One Tired Teacher
One Tired Teacher
OTT 244: How to Help Kids Who Struggle with Reading: 3 Frustrations You CAN Fix
Reading battles don't have to be your nightly reality. Behind every "I hate reading" declaration, focus struggle, or mechanical page-turning lies an opportunity for transformation.
Remember that little girl who proudly announced she hated all books? Two years later, she left my classroom as an enthusiastic reader. What changed wasn't her ability—it was her experience. When children resist reading, they're rarely rejecting stories; they're avoiding feelings of inadequacy or failure. The shift begins when we respond with "I get it, reading can feel hard sometimes" instead of frustration or disappointment.
This episode walks you through practical solutions for three common reading frustrations. For the reluctant reader, we explore how offering choices (graphic novels, joke books, audio books) creates low-pressure wins. For the fidgeter who can't sit still, learn how breaking reading into micro-chunks, allowing intentional movement, and changing environments (reading forts, park visits, trampoline bouncing) can dramatically improve engagement. And for children going through the motions without connection, discover how makerspace thinking transforms passive reading into creative adventures.
The beauty of these approaches lies in their simplicity. You don't need special materials or educational degrees—just a willingness to shift perspectives and prioritize joy. Try tonight's challenges: read anything your child chooses with zero corrections, build a reading fort with a flashlight and snacks, or turn a story into a hands-on project using the free Communication STEM Story Station resource.
Reading struggles aren't roadblocks—they're invitations to try something different. Your child deserves to love books, and you deserve peace at story time. One small change today could spark the reading breakthrough you've been waiting for.
🎁 Grab my FREE Communication STEM Story Station to Bring a Book to life!
👉 https://trina-deboree-teaching-and-learning.kit.com/280adbdf11
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Welcome to One Tired Teacher, episode 244. How to help kids who struggle with reading. Three frustrations you can fix. Does your child say things like I hate reading or give up as soon as the words get hard? Do they lose focus? Do they fidget? Do they seem totally uninterested in books, even ones they picked out themselves? You're not alone and you are not stuck. In this podcast I'm walking you through three of the most common reading frustrations that kids and their parents face and how to gently shift those struggles into confidence-building wins. Hope you stick around.
Speaker 2:Hope to stick around. Welcome to One Tired Teacher, and even though she may need a nap, this teacher is ready to wake up and speak her truth about the trials and treasures of teaching here. She is wide awake. Wait, she's not asleep right now, is she? She is awake, right, okay, from Trina Debery, teaching and Learning. Awake, right, okay, from Trina Debery, teaching and learning your host, trina Debery.
Speaker 1:Hi, I'm Trina Debery, and this is reading readers in the making. In today's video, you're going to learn how to respond to your child when they say I hate reading, without a power struggle. You're going to learn strategies to help improve focus and help keep your child engaged. And you're going to learn how to move from passive reading to active reading active, joyful learning, with a makerspace mindset. So let's get started. So let's deal with frustration number one I hate reading. This is a big one for me, and let me just tell you it's a hard one. Let me tell you this little story first, before we get started, and that is about this little girl that I had. Actually, I didn't have her at first.
Speaker 1:I was teaching second grade and I was at the time I was just doing remediation for second grade in my grade and we had like 13 second graders, so I mean 13 second grade classrooms, so I had a lot of kids that were struggling. Unfortunately um, I mean unfortunately, they're struggling. Not that I had a lot of kids, I loved those kids anyway, so they would come to me throughout the day and we ended up participating in a project with Apple and Full Sail University. It was a project-based learning project and my challenge to my students was how to transform apathy into engagement in reading. So I was going to take these children that were already feeling apathetic about reading and they were going to help figure out how we could transform that thinking. Meanwhile, they were transformed as well. It was really cool. It was a very meta experience and it was very cool. So one of the first things we did was we wanted to gather information. So that's one of the first steps you do in a project-based learning activity you do some research. So we did a survey. We decided to do a survey using our technology, because this was all about also integrating meaningful technology Meaningful and let me just say this was also in 2010 and now we're in 2025. And I don't think we've gotten any better at using technology in the classroom, but that's just another story. All right, so they got their little laptops and they had their survey that they made in Google forms and we went on down to a first kindergarten. We went to a kindergarten classroom and we went to second kindergarteners with my second graders and they interviewed the kindergartners. They had already gone over the questions, they helped create the form, they helped create the questions and they asked the kindergartners how they felt about reading.
Speaker 1:And I will never forget this adorable little girl. And she came out. She was very grumpy. She was a grumpy Gus and she was like I hate reading. And my kids were, like you know, looking at me, my students were looking at me and I'm just smiled and I'm like let them do it, cause that's what you do. You let them do it and they and they're like you know why do you hate reading? Um, do you like this kind of book? No, do you like that kind of book? No. Do you like any kind of books? No, I don't like reading. So, and she's like, and basically nothing's going to convince me to like reading.
