Dyslexia Reading Help: The Five Skills Behind Learning To Read

A child struggling to read is usually stuck on one skill, and everything after it waits. Reading research groups what a reader needs into five areas: phonemic awareness, phonics, fluency, vocabulary and comprehension. This page sets them out the way they are taught to a child with dyslexia, with letter and sound work split into its two steps and vocabulary placed with understanding.

Dyslexia is a difficulty with reading and spelling words. It is most often due to trouble processing the sounds of spoken language , not to eyesight or intelligence. That is why the first three skills are where teaching for dyslexia starts, and why the treatment the evidence supports is explicit teaching of the link between sounds and letters.

1. Hearing the sounds in words

Before letters come sounds. A reader has to hear that the spoken word “ship” is three sounds, sh, i and p, and be able to pull them apart and put them back. This is phonemic awareness. It is done with the ears and the mouth, with no print involved, which is why it sits in a speech pathologist’s field.

When this is the weak link: your child finds it hard to say the first or last sound in a word, or to break a short word into its sounds. Ask what “ship” becomes without the “sh” and they are stuck. Rhymes may not come easily. The guide to dyslexia and spoken language explains this skill in full.

2. Linking sounds to letters

Next, each sound is tied to the letter or letters that spell it: first the single letters, then pairs such as sh, ch and ee. This is the alphabetic code, and it is taught in a set order, a few links at a time, with constant review.

What you notice: your child knows a letter one day and not the next, or mixes up letters whose sounds are close. They look at the first letter and guess the rest of the word.

3. Blending sounds into words

Blending is saying the sounds for the letters in order and hearing the word they make. With phonics teaching it is how a child reads a word they have never seen. A child who cannot blend is left to memorise words as shapes, and memory runs out.

What you notice: your child sounds out c, a, t correctly and then says a different word. They read words they have memorised and stop at new ones. Made-up words, such as “vop”, are much harder for them than real ones.

4. Reading fluently

Fluency is reading accurately, at a good pace and with expression. It comes after accuracy, not instead of it. A child who is still working out each word has little attention left for what the sentence means.

What you notice: your child gets the words right, but slowly and one at a time, in a flat voice. A page tires them, and they avoid reading when they can.

5. Understanding what is read

Understanding is the point of reading. It depends on two things at once: reading the words, and knowing what those words and sentences mean. Vocabulary sits here.

What you notice: your child reads a page aloud and cannot tell you what happened in it. Whether that is dyslexia depends on what happens when you read the same page to them, which is covered below.

What does the first assessment look at?

Every child starts with an assessment. Where reading or spelling is the concern it is $890 or $1,290. The first assessment shows which of the five skills are secure and which one teaching starts from. It is not a diagnosis: a formal dyslexia diagnosis is usually made by a psychologist, and a child does not need one to start reading help. What the assessment covers is set out under the first assessment.

How is reading practised by video?

Sessions are by video. Your child and Dr Lauren see and hear each other and look at the same page on a shared screen. Your child reads aloud, so every word is heard, and an error is corrected at the moment it happens. With a young child, a parent takes an active part in every session. Sessions are typically weekly to fortnightly. Your child needs a device with a camera and a microphone, and a quiet place to sit. The steps from application to regular sessions are on how online dyslexia therapy works, and what a parent can do between sessions is in the guide to helping at home.

What is measured, and how is progress reviewed?

Progress in reading is measured, not guessed. The measure matches the skill being taught, and can include:

Skill being taught	What is measured
Sounds in words	How accurately a child splits and blends the sounds of spoken words
Letters and blending	How many taught letter and sound links are known, and how accurately real and made-up words are read
Fluency	Words read correctly in a minute on a passage
Understanding	What a child can retell and answer after reading

Dr Lauren compares these with where your child started at the first assessment and tells you plainly what has moved and what has not. Dyslexia is lifelong, and no one can promise how quickly a child’s reading will change. What the evidence supports, in the words of healthdirect, is that people with dyslexia can improve their reading and spelling skills.

Who teaches your child?

Dr Lauren Crumlish holds a PhD from The University of Queensland, where her thesis received the 2024 Dean’s Award for Outstanding Higher Degree by Research Theses, and she is a Certified Practising Speech Pathologist. She is the only clinician: the person who assesses your child is the person who teaches them, whether a family calls it therapy or reading tutoring. She uses the title Dr because of her PhD and is not a medical practitioner. Read more about Dr Lauren.

Reading and spelling are taught together because they run on the same links between sounds and letters. If written work is the larger worry, see how spelling is taught.

Sources

• Five from Five, The five keys to reading, with its pages on fluency, comprehension and understanding dyslexia
• ASHA Practice Portal, Written Language Disorders
• healthdirect, Dyslexia (last reviewed December 2024)