reading Archives - Pure Joy Teaching

Why Can My Child Sound Out Words, But Still Struggle to Understand What They Read?

If you are a parent or educator of a child with dyslexia, you may have encountered a puzzling gap: your student can decode words, but their reading fluency is multiple grade levels behind, and their reading comprehension is dangerously low.

When schools focus solely on decoding accuracy as the requirement for extra support, children with fluency and comprehension deficits often get left behind. But science tells us that sounding out words is only the first step—and without automaticity, reading becomes an exhausting mental effort.

The Science: The Working Memory Bottleneck

To understand why a child who can sound out words still struggles to comprehend, we have to look at how the human brain processes information:

Working Memory is Strictly Limited: Cognitive Load Theory shows that our working memory (our conscious “mental workspace”) can only hold roughly 4 to 7 chunks of new information at once.
Labored Decoding Overloads the Brain: When a child has not yet mastered automatic word recognition, sounding out letters requires conscious, step-by-step mental calculation.
The “Memory Decay” Effect: Imagine trying to read a long page of random numbers. You might pronounce every single digit correctly, but by the time you reach the end of the line, your brain has forgotten the numbers at the beginning.

When a child with dyslexia spends all their cognitive energy translating letters into sounds, their working memory reaches cognitive overload. There is simply no mental space left over to organize ideas, connect sentences, or remember what was just read.

How We Bridge the Gap: Offloading Cognitive Strain

The key to helping dyslexic readers transition from labored decoding to true comprehension is reducing extraneous cognitive load—taking the heavy mechanical strain off working memory so the brain can focus on meaning.

Here is how targeted, structured literacy tools make reading easier and more effective:

Visual Picture Mnemonics (Dual Coding): The brain processes visual images and spoken sounds through two separate channels. Embedded picture mnemonics—like turning the vowel team ui into a basket of fruit—give students an immediate visual anchor. Instead of frantically searching their memory for an abstract rule, the visual cue instantly unlocks the sound, saving precious working memory capacity.
“Chunk and Chew” Reading Formats: Long, dense paragraphs overwhelm short-term storage. Decodable comic formats break stories into bite-sized, digestible panels. Asking a child to read a short section and draw the scene forces them to build a mental picture of the story, ensuring they comprehend as they go.
Logical Rules Over Rote Memorization: English spelling can feel full of random “exceptions” that frustrate dyslexic learners. For example, knowing that Final Silent E acts as a guardian because English words do not end in v or u turns confusing words like have or blue into a logical schema. Giving students clear structural rules removes trial-and-error guessing.
Visual Phonics for Tricky Words: Homophones (like there and their) cause major cognitive friction. Embedding subtle visual clues directly into letter shapes—like dressing the letter i in their in a sports uniform to mean “I am on their team”—helps students permanently map word spellings and meanings into long-term memory.

Making Literacy Accessible and Joyful

Dyslexia is not a reflection of a child’s intelligence or effort—it is a working memory challenge. When we provide visual anchors, bite-sized practice, and logical spelling frameworks, we remove the “spelling tax” and free up their minds to discover the true joy of reading.

At Pure Joy Teaching, our structured phonics games, decodable comics, and picture-embedded anchor charts are designed using these exact Science of Reading principles. They give parents and educators simple, no-prep tools that reduce cognitive load and build confident, fluent readers.

Why Some Children Know the Alphabet… But Still Can’t Read

If you have a struggling reader and are looking for more resources to help you help them at home on in the classroom. Here are a few more things that have worked for us. These are not affiliate links, just honest advise.

Nessy has a free spelling Ebook. It is great for students, and they have lots of great videos.

Uncovering the Logic of English, by Author Denise Eide. It is a great book, and she has lots of great videos.

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Reading VS Spelling

Balancing Mastery Between Reading and Spelling

This question is one that I see asked often on Facebook and hear from educators, parents, and homeschoolers. “The student can read, but struggles so hard to spell.”

This ongoing struggle is hard for the student and the educator. Leaving both of them deflated and questioning what to do next. I was that kid. I was that educator. Through those experiences, I found some solutions that have really made a difference for my own spelling and how I work with the students in front of me.

I will lay out the top key points that helped me bridge the reading to spelling mastery for myself and my students. I am not a perfect speller, but I do have a better grasp of why some words are spelled the way they are.

For educators, parents, tutors…

Knowledge

Read the book: Uncovering The Logic of English, by Denise Eide. Or watch some of her videos. Truly, the best spelling rule/pattern advice out there. That I have read. As the educator, you need to understand why some words break the rules. You can explain it to the students and make it easier for them to master spelling.

The kid-friendly spelling version that I love is free from Nessy. Improve your spelling free resource from Nessy.

Letter Sounds

Make sure the sounds are made correctly. Many educators and parents are shocked by the realization that the sound they have been teaching for the letter symbol is making it harder to blend. This video will help 44 phonemes by Rollins Center. Her tip is clip the extra schwa sound at the end of the letter sound. Make sure it is a clear /b/ sound, not “buh.” Occasionally, letter name confusion is an issue.

Vowel Sounds are Important

Every English word must have at least one vowel in it, or a letter that is acting as a vowel, such as tricky Y. Without the vowels, they are just letters and not words. Letters I and A, are words on their own. Vowels have long and short sounds; the consonants do not. So, mastery starts with the knowledge that these five letters, a, e, i, o, u can do special things. Letter Y, is tricky. As the first letter, Y will say its sound. After that, it may act as a vowel, and the sound may depend on the syllable placement.

