08/24/2026
A mom told me: "She reads to me every night. She's fine."
So I asked her to hand her daughter a book she'd never seen before.
The room got quiet.
Here's what almost nobody tells parents: a child who has memorized a book is not reading it. A child who reads the picture instead of the word is not reading it. And a child who says "horse" when the page says "house" isn't being careless — she's guessing, because guessing is the only strategy anyone gave her.
That works fine in kindergarten. It works okay in first grade. It falls apart in third, when the pictures disappear, and the words get long — and by then everyone has decided the child is the problem.
The child is not the problem.
Check out the 5 signs you need to look for to determine IF your child is guessing instead of decoding. No test, no cost, no appointment. Just you, your kid, and a book they've never opened.
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