A joyful revolution: Using rhythm to reignite reading

According to new UK Government figures for the 23-24 academic year, children as young as six have been permanently excluded from school and of course they don’t even know how to read properly. With nearly 10, 000 suspensions, too many young people and children are sitting at home, alone, just scrolling on their phones. On the other hand, the Department for Education has announced that 2026 is to be a National Year of Reading. A reinvestment in children’s reading is exactly what is needed right now.

Whilst these figures are really shocking in terms of the impact on young lives, they also point to the teachers’ experiences. Teachers work very hard every single day with the same students and they deserve to do so in a safe and respectful working environment.

A question every 10 seconds

In a piece of research set in the US system, teachers working with children with emotional and / or behavioral disorders were more likely to leave their role when resources were low and the workload was high. Challenging and aggressive behaviors were a main issue and would lead to difficult situations. These students needed to receive positive reinforcement of positive behaviour from the teachers. They also benefited from a teaching technique which provides quick fire opportunities to respond to questions at a rate of one every ten seconds, and once again to receive positive feedback from the teacher. This technique is known as OTR, but this is an ideal scenario that requires a lot of planning and is difficult to sustain.

I know that we are all looking forward to every primary school having its own library of wonderful books, but a chasm exists between hushed world of undisturbed reading, and the disruptive behaviour that leads to rising levels of permanent school exclusions, and suspensions. And all of this is set against the backdrop of the social media drenched realities of screen addiction and the competitive nature of playing popular fast-paced video games.

Is the fragmenting effect of screen culture on the children’s attention our greatest challenge?

Ten years ago I worked with Year 8 boys who thought that the original music written for Rhythm for Reading was very similar to music in the games that they loved to play. At the beginning of a Rhythm for Reading session most of them had an attention span of six seconds, but some could only focus for two seconds. I explained to them that each line of musical notation on the board would take them ten seconds to read in sync with the music. They understood the challenge that I had thrown down for them and were keen to make their attention last to the end of the first line. I challenged them to go further, saying that five year olds could keep going for 20 seconds. Unfortunately, they were unable to sustain their attention for this long.

During each weekly session there was clear progress. I was encouraged to see them try to build their focus up to 10, 15 and sometimes even 20 seconds and I always hoped to develop this further with them, but week after week we always went back to the same baseline of six seconds of focused attention. It seemed that the robust effect of Rhythm for Reading was being drowned out by the video games they played together during the week. I shared my hunch about the video games with these boys. A small group of them agreed that they would stop playing and give themselves a chance to experience benefits of Rhythm for Reading. It was obvious from that point forward which boys were still using the games and those who had stopped. I received beautiful feedback at the end of the programme from the boys who had managed to quit gaming. They’d moved out of the bottom sets and were getting back on track. They had also started to learn to play musical instruments and wanted to take GCSE Music.

The rhythm of learning is powerful and dynamic

This experience showed me that the rhythm of learning is powerful and dynamic. We can use rhythm to shrink the attention system into tiny slices of time that are rewarded by digital symbols, or we can use rhythm to expand our attention to such an extent that reading in a library can become intrinsically rewarding and a joyful experience.

In my opinion, a weekly session of ten minutes of Rhythm for Reading is just enough to activate the benefits of a powerful rhythm-based reset, whereas a daily dose of rhythm-based learning through a game can overstimulate the reward system and throw it off balance.

If this system is off-balance, it needs to recover through a structured hierarchy of rewards, such as the opportunities to respond OTR technique that I mentioned earlier. This technique can extend the attention system and also bring the child back into more positive relationship with teachers.

An ancient learning pathway

Like the OTR technique, a structured rhythm-based system, such as Rhythm for Reading can rebuild the attention system so that children can look forward to reading, playing music, dancing, singing, drama and sport. And this is an ancient learning pathway. For millennia, humans have utilized rhythm, chanting, singing and dancing to overcome the disruptive and traumatic effect of facing down existential threats and predators. We really don’t need to reinvent the wheel - let’s simply lean into our powerful neurobiology.

The UK Government’s new data on permanent exclusions and suspensions suggest that either behaviour has deteriorated or that schools have changed their thresholds and are adopting more of a zero tolerance policy towards non-compliance. It is clear that a large number of children fall into these categories even before they are six years of age. Secondary pupils are four times more likely to be suspended than are children at primary school. Poor impulse control, and inability to access executive functions, if not addressed early on, do become more problematic. This may be one reason we see a deterioration with increasing age. These children fall further behind their peers and are increasingly unable to access the curriculum term by term. And secondary schools amplify the differences in children’s academic attainment through setting.

An anchor for social safety

Children are even more at risk of being permanently excluded or suspended if they are eligible for free school meals, or need support with special educational needs or recognition of neurodiversity.

In working with Rhythm for Reading in special schools I have had the honor of supporting many neurodiverse children and young people and their teachers. Therapeutic approaches have helped neurodiverse children and children with special educational needs. Some people confuse Rhythm for Reading with music therapy. The essence of Rhythm for Reading is that it is about everyone joining in. It’s structured but it leads on fun and playfulness and actually only needs ten minutes of input per week. The structured elements of the programme do offer a metaphorical ‘anchor’ for social safety and yes, this might appear therapeutic.

Summary

We can think of rhythm as an invisible container for sound. Rhythm is invisible, but it is experienced as a structure that offers repetition and pattern and builds up a feeling of expectancy and likelihood. Setting up a sensory framework in sound is not only calming but also lightens the predictive load and can make a difference to attention, especially for sensitive children and young people.

So, if we want to move the needle on cognitive attention so that 2026 can be an inclusive and fabulous National Year of Reading, then we will need to limber up! I can’t wait to get involved as we prepare for 2026!

For further information, contact me here. To help your child with an addiction of any kind, contact your GP as soon as possible.

Join my live webinar: 3 Phases of addiction in childhood: A teacher's perspective here.

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REFERENCE

Criss, C. J., Konrad, M., Alber-Morgan, S. R., Brock, M. E., & Harris, A. B. (2023). Using Performance Feedback With and Without Goal Setting on Teachers’ Classroom Management Skills. Behavioral Disorders, 49(2), 91-105. https://doi.org/10.1177/01987429231201096 (Original work published 2024)