The origins of words are important to remember; our favorite word, pizza, is not English in its origins. That is why the vowels make different sounds.

Closed and Open Syllables

Open and closed syllables are one of the very first syllables that emergent readers will come across in their reading. Many educators skip over the explanation and just call them High Frequency Words HFW. However, there is an opportunity to teach the students why I say its name “I.” The letter I is an open syllable. When the letter t or n, is next to the letter I, it is now closed.

I – open, In -closed, It – closed

A – open, At – closed

Go – open, Got – closed

It may also be time to teach that letter s, makes the “z” sound sometimes.

Rules VS Patterns

Spelling makes more sense when you can see the patterns. Some people shy away from spelling rules to emergent readers, or only teach the magic E rule. I was in my 40’s before I learned why the words: give, have, love, and done are not affected by the magic E rule. Which is surprising because there is always one student who struggles with this, or reminds me of the rule breaker words. One of the most logical guides or rules is this: English words usually do not end with the letters v, i, j, or u. With that one bit of knowledge, we now have the explanation for why the silent E is at the end of so many words. Think of the letter E as a helper letter.

The V, is pointy. He would fall over without E to hold him up. Nessy Video.

The letters I and U, need a silent E at the end of words: pie, blue.

The letter J, is replaced by the soft G and magic E, in words like page and stage. In addition, after short vowel sounds, DGE does the job of making the “j” sound. hedge, bridge, fudge.

Letter O Schwa Pattern

Schwa sounds with silent E words are often called Heart Words. Come, some, from, done, love, mother. I like to teach them as a pattern of words that have the letter O making the “uh” sound. Nessy has a good video. I add the m. The letter O may make the schwa sound after these letters: v, n, m, th. This is a fun Uno-style-Schwa game for the schwa sound. After we play the game, a spelling test can follow to see if the student has applied the skills. Writing is important for mastery.

Vowel Teams and Spelling Patterns

It is easy to say, “When two vowels go walking, the first one does the talking.” However, that catchy rhyme will not help me choose a spelling pattern.

AI or AY

If we have already learned the rule above about which letters do not like to be at the end of words, we should be closer to figuring out which spelling to use.

Letter I, does not like to be at the end of words. AI would be used at the beginning or in the middle.

Aid, aim,

AY usually will be at the end of a word. Not counting the suffix endings.

say, play,

For other long A spellings like a-e, or ai, that is has a lot to do with homophones like

sail – sale, wail – whale

or words that need a silent E to soften letters C, or G sounds.

race not (rais), and rays is total different word.

page not (paij) because English words do not end with the letter /j/. Silent E is needed to soften the letter G.

How We Correct Matters

No one likes to hear that the spelling is wrong. However, with spelling, you can say, “You have two of those sounds correct.” Now, let’s think about how we can fix this one sound.

In the examples above, the word page was spelled incorrectly. However, the sounds were correct-ish. That is something to point out. AI does say “A,” and it is in the center, which would be good if the target word were pail. The sound is in the correct place, however the letter /j/ can not be at the end of the word. So what are the options? /ge/ or /dge/? We need /ge/ to be magic E and change the vowel A to the long sound.

This may seem like a long explanation, but some students will thrive with an explanation that informs them for future spelling words. Many students are trying to memorize the whole word without applying any spelling tactics.

These mnemonic vowel teams are a tactic that we use in reading intervention. The images are colorful picture-embedded letters, and on the back of the cards have spelling tips and examples of where they can be used in words. Beginning, Middle, End.

Some students like the option of word scrambles. This allows them to see the letter options and put them in the correct order.

Unscramble Words for Intervention

Spelling scope and sequence

Students often need practice with reading and spelling. They can benefit from an opportunity to choose the correct spelling. These self-checking Flip-Chute cards. Let them read and guess which is the correct long A spelling.

a-e, ai, ay, ei, eigh

This is also a great vocabulary builder. The students are choosing the correct spelling pattern, and they are introduced to homophones such as:

tale, tail,

plane, plain,

mane, main

male, mail,

sale, sail,

ate, eight

There are nine card sets in the bundle, and more are on the way.

R-Controlled Uno Game

Thank you so much for taking the time to read about my collection of reading and spelling tactics. If you have made it this far, I would like to share one more freebie for spelling the schwa sound and a silent E helper. Please follow me on Facebook, YouTube, and TPT.

Center Vowel CVC Flip Chute Game

Support early readers with this hands-on Flip Chute CVC game! Students practice short vowel sounds in CVC, CCVC, and CVCC words using self-checking cards that build decoding and confidence.

Simple self-check game for vowel sound practice.

Short vowel sounds are super important for reading and spelling. The targeted CVC game is a great way for students to practice the 5 short vowel sounds.

CVC is one of the first skills to master after learning the letter sounds. However, many students do not realize that every English word must have a vowel or a letter that acts as a vowel, such as the letter Y. Additionally, because of the schwa sound and spelling words with different word origins, many students struggle with the sounds /a/ & /u/, and likewise/e/ & /i/.

This game is a great way to target that middle vowel practice with self-checking cards. It can also help with vocabulary; each card has an image on the front.

This set included ccvc and cvcc words.

Make short vowel practice simple and fun! This Flip Chute CVC game lets students self-check as they learn short vowel sounds and blending skills. Great for centers, intervention, or phonics review.

The Flip Chute is easy to make. Template and instructions are included.

Flip Chute DIY Template

You can get them from the Pure Joy Teaching TPT shop, along with other Flip Chute games. All Flip Chute cards come with the template and instructions to DIY your own Flip Chute box.

Tag: reading