My daughter turned 7 in June and has just entered 1st Grade. We have switched schools this year from private, to public. After back-to-school night, I found out that my daughter’s reading is not good enough for first grade. Should we be concerned if she is reading very slowly? She seems to have problems blending sounds as well. We spent at least 45 min. per day reading in hopes for her to catch up.

Yes, you should be a bit concerned. Now is the time to teach or re-teach to her the basics of alphabet letters and sounds and how they blend into simple phonetic words and how those words go together to form sentences and books. Waiting until she’s in second grade and still can’t read just prolongs the problem. This is the year to teach her how to read well, and there are many helps out there for you.

Begin by discussing with her teacher what programs she is learning in school, what helps there are for her there and what you can do to help reinforce at home what she is learning at school. Then, in addition, you may need to supplement her reading education with programs to ensure that her reading foundation is solid and that she is confident in her reading abilities. Keep in mind that she’s young and that working for long periods of time usually isn’t as productive as working for short periods of time, but more frequent sessions. Best of luck to you.