Reading with Octavia
Assessment-Informed Literacy Services
A guide for parents of struggling readers
by Octavia Burnett, Reading with Octavia
If your child is struggling to read, you've probably already tried something. Extra help at school. A reading app. Maybe a tutor. And if you're reading this, something still feels off.
That instinct matters. There's a difference between a child who needs more practice and a child who needs someone to figure out why reading isn't clicking. This guide helps you tell the difference.
Sign one
Your child has been getting support (a reading group, time with a specialist, extra instruction) but they aren't catching up. The gap between where they are and where their classmates are isn't closing.
This doesn't mean the school isn't trying. It often means the instruction hasn't been matched to the specific reason your child is struggling. Without that match, more practice doesn't lead to more progress.
Sign two
Reading isn't just memorizing words. It requires a set of foundational skills: recognizing sounds in words, connecting those sounds to letters, and blending them together. When those skills are shaky, reading stays slow and effortful no matter how much a child practices.
If your child regularly stumbles on words they've seen many times, or guesses at words based on the first letter, that's a signal worth investigating, not a sign they aren't trying hard enough.
Sign three
Struggling readers often work twice as hard as their peers to get half as far. When reading feels that hard, avoidance is a natural response. If your child resists reading, melts down at homework time, or says things like "I'm stupid" or "I hate reading," that's not a behavior problem. It's exhaustion.
The longer the root cause goes unaddressed, the harder it becomes to rebuild both the skills and the confidence.
Sign four
Tutoring can be helpful, but most tutors provide more practice, not a diagnosis of what's breaking down. If you've worked with a tutor and still don't have a clear answer to "why is my child struggling?", that's not a failure of effort. It's a missing piece.
Understanding the specific cause is what makes the difference between instruction that works and instruction that keeps doing more of the same.
Sign five
Many families spend months or years wondering if their child has dyslexia, without a clear path to answers. A formal diagnosis requires a licensed psychologist and can cost thousands of dollars. But you don't need a diagnosis to start getting help.
A literacy assessment identifies exactly where and why reading is breaking down, and builds a clear plan for what to do about it. It's not a diagnosis. It's a roadmap.
What to do next
Ready to find out what's actually happening?
If any of these signs feel familiar, the right next step is finding out exactly what's happening: not guessing, not waiting, and not adding more of the same instruction on top of an unidentified problem.
A literacy assessment with Reading with Octavia takes about 60 to 90 minutes with your child. I score everything, write a full report, and then we meet to go through it together. You leave with a written plan that tells you exactly what to work on, in what order, and at what intensity.
Get in touch at readingwithoctavia.com
I'll respond within 48 hours.
Reading with Octavia
Assessment-Informed Literacy Services, Founded by Octavia Burnett
This guide is for informational purposes. A literacy assessment is a non-diagnostic instructional assessment. It is not a clinical diagnosis of dyslexia or a learning disability.