If your child is a reluctant, resistant, or struggling reader, you may be wondering what you are going to do this summer to help them move past these ongoing challenges.

We already know that too many children are not learning the basic reading fundamentals they need so that they can read with simplicity and joy.

Dr. G. Reid Lyon, former Chief of the Child Development and Behavior Branch of the National Institute of Child Health and Human Development at the National Institutes for Health, estimates that a lucky five percent of kids seem to read with no effort at all, and another 20-30 percent of students overall learn to read with ease when exposed to any kind of instruction.

He says that for about 60 percent of students, learning to read will be hard work and their success will depend largely on the effectiveness of the instruction. About 20 to 30 percent of students will find reading to be one of the most difficult tasks they have ever encountered. How these children are taught to read is critical to their success.

“Reading is the most important work of childhood and yet as many as one in five children struggle to learn to read, with consequences extending beyond childhood into adult life,” said Sally Shaywitz, MD, the co-director of the Yale Center for the Study of Learning and Attention and the author of the book Overcoming Dyslexia.

Other reputable studies have found even more reading difficulties. Large-scale surveys testing thousands of children annually carried out by the National Assessment of Educational Progress (NAEP) in 1998 showed that 69 percent of fourth graders and 67 percent of eighth graders were reading below proficiency levels. Not only that, but 55 percent of the children of college graduates performed below proficiency levels in eighth grade.

Clearly, there is a problem with reading instruction. So, how do you help your child get ahead this summer? You can start by pinpointing their reading challenges.

We know that it is tempting to hope that your child is a late bloomer who will catch up to the rest of the class with time. But here’s the hard truth - In three separate studies of first graders, it was skill deficits, not developmental lag that prevented kids from reading well.

Ask yourself these questions:

• Does your child have trouble sounding out words when reading?
• Is his or her reading sound choppy because they are guessing at, or missing words?
• Is spelling difficult for your child?
• Does your child have trouble understanding what he or she has just read?
• Does your child have trouble identifying the main idea or remembering details from something just read?

If you answered yes to any of these questions, your child is missing the critical reading strategies they need to become a successful reader.

These strategies are the core components of reading and are sometimes called the “Five Pillars of Reading.” The five pillars are: phonemic awareness, word decoding, vocabulary, fluency, and comprehension. Phonemic awareness is the ability to hear and manipulate the various sounds that make up words (called phonemes). Decoding is matching those sounds to letters. Vocabulary is an understanding of the meaning of words orally and in print. Fluency is the ability to read and comprehend smoothly and rapidly and comprehension is associated with recall.

Here’s the bottom line. Your child can quickly improve their reading fluency, reading comprehension and in the end, their grades this summer. And they can have fun while they learn!

Go here for an online assessment to see where your child needs reading help.