if 26-50% of students require FRPL and low poverty if 0-25% of students require FRPL. Predictably, students at lower poverty schools scored better nationally on this test.
When do reading gaps begin?
Reading gaps can begin early in life, even by preschool age. Children who live in “literacy rich environments,” meaning homes and communities that do a lot of reading, know more words by the time they go to preschool. Having a better vocabulary makes it easier to learn to read.
In contrast, children whose family’s do not have a lot of free time for reading (because both parents work, it is a single parent home, a parent is also in school, there is no native speaker at home, etc) are reading fewer books and learning fewer words than their kindergarten peers. And this only compounds with age.
Time spent away from school makes the learning gap larger too. The summer months, often called the “summer slide” by educators, is time spent away from school where not much in the way of education is taking place. Lower income families are not able to send their kids to education themed camps or programs because they are too expensive and so the gap continues to grow.
If you are looking at the growing gap in your child’s reading ability, read on for some great resources that might help!
Free Resources
Below are some recourses you may be interested. They vary by region so check them out see if they are available in your area. If you are not sure what to do to help your child, you can always ask your child’s school. If that is not possibility, ask the children’s librarian at a local library. There are so many free resources available through libraries, from homework help, to access to free online tutors, many libraries even offer a program to get your high school diploma online!
The Smithsonian Learning Lab has free educational resources and activies available for ages Pre-K to 12th grade. They also offer bilingual English/Spanish options.
The UNESCO Global Education Coalition has a multitude of resources available for after school education. Whether your child wants to learn coding, foreign languages, history, math, music or practically anything else, UNESCO has gathered all the online education platforms for you here. They mostly completely free services, though a few offer a “lite” version for free and an upgrade full version for a price.
Brainfuse is a wonderful program that offers help for grades K-12, as well as test prep for virtually every alphabet soup acronym test there is, as well as professional help for people needing to vet their resume or prepare for a job interview. Many libraries offer free access to Brainfuse if you have a library card (which is free!). Check with your local libraries to see if any of them offer this program.
*This is, of course, a general guide and is not meant to diagnose. If you have concerns about your child’s behavior or development please be sure to speak with a medical professional, your child’s physician or teacher.
References
Reading Performance. “The Condition of Education 2020.” Retrieved April 7, 2021 from: https://nces.ed.gov/programs/coe/pdf/coe_cnb.pdf
Achievement Gaps Dashboard. The Nation’s Report Card. Retrieved April 7, 2021 from: https://www.nationsreportcard.gov/dashboards/achievement_gaps.aspx#
About Positive Discipline: Mission Statement. Positive Discipline. Retrieved April 7, 2021 from: https://www.positivediscipline.com/about-positive-discipline
50 State Comparison. The Education Commission. Retrieved April 7, 2021 from: http://ecs.force.com/mbdata/mbquest2ci?rep=IT1801-2
School Hours: Is there enough to learn? Ed 100. Retrieved April 7, 2021 from: https://ed100.org/lessons/schoolhours#:~:text=Children%20in%20America%2C%20on%20average,and%20more%20in%20higher%20ones.