“Whoever has will be given more, and they will have an abundance. Whoever does not have, even what they have will be taken from them.”—Matthew 13:12.

Reading is foundational for all formal education. A student who reads well usually does well in school, but the child who struggles with reading will invariably fall further behind. Not only does this show in grades: poor reading skills also show up in poor behavior, lower self esteem, and affect future success in life. Because of this, it is important that your child receives an excellent start in reading.

Keith E. Stanovich, Professor of Applied Psychology and Human Development at the University of Toronto, is a researcher on reading and language disabilities. He coined the term “The Matthew Effect” the phenomenon where in reading (as well as other areas of life) “the rich get richer and the poor get poorer.”

Wrightslaw summarizes Stanoviches findings:

“When children fail at early reading and writing, they begin to dislike reading. They read less than their classmates who are stronger readers. And when children with disabilities do not receive adequate remediation, they read less – and learn less from reading – than non-disabled children.

As a consequence, they do not gain vocabulary, background knowledge, and information about how reading material is structured. In short, the word-rich get richer, while the word-poor get poorer.”

This explains why early intervention is essential for poor readers to avoid this downward academic spiral. Beth and I are passionate about helping children learn to read better, and encourage parents to take steps now in helping their students in learning to read effectively and fluently. We, and our students, have found our Academic Associates Reading Program to be very effective in helping students to overcome poor reading habits or disabilities and to become excellent, fluent readers.