Speaker 1:And I remember thinking, right then and there, that I was going to get that child in second grade. I just knew it. And guess what I did? I got that child. Two years later, I got that child in second grade and I am happy to say that she does not hate reading and that she left my classroom loving to read. That was my goal, that was my challenge to myself, that was my determination and that's what happened. But boy, was she a tough nut to crack.
Speaker 1:So when you hear things like that, when you hear kids say things like I hate reading, it usually means something deeper, usually means this is hard or I'm afraid to mess up, or reading makes me feel like I'm not good enough, and that's how I felt when I was little and I struggled with reading. That it meant that I wasn't good enough and actually I held on to that for a lot of my life and that's really sad. We don't want that for kids. It's not about the book, it's about the feeling of failure that often hides behind it. So let's talk about you know, that's the problem. That's what the problem is. It's more than the book, it's more than hating reading. It's the feeling of failure. So let's talk about the fix for that.
Speaker 1:What can we try instead? So one of the first things that we can do is we can empathize. We can empathize with this feeling Instead of judging it or getting frustrated by it. We can muster all of our self-control as adults, which is often hard, and we can say I get it. Reading can feel really hard sometimes. Let's figure out how to do this together, how to make this more fun, how to make this more meaningful, how to make this better for you. So that's that's where we can start.
Speaker 1:Another thing that we can do is we can offer choices that feel like wins for kids. So things like graphic novels, audio books, joke books or Evelyn wordless picture books can reignite interest. And that's where we need to start is igniting interest. So let reading mean more than just decoding words, because it isn't just about decoding words. It's about gathering meaning, it's about making connection, it's about learning, it's about moving forward. It's about so much more than just decoding words. So let's remember that. It also means storytelling, listening or sharing ideas. So that's one thing that we can do. We can reignite interest by offering choice. We can make it a more joyful experience. We can try reading picnics, flashlight reading or even turning reading into a performance with silly voices.
Speaker 1:Remember, the key is to spark interest. We're going to get them to the books that we know they need to read or that they might have to read, but we're going to do that by helping them love to read. That's the gateway, the love of reading. That's the thing that matters the most. All right, so let's talk about something that you could try tonight, and it's a small win challenge Let your child pick any book they want and read it together With zero, zero correction, zero time limits. It's all about having fun and joyful.
Speaker 1:Now I know what you're thinking. It's not just about having fun. We're going to get there. We're going to get to where we need to go, but this is how we have to start the journey and if we mess this up, we're not going to get where we need to go. Or if we do, it's going to be a battle, a long, uncomfortable, painful battle. All right, so if you've heard anything you like, definitely give me a thumbs up. I'm a words of affirmation kind of girl. I need to know I'm on the right track. Let me know how you feel. All right, let's move on to frustration number two, which is not tech-free reading hacks. So that is a mistake. But we're going to move on to frustration number two, which is they can't seem to focus enough to read. That is a story of my son's life.
Speaker 1:That might even be the story of my life, but it's definitely the story of my son Jackson's life. Focusing sitting, still, that was not his thing. And let me tell you why this can feel so hard for kids. So some kids, they can't still sit still for 10 seconds, let alone 10 pages. And when you've already, when you're already tired and you're at the end of the day which is most of the time when we get a chance to get to reading they, they feel like you're and you feel like you're trying to make it through the book, make it through the reading. It becomes another nightly battle. It becomes something that nobody looks forward to Not you, not your child, nobody. That doesn't feel good and that leaves a lasting impression. That's what we associate reading with. That's not what we want. So let's talk about how to fix that, all right. So what to try instead? We're going to break reading into micro chunks, so we're going to just read one paragraph at a time, or one page at a time, and we're going to stop to move. We're going to stop to talk. We might even stop to play. We might even start stop to build. We might even stop to fid. We might even start stop to build. We might even stop to fidget. That's okay because, remember, we're sparking interest, all right.
Speaker 1:Another thing is actually letting them fidget with intention. I know these little spinners. Things made teachers insane and they maybe even made parents insane, but they actually help kids. And this isn't the only thing. There's like stress balls. There's a wiggle cushion. Wiggle cushion there's acquired sensory object while they listen or while they while they read or while they listen. Movement helps many kids stay focused, not distracted. It might look like they're distracted because they're messing around, but they're listening and information is going inside. And we might not understand that because maybe we're not like that. I actually do understand that because I am like that. I need to fidget. I'm a fidgeter, but I'm taking in information. It's allowing me me fidgeting with this is letting me take in information. So we have to remember that we're not all the same and just because it doesn't work for us doesn't mean it's not working for them. So that's one thing.
