Your child has had phonics help. They know the rules. They sound things out — slowly, haltingly — and still stumble on words they have seen before. More phonics drill has not moved the needle. That experience is more common than most schools acknowledge, and it points to something a phonics worksheet cannot fix: reading draws on multiple processing systems, and the bottleneck is not always the one everyone treats first. A private school in Louisville, Kentucky that has worked with students with dyslexia and ADHD for over 55 years has built its reading classes around rhythmic chanting of word families and phonetic patterns — and the reason it works for stuck readers is not magic. It is which system the rhythm actually reaches.
A Louisville school that has worked with students with dyslexia and ADHD for over 55 years uses rhythmic chanting of word families in reading class. Here is what the science says about why that approach reaches stuck readers — and what parents can ask to find out if their child needs it.
Common questions
What is rhythmic chanting as a reading technique?
My child has been through phonics instruction and is still stuck. Could auditory processing be part of the issue?
Does my child need to attend a specialist school for multisensory reading instruction?
Should I get my child evaluated for auditory processing or dyslexia?
Louisville's de Paul School chants word families in reading class and gets results. Why? Rhythm hits the auditory processing system that phonics worksheets leave idle. For stuck readers, that's the whole game.
What de Paul School Does Differently in Reading Class
The de Paul School, a K-8 private school at 1925 Duker Avenue in Louisville, Kentucky, serves students with language-based learning differences including dyslexia, ADHD, and central auditory processing disorder. Founded more than 55 years ago, the school uses what it calls the Alphabetic-Phonetic Structured Linguistics curriculum — an Orton-Gillingham-based approach — organized around five pillars: Structure, Attention-Based Instruction, Multisensory Instruction, Practice-Rich Instruction, and Explicit Instruction. Every academic teacher completes over 100 hours of professional development in the Science of Reading each year.
The Courier-Journal reported that de Paul classrooms for 4th and 5th graders with dyslexia and ADHD have been using rhythmic chanting of word families and phonetic patterns as a classroom-based reading intervention to improve decoding and fluency. On its surface, this is a method that looks simple — almost old-fashioned. Underneath it is a deliberate choice about which brain systems to engage.
Why Rhythm Reaches What Worksheets Leave Behind
Most phonics instruction asks a child to look at a letter pattern, apply a rule, and produce a sound. That instruction is visual and verbal — it engages the eye and the rule-recall system. For children whose reading bottleneck lies in auditory processing — specifically, the ability to discriminate sounds, sequence them, and hold them in working memory — that visual drill leaves the stuck system untouched. Rhythm changes the equation. Chanting a word family aloud to a steady beat adds the auditory processing channel: the ear must sequence and pattern sounds in real time. For the child whose auditory discrimination and sound sequencing are the actual barrier, rhythm is not a supplement — it is targeting the system that has been blocking progress all along.
The science supports this direction. A randomized controlled trial published in Scientific Reports in May 2025 (Cohen et al.) tested Mila-Learn — a cognitive and rhythmic training program — against a placebo game in 151 children aged 7 to 11 with reading disorders. Children in the rhythm-training group showed significantly better 2-minute word-reading accuracy and speed in the per-protocol analysis, with advantages of over five score points on each measure. More broadly, a 2021 meta-analysis of 25 studies published in Exceptional Children confirmed that auditory-integrated, Orton-Gillingham-based interventions produce significant gains in word reading, decoding, and spelling.
The International Dyslexia Association’s 2025 definition update made this multi-system picture official: dyslexia causes involve combinations of neurobiological and environmental influences, not a single phonological bottleneck. Reading draws on auditory processing, visual processing, working memory, and processing speed. Phonics is necessary — as the KB makes clear, it is never sufficient. Treat it like the whole answer and you get a child who sounds out words and still cannot read. The system-level villain is instruction that never asks: for this specific child, which processing channel is the actual bottleneck?
Key takeaways
- Rhythm activates the auditory processing system phonics worksheets leave idle: For many kids with dyslexia, the reading bottleneck is auditory — sound discrimination, sequencing, and working memory — not just the visual phonics rules they have already been drilled on.
- A 2025 randomized trial found rhythm training improved word-reading speed and accuracy in children with dyslexia: Cohen et al. (Scientific Reports, 2025) showed that rhythmic cognitive training produced significant gains in real-word reading performance compared to a matched control condition.
- Phonics is necessary but never the whole answer: The IDA's 2025 definition confirms reading draws on multiple brain systems. When phonics-only instruction plateaus, the question is which processing system to target next — not how to do more of the same.
What to Ask — and What to Look For in Reading Support
If your child has received phonics instruction without meaningful progress, the right question is not ‘how much more phonics do we need?’ It is ‘which system are we missing?’ Signs that auditory processing may be part of the picture include confusing similar-sounding words, needing information repeated frequently, struggling with multi-step directions, and difficulty with spelling despite knowing the information. These are not reading behaviors alone — they are auditory processing behaviors showing up in a reading context. When the underlying system is not addressed, more phonics worksheets will not move the needle.
The practical question to ask your child’s teacher or reading specialist: Is the instruction genuinely multisensory — does it actively engage the auditory channel through rhythm, chanting, or oral pattern work — or is it primarily visual phonics practice delivered through worksheets and screens? Not every stuck reader has an auditory processing bottleneck. Some struggle because of visual tracking, working memory load, or processing speed. Getting results means identifying the specific system that is stuck and targeting it. That is what de Paul’s Five Pillars approach — and the broader Orton-Gillingham tradition — does by design. And it is something parents have the right to ask for explicitly, without waiting for a label that names the whole child instead of the specific gap.
Your child’s brain is not broken — it is learning differently, and the instruction has not yet found its system. The villain here is the assumption that one channel covers all reading difficulties: more visual phonics drill for a child whose bottleneck is auditory processing is not more help, it is the wrong help repeated louder. Parents have the right to ask which system is stuck and what the instruction is doing about that specific system. The Learning Success multi-system learning analysis maps the processing systems behind your child’s specific profile — so you know exactly where to aim the work.
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References
- Courier-Journal — de Paul School Louisville teaching method for dyslexia and ADHD, July 6, 2026 (paywalled)
- Cohen, D. et al. (2025) — Rhythm training improves word-reading in children with dyslexia, Scientific Reports, DOI: 10.1038/s41598-025-02485-y
- de Paul School — Dyslexia and The de Paul School (school methodology, independently verified)
- International Dyslexia Association — 2025 Definition of Dyslexia (multi-system causation)
- Orton-Gillingham 2021 meta-analysis, Exceptional Children — 25 studies confirming OG-based intervention gains in word reading, decoding, spelling
