Why some children fall behind in reading despite trying their best.

Every term I meet children who are trying their very best to read, and still falling behind. It’s not because they aren’t motivated or capable. It’s because something deeper is being missed: their sensitivity to rhythm. In this post I’m going to share why rhythm is the missing link in reading development, and how we can use it to help every child thrive.

The hidden link between rhythm, language processing and reading development

So, let’s take a closer look at what’s really going on when children struggle with reading, even when they’re giving it their all. I’ll walk you through what the research tells us about rhythm, language and learning, and then I’ll share how we’ve been developing our own insights in the Rhythm for Reading programme so that we can learn more about the way that children make real, measurable progress in phonemic awareness, reading fluency and comprehension.

Why reading gaps widen: Cognitive load, attention and executive function

We know that gaps in reading attainment tend to grow wider over time. The data from the National Literacy Trust showed this year that reading for pleasure is at an all time low. I am not going to analyze the multilayered picture that these data paint as so many factors could and probably do make a difference.

Many primary schools do not have their own libraries and many municipal libraries have also closed. More children now live in poverty, than in living memory. And so, there are limited resources for using public transport to visit the nearest library on a regular basis.

People spend more time on mobile devices and less time engaging with each other in person, so this might also limit the amount of time that parents and children actually spend on reading books together.

Children who struggle with reading, are usually very motivated. They do try very hard and their parents are often doing their very best to help them. And still, despite these efforts, and even with a brand new teacher every September who believes they really can do it, the result is the same. Their efforts do not translate into visible progress and these children fall further behind month by month, year after year.

It’s frustrating because everyone is doing their best. It’s also a situation that begins with false hope and eventually spirals into disappointment, shame and feelings of inadequacy.

By contrast, the children who have always found reading to be straightforward, grow up knowing that they are the clever ones on the fast track to success.

How rhythm strengthens phonemic awareness through predictive processing.

When we think about reading difficulties, we often focus on phonics, vocabulary or comprehension. But there’s another layer that’s just as important and it’s rhythm. Research has shown that children who are sensitive to rhythm are also more sensitive to the smallest sounds of language known as phonemes. This sensitivity helps them decode words more easily and with automaticity, the essential ingredient for reading fluency.

The fascinating part is that rhythm isn’t just about music. It’s an important aspect of how our brains process language. Every conversation, every phrase and sentence that we speak has it’s own rhythm. When children miss out on those patterns early in life, it can affect how they process language later on. That’s why in the Rhythm for Reading programme, we use music to help children connect with those patterns and strengthen their reading foundations.

What happens in a session: The cognitive science behind the method

In the first five minutes, children learn to read simple musical notation. It’s quick, it’s fun, and it gives them a fresh way to experience reading without the pressure of letters and words. It's because musical notation uses rhythm and pattern, that it can help children to focus, to listen and to respond together as a group.

Each ten minute session is built around specially composed music that holds their attention and helps them to synchronize with one another. As they move, clap and read the rhythms together they’re strengthening three core executive functions: working memory, inhibitory control and cognitive flexibility. These core executive functions are essential for reading and learning across the curriculum.

Over the ten weeks we gradually increase the complexity, layering in new rhythms and patterns that challenge the children just enough to keep them engaged. And what’s so lovely, is seeing their confidence grow as they realize they can do it. By the end of the programme, they’re not just reading more fluently, they’re interacting more flexibly with each other, and finally feeling proud of their progress.

Understanding entrainment: How group rhythm strengthens executive functions

In Rhythm for Reading we work with children in small groups. We are able to support the three core executive functions of inhibitory control working memory and cognitive flexibility, and we do this whilst building the children’s sensitivity to rhythm by using a mechanism called ‘entrainment’.

In case you are unfamiliar with this term, ‘entrainment’ is a natural phenomenon that governs biological systems on a large scale such as our sleep-wake cycle, down to the minute cellular clocks that are governed by single strands of protein in every cell of our bodies. There’s also a social aspect to entrainment, which can be seen in the way people synchronize their behaviour in large groups - such as in a sports stadium or when marching in military drill exercises or when dancing in the corps de ballet.

This is why conversational turns that take place between an infant and their ‘caregiver’, (usually their parents) have a biological dimension. For example if conversations tend to be short, abrupt and quite functional, then this is the information that is imprinted. Longer, more lyrical and flowing conversations are going to imprint in a more nuanced and sensitive way. It’s that simple.

Why early auditory imprinting isn’t the whole story and how rhythm compensates.

One point that often gets overlooked in discussions about reading difficulties is the role of early auditory imprinting. During early infancy, the brain undergoes a process called neural pruning, where it strengthens the phonemic categories it hears regularly and gradually reduces sensitivity to those it doesn’t. This is why children develop sensitivity to the phonemes specific to their home environment and this process is usually completed by the age of five.

For some children, certain phonemes remain ‘fuzzy’ and ambiguous and are easily conflated with other sounds, but this point is interesting. Although this ‘window’ of mother tongue language acquisition does not re-open later in childhood, it is still possible for children to make sense of those sounds and to do so using a different mechanism altogether: predictive processing.

Infants use predictive processing to infer where the boundaries between syllables are and to detect the frequencies of the sounds of these syllables relative to their context. Stress timing and the lengths of syllables help prime grammatical structures and meaning is inferred when the nuances of temporal prediction, stress patterns, syllable timing, contextual cues corroborate each other. Perception, whether visual, haptic or auditory is a multilayered process in which predictive cues and sensory cues merge.

Rhythm doesn’t restore ‘lost’ phonemes. Instead, it sharpens the mechanism by which perception detects the edges of phonemes and syllables. This type of clarity improves the segmentation of speech and reduces errors made by weak prediction or guesswork during reading.

In other words, rhythm provides the scaffolding that makes meaning accessible even when phonemic sensitivity is incomplete. And this is why we use music, not spoken language in the Rhythm for Reading programme. Rhythm recalibrates how children experience the flow of language itself. This is why children who struggled for years can suddenly begin to read with ease, fluency and delight - not because their ears have changed, but because their sensitivity to rhythm finally supports their understanding.

Real classroom impact: How strengthening rhythm transforms reading fluency and confidence

By the end of each term, I see children who struggled to read, volunteering to read aloud with their friends. Their teachers tell me how their confidence has grown, how they’re more focussed in class and how they’re finally enjoying reading. It’s such a joy to witness this transformation, from frustration to relief actually and pride, and the contrast between falling behind and catching-up.

How to support lower attaining readers in the new term

Decades of research show that rhythm is connected to language, learning and even our sense of belonging. When we strengthen rhythm, we strengthen the whole child, including their focus, their fluency and their confidence.

Join Rhythm for Reading Online CPD: Rebuild the core of reading

If you’d like your pupils to start the new term on a programme that will rebuild the cognitive foundations they need for reading well, you can explore the next intake of the Rhythm for Reading programme.

You can find all the details in this link.