Your child read that word yesterday. Today it is gone again. You start to wonder if their brain is simply built this way. You are not alone in that worry. You don’t need a credential to be your child’s first teacher. You already are one. The only question is whether you have the right tools.
Common questions from parents
What is neuroplasticity, in plain words?
Is my child’s learning struggle permanent?
Do brain-training games help with schoolwork?
What can I do this week to help?
Neuroplasticity is real, and it asks something of parents. Practice the real skill, keep it short, stay close, and praise the step.
What does this poster say, in plain words?
The poster makes one big point. A child’s brain is not fixed. It keeps changing with what it practices. Then it names two tools. One is practice aimed at the skill. The other is you.
- The brain changes. The poster calls this neuroplasticity. It means the brain changes with use, all through life.
- Targeted practice. Work on the exact skill your child needs.
- The parent’s part. You are not a helper on the side. You are part of the work.
- The takeaway. Steady practice plus a parent who shows up is the way forward.
Three parts of the poster need a note. Its key finding says research backs it. It names no study, so we name them below. It also says the brain changes its structure. The scans we cite measured brain activity, not structure. And it promises lasting change. We will not promise that. We will tell you what was measured.
A brain scan that lights up is not a child who reads better.
Laura Lurns · Learning Success expert
What did the brain scans of children measure?
An old idea says a child is born with the brain they have. Brain scans of reading teaching point the other way. Shaywitz and colleagues (2004) scanned children before and after a year of reading teaching. Activity in the brain’s reading network went up. A year after the teaching ended, it was still changing. Meyler and colleagues (2008) followed weak readers through 100 hours of teaching. Their reading activity kept rising after the lessons stopped.
Two limits come with this. These scans measured activity, not the shape of the brain. And they were about reading, not attention or memory. Perdue and colleagues (2022) reviewed 39 brain-scan studies of reading teaching. The studies did not agree on one pattern of change. Pooled together, they showed no clear effect. Here is what brain scans can and cannot tell a parent.
So what is the honest takeaway? Reading teaching changed how the brain worked while reading. The children in those studies read better too. To us, that is a reason for hope. It is not a promise about any one child.
Key takeaways
- The brain changes with use: In scan studies, reading teaching changed brain activity.
- Practice the real skill: Training mostly improves the task you trained.
- You are part of the work: A parent beside the child shapes the practice.
What makes practice targeted, and where do you fit?
Practice helps most with the thing you practiced. Simons and colleagues (2016) reviewed brain-training programs. People got better at the tasks they trained on. There was little sign of gains on distant tasks or in daily life. So aim practice at the real skill. To get better at reading, read. To get better at math facts, practice math facts.
This is where you come in. Our view is that a parent beside the child changes how practice goes. You see when your child is tired. You notice the step they almost got. You know when to make the next try a little easier.
- Pick one skill. Choose the exact thing that is hard right now.
- Keep it short. A few minutes on most days is easier to keep up.
- Praise the step, not the child. Say “You went back and checked that word.” Skip “You’re so smart.”
- Stay close when it gets hard. Struggle is part of learning. Your calm helps your child stay with it.
See three things that help a child build a hard skill.
“little evidence that training enhances performance on distantly related tasks or that training improves everyday cognitive performance.” – Simons et al., 2016
Pick one skill. Keep it short. Stay close. Praise the step.
Laura Lurns · Learning Success expert
We believe no child’s ability is fixed. Every parent can help build it. The old habit is to wait and see. Waiting has never taught a child to read. Teaching does. Our free program on praise and effort words starts here: Growth Mindset Program.
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Your school district must evaluate your child free of charge if you ask in writing, whatever your income and whatever the outcome (US, 34 CFR 300.111 and 300.301(b)). That route takes time and answers a different question than you do. This one starts today, from what you already know.
Your answers stay yours. We do not sell your personal information, and we do not hand identifiable assessment data to outside AI companies to train their models.
A screener is a starting point, not a diagnosis. If your child might need formal accommodations (an IEP or 504 plan), or you suspect a vision, hearing or medical cause, pursue a professional evaluation too. That is the only route to those supports.
References
- Shaywitz, B. A., et al. (2004). Brain imaging study of children before and after a year of phonologically based reading intervention. Biological Psychiatry.
- Meyler, A., et al. (2008). Longitudinal brain imaging study of poor readers after 100 hours of remedial instruction. Neuropsychologia.
- Perdue, M. V., et al. (2022). Systematic review and meta-analysis of 39 reading-intervention brain imaging studies. Neuroscience & Biobehavioral Reviews.
- Simons, D. J., et al. (2016). Do "brain-training" programs work? Psychological Science in the Public Interest, 17(3), 103-186.
