Why Your Child Is Still Struggling After Tutoring (And How to Finally Find the Root Cause)
You did everything you were told to do. You got an IEP or 504, hired an Orton‑Gillingham (OG) tutor, followed school recommendations—and your child is still behind in reading. It is confusing and exhausting, and it can start to feel like maybe nothing will ever work.
The truth is, this is not your fault. You followed the best advice you had. When tutoring doesn’t move the needle, the problem is usually that no one has found the real root cause of your child’s reading difficulty yet, or given enough of the right kind of practice.
Tutoring vs. Root‑Cause Reading Therapy
Most traditional dyslexia tutoring reviews schoolwork or follows a set OG‑style program in order from start to finish. That can help some kids, but it often misses the exact skills that are keeping your child stuck.
Root‑cause reading therapy works differently. It starts by identifying the specific sound‑to‑print skills that never fully clicked and then rebuilds them step by step with a clear home plan. More practice of the same things that have not worked is just frustration; more practice of the exact skills your child needs is what finally creates progress.
Five Common Reasons Tutoring Stalls
If your child made some early gains and then hit a wall, one or more of these is usually in play.
Wrong focus
Your child “knows the phonics rules” in theory, but cannot use them when reading real sentences and books. They still guess or freeze on new words.Too little intensity
One or two tutoring sessions per week with no clear home routine is rarely enough for a child who is years behind. Progress needs frequent, bite‑sized practice across the week.One‑size‑fits‑all programs
Many boxed reading and OG programs move forward even if a child is still shaky on phonemic awareness, orthographic mapping, or automatic word retrieval. What your child actually needs may not match “page 47 of the manual.”Fluency and stamina ignored
Decoding looks okay in lessons, but real‑book reading stays slow, choppy, and exhausting. Fluency and stamina need their own targeted work, not just more worksheets.No course‑correction when progress stalls
Months or even years go by with the same plan, even when your child’s accuracy and speed barely change. Families are told “it just takes time,” when research shows progress comes much faster once the right skills are targeted.
What “Root Cause” Really Means (In Parent Language)
“Root cause” sounds technical, but it boils down to a few key questions:
Can your child hear and pull apart sounds in words clearly (phonemic awareness)?
Can they link those sounds to letters automatically so words feel familiar instead of brand‑new every time (sound‑to‑print / orthographic mapping)?
Can they tackle longer, multi‑syllable words without guessing or skipping parts?
When those pieces are weak, the reading pathway is shaky. Root‑cause therapy rebuilds the path the brain actually uses:
Speech → Sounds → Letters → Words → Meaning
Quick Checklist: Does Your Child Need Something Different?
You may need a new plan if you see several of these:
Still guessing a lot on long or new words.
Reads “okay” in lessons but falls apart with real books at home or in class.
Spelling does not match what they have supposedly “learned.”
Progress is tiny or flat after a full semester (or more) of tutoring.
If you are nodding yes to several of these, your child probably needs different targets and more precise support, not just more of the same tutoring.
What to Do Next
You have a couple of low‑pressure ways to get clarity and support.
1. Free at‑Home Clarity Step
Start with a free 5‑minute Reading Root‑Cause Checklist. It helps you spot patterns in your child’s reading and see which skills are most likely keeping them stuck—and what to focus on first at home.
Download the free Reading Root‑Cause Checklist
2. Personalized Help for Your Child
If you want guidance that is tailored to your child, you can book a Free Reading Clarity Call. We will look at your child’s history, what you have already tried (including OG and tutoring), and whether my 12‑week 1:1 online reading therapy or the Reading Clarity Membership is the better next step for your family.
Book a Free Reading Clarity Call
A stalled child is not a hopeless child. Once you understand the root cause and match instruction to your child’s real needs, reading can start moving again—often faster than you have been told to expect.
www.blossomingskillsreadingtherapy.net
