Let’s Stop High-Risk Children Struggling to Read

Reading and Spelling Guidance from Expert Emma Hartnell-Baker

In a recent clip, Rex, the son of Stacey Solomon and Joe Swash, is encouraged to “sound it out” as he struggles with a word.

Stacey is supportive. She is patient. She is doing exactly what she has been told to do.
 

But what if the problem isn’t effort, encouragement, or confidence?

What if the problem is the instructional approach itself?

Joe has spoken openly about being dyslexic. That means Rex may be at higher risk of reading difficulties. Yet even when parents know there is risk, they are rarely told what to do differently. They are often advised to keep practising, to encourage sounding out, and to make sure the child does not feel bad about struggling.
 

Protecting a child’s self-esteem matters.

But preventing the struggle in the first place matters more.

This is why I do what I do.

I am Emma Hartnell-Baker, a dyslexia expert specialising in ensuring neurodivergent and high-risk children learn to read successfully. My work focuses on what actually needs to happen in the brain for reading to become secure, fluent and independent.
 

English is an opaque orthography. It does not work in simple one-to-one sound–letter patterns. Many children can manage this complexity. Many cannot, especially those with dyslexia, speech and language differences, ADHD, autism or other neurodivergent profiles.
 

When we rely only on “sounding it out” without making the structure of the code visible, some children begin to believe they are failing.

They are not failing.

The instruction is incomplete.

Through ShowTheCode.com, I show parents and teachers how to make grapheme–phoneme relationships visible. Instead of guessing or memorising, children learn to map speech sounds to letters accurately and confidently. They are given all the information, and this is withdrawn when they are ready. Not the other way around. We START with giving them support. This builds the orthographic lexicon and supports the self-teaching process that underpins fluent reading and spelling.
 

Even the most supportive parents are not being shown how to adapt instruction for children at higher risk.

If your child is struggling, if dyslexia runs in your family, or if you sense that “just sound it out” is not enough, I can help you understand what’s really happening and what to do next.
 

Let’s stop children struggling.
 

Let’s ensure they read.


Miss Emma
The Neurodivergent Reading Whispwerer ask the Word Mapping Nerd.