What to do when your child gets stuck on a word

When your child gets stuck on a word, wait three to five seconds, then point to the part they missed, say those sounds together, blend the whole word and reread the sentence so it sounds smooth. If it's a tricky word (a common word with a part your child can't sound out yet with what they've been taught, like the ai in said), tell them the word and point to the tricky part.

That's the whole routine, and it's the same every time, which helps at 9pm when nobody has a decision left in them.

The routine, in order

1. Wait three to five seconds. It feels longer to you than to them; that pause is their time to work.
2. Point to the part they missed. Point to where it went wrong, not the whole word. If they read sit as "sat," point to the i. If they said nothing at all, the whole word is the part they missed: slide your finger under it from left to right and say the sounds with them. If you know which part is new to them (the sh, the ai), start there.
3. Say those sounds, then blend. Say the sounds for that part, then run all the sounds together smoothly into the word. That's blending. Keep sounds clean: clip /b/, /t/ and /k/ short (/b/, not "buh"); you can hold sounds like /s/ and /m/ a little ("sssit"). Let your child say them with you.
4. Reread the sentence. Go back to the start so the word lands in place and the sentence sounds smooth, like talking.

For a tricky word, do this instead of steps 2 and 3: say the word, then point to the tricky part.

And praise self-correction. If your child stops and fixes a word on their own, say so: "You looked at the letters again and fixed it."

Five stuck words, with scripts

Four of these are example words from DecodiVerse's reading steps; said is a common tricky word. Sounds sit between slashes and letters are in italics: /ĭ/ is the sound in the middle of sit. A curved mark (/ĭ/) means the short sound; a straight line (/ī/, /ā/) means the vowel says its name. /ĕ/ is the sound in bed.

A short vowel: sit (Kindergarten, Step 1)

A short vowel is the sound each vowel makes in cat, bed, sit, hot and cup. The page says "Dan can sit." Your child reads, "Dan can sat."

• You: (wait, then point to the i) "This part says /ĭ/. Say the sounds with me: /s/ /ĭ/ /t/."
• Child: "Sit."
• You: "Sit. Read the sentence again."
• Child: "Dan can sit."

Two letters, one sound: ship (Kindergarten, Step 4)

Some letter pairs make a single sound. Teachers call these digraphs: sh, ch, th, ck. The page says "Ben hid on the ship." Your child reads, "Ben hid on the sip."

• You: (wait, then sweep your finger under sh) "These two letters work as one sound: /sh/. Now all of it: /sh/ /ĭ/ /p/."
• Child: "Ship."
• You: "Ship. Start the sentence again."

Magic e: bike (Kindergarten, Step 5)

Magic e (also called silent e) is an e at the end of a word that you don't hear. It reaches back over one consonant and makes the vowel say its name, as in bike and cake. The page says "Dad has a red bike." Your child reads, "Dad has a red bik."

• You: (wait, then point to the i, then the e) "See the e on the end? It makes the i say its name: /ī/. /b/ /ī/ /k/."
• Child: "Bike."
• You: "Bike. From the start of the sentence."

A vowel team: rain (Grade 1, Step 3)

A vowel team is two or three letters (like igh) that work together to spell one vowel sound. The page says "The rain fell on the pond." Your child reads, "The ran..." and stops.

• Child: "Wait, that's not right."
• You: "Good checking. Look at the middle." (point to ai) "These two letters team up and say /ā/. /r/ /ā/ /n/."
• Child: "Rain!"
• You: "Rain. You saw it didn't match the letters and looked again. Now the whole sentence."

A tricky word: said

Said is spelled like say with a d, which is exactly why your child read it that way: ai usually says /ā/. Good reading; this word is the exception. So you say the word and point to the tricky part. The page says, "'Run!' said Mom." Your child reads, "Run! Sayed..."

• You: (wait, then point to the word and to the ai) "That word is said. The s and the d say what they usually say, /s/ and /d/. The tricky part is the ai: here it says /ĕ/, like in bed. /s/ /ĕ/ /d/, said. Say it with me."
• Child: "Said."
• You: "Said. Back to the start: 'Run!'"

Longer words work the same way. At Grade 2 the part your child missed may be a chunk, like bit in rabbit: point to it, say /b/ /ĭ/ /t/, then put the parts together: rab, bit, rabbit.

Why we don't use the other prompts

You may have been told to say "look at the picture," "what's the first letter?" or "what would make sense here?" Those prompts help a child guess the word. A guess gets tonight's sentence read but doesn't build the skill a stuck word calls for: working out what the letters say.

The picture is the clearest case. If the illustration shows a ship and the page says ship, a child who says "boat" isn't wrong about the picture. They just haven't read the word. And no drawing can show you said. First letters and sentence meaning have the same limit: they narrow the choices, and then a child is picking from a list instead of reading. Each guess, right or wrong, is also practice at guessing. Pictures still matter: they're for talking about the story once the words are read. (Why children do it: our post on guessing at words.)

The research is about teaching phonics, not the exact words you say at the table, so treat the routine as practical advice that follows from it. The National Reading Panel (2000) found that systematic phonics instruction, meaning phonics taught in a planned order, was more effective than teaching little or no phonics. The IES practice guide on foundational reading skills (2016) recommends teaching students to decode words and rates the evidence strong. A 2001 review in Psychological Science in the Public Interest concluded that mastering the link between letters and sounds is essential to becoming a proficient reader and that methods teaching it directly are more effective than those that don't.

When to just tell them the word

After a real try. If you've been through the sounds once and the word still won't come, or your child's shoulders have dropped, say, "This word is ship." Point under it as you say it, let them say it back, and reread the sentence together. Telling a word isn't failing; it keeps reading something your child wants to do again tomorrow. After the book, come back to that word once and read it again. (See also The Parent's Guide to Reading Together.)

If you teach or tutor

The routine runs the same in a small group. Ask the others to wait quietly while one child works, point on a shared page or the board, and have everyone say the sounds and blend with the reader. Reread the sentence together, then have the reader read it once on their own. Keep your wording identical from adult to adult so children hear one routine.

When to talk to the teacher

One stuck word now and then is ordinary reading. It's worth a conversation if your child is stuck often on words at their level, meaning words made from patterns they've already been taught, or if one kind of word (every sh word, say) stops them night after night. Ask which patterns the class has covered and which your child isn't yet reading smoothly. If the school sent home a screener result, our guide to reading screeners explains what the labels mean.

Check the book too. If your child is stuck on most lines, the text may be above what they've been taught. A decodable book is made mostly of words a child can sound out with the patterns they've been taught, plus a few tricky words taught by their regular and irregular parts; here is the difference.

Try it on a page

For a short page to practice on, Beth and the Egg is a free sample story at the Kindergarten step for two letters that make one sound, built around words like shed and path.

Sources

• National Reading Panel, Teaching Children to Read: An Evidence-Based Assessment of the Scientific Research Literature on Reading and Its Implications for Reading Instruction (summary report) (NICHD, 2000).
• Foorman et al., Foundational Skills to Support Reading for Understanding in Kindergarten Through 3rd Grade (IES What Works Clearinghouse, 2016; revised 2019).
• Rayner et al., How Psychological Science Informs the Teaching of Reading (Psychological Science in the Public Interest, 2001).