Speaker 1:Another thing to do is change the environment. I've said this so many times, but reading while jumping on a mini trampoline, swinging, walking around the house, reading at the park, reading in a fort all those things they change the environment, they reset the brain. Happy, positive connections that's what we're looking for. All right, so try this tonight. Build a reading fort. Invite your child in with a flashlight and a book and a favorite snack. Make it an invitation, not a requirement. Invite them in See what little bit of a difference that makes. All right, If you like this, let me know. Let me know. Give me a thumbs up. I need some thumbs up. I need to know. Yes, yes, trina, I need more information, and if you feel like you've heard something today that you know someone else needs, because you guys have been talking about how hard it is and how the reading battles are dragging you down, share this with a friend. Somebody else might need to hear the same information.
Speaker 1:All right, let's move on to frustration number three, which is they're just going through the motions. This one can be true even for kids that aren't struggling or aren't necessarily reluctant readers. It might be more for just our everyday readers, who we think are fine, they're not having a reading problem, but they're kind of just going through the motions. Let's talk about the problem here. So if they're decoding words without understanding, or they're reading without really caring about it, this is still a problem. Let me tell you first of all that.
Speaker 1:Let me tell you first of all a story about guessing, because guessing has gotten a lot of heat from the people, from the science of reading, people who are like you've been sold a story, who have acted like we've been teaching reading terribly all these. All these years. Reading has been criticized and put down for so long. It feels like I've never remember us ever saying that our reading scores were good or that reading was going well. The interesting part is that those scores are coming from a company that wants you to spend more money on the company, so that's part of it. The other part is those people that are telling us a story or sold us a story are now telling us about the story.
Speaker 1:It feels a little manipulative to me because some of the things they're saying, such as we didn't care about phonemic awareness, we didn't care about phonics that's not true. We care about phonemic awareness, we cared about phonics, we cared about phonological awareness, which is the encompassing of both of those, and we never told kids to just guess. That's such a tiny piece of truth manipulated into something that it isn't. So if we told kids to guess, if we said guess is a strategy, because some people think that guess is a strategy. It wasn't just guess willy-nilly, it was guess intentionally. It was guess intentionally. And this is what I mean. Guessing just randomly is not a strategy. Guessing but asking yourself does that word look right, does that word sound right and does that word make sense, is intentionally guessing. That actually is a strategy.
Speaker 1:I'm looking at the word, so I have to use my phonics and decoding skills. I'm listening to how it sounds, which means I'm using my grammatical skills. I'm using like syntax, I'm trying to make sure it makes it sounds right. And then I'm asking myself does it make sense? Because I'm using meaning, I'm using comprehension, because if it doesn't make sense or it doesn't look right or it doesn't sound right, then I'm gonna have to move on to another possible guess. Do you see the difference? So there is a difference. Just wanted to put that out there.
Speaker 1:But let's talk about why just going through the motions is a problem. Kids who decode words mechanically but they don't engage with the meaning. They often feel like reading is something that they're doing to get through, not something that they're connecting with. Kids that are just reading because they are told they have to read and they get out a book and they read, but it doesn't mean anything to them. They're also losing connection and they might even be losing meaning, and that's sad, especially if we want them to go beyond our, our wall, our four walls. We want, we want more for them in life. A lot of that requires reading, especially if you want to go to college or you want to go in that direction. There's a lot of reading, so let's love it instead of hating it. All right, let's talk about how we can fix that. That was a little bit of a tangent, sorry, couldn't help myself. All right, what are we going to try instead? So we're going to try makerspace, thinking Like, instead of just ending with a story, let's go beyond the story.
Speaker 1:Let's ask what we can build, what we can make, what we can create after reading this. This is my example from Diary of a Worm. It like how would we help Worm record his thoughts without his hands, because he doesn't have hands? Worms don't have hands or feet. Let's invent a device. Let's draw it, let's build it from straws and Play-Doh. So this is just one sample, and I actually have this freebie right here. Can you see it? Whoops, I'm like dyslexic, so that's backwards for me. Can you see that? So you are going to grab it in the description below this video. It's a little freebie. It goes with Diary of a Worm. You don't have to use this challenge. You can use the think sheets with any story, but this challenge is also really fun.
Speaker 1:Another thing that we can try is letting our children become the story. Letting them become the story, act it out, change the ending, create a sequel together. This turns comprehension into creation, which is far more exciting than just answering questions. So try this tonight. Try using this free communication STEM story station and turn your child's next book into a hands-on adventure. You can download it in the descriptions below.
Speaker 1:Like I hate reading decoding, frustration, short attention spans, lack of focus, indifference. They don't have to be roadblocks. They can be invitations to shift, to soften and just to try something different. You've got this and I've got you. So try one of these simple shifts today and watch what happens when your child experiences a reading win. And don't forget to grab my free communication STEM story station below and, like anything that you've heard, definitely give me a thumbs up. I'd love if you share this video and subscribe for more Meaningful, joyful Strategies every week, because your child deserves to love books and you deserve peace at story time. Together, you and I can create joyful, confident readers, readers in the making, one page at a time. Bye for now.