Where reading breaks down, and how we help
The pattern matters more than the grade level. These are the readers we work with most.
01
Decoding gaps: sounding out is slow or guessy (K to 3)
What it looks like: Your child guesses words from the first letter or the picture, stumbles on new words, and avoids reading aloud. Spelling looks random. The teacher may have mentioned phonics or a screening result.
How our tutors help: Our tutors use structured, explicit phonics work: sound-letter patterns taught in a logical sequence with plenty of review. Short daily wins, a decoded word, a readable sentence, rebuild the confidence that guessing eroded.
02
The fluency plateau (grades 2 to 4)
What it looks like: Reading is accurate but slow and flat, one word at a time. By the end of a paragraph your child has forgotten the beginning, because all their effort went into the words themselves.
How our tutors help: Fluency grows with guided repeated reading: the tutor models phrasing, the student rereads short passages until they sound like talking, and expression gets explicit attention. As reading smooths out, comprehension usually rises with it.
03
Comprehension: reads every word, retains nothing
What it looks like: Decoding is fine, but questions about the chapter draw a blank. Summaries retell random details. Inference questions, what the character felt, why the author wrote it, feel unanswerable.
How our tutors help: We teach comprehension as visible strategies: predicting, questioning while reading, summarizing in your own words, and finding evidence for answers. These are the exact skills NJSLA ELA passages test from grade 3 up.
04
The reluctant reader
What it looks like: Your child can read, they just will not. Every reading log is a battle, and screens win every time. You worry the gap between them and their classmates is quietly growing.
How our tutors help: Our tutors win reluctant readers over with choice and success: books matched to real interests at a level that feels easy, then a gradual ramp. A patient adult who talks about books like they matter is often the missing ingredient.
05
When it might be more than a phase
What it looks like: Reading has been hard since the start despite strong effort and good teaching. Letter reversals persist, rhyming was late, and a parent or sibling struggled the same way.
How our tutors help: Some of our tutors have deep experience with struggling readers and structured literacy approaches, and we match those families deliberately. We will also be honest when a formal evaluation is worth pursuing, and we coordinate with what the school is already doing. See our learning disability tutoring page for how that works.
