Nancy Young

And sometimes parents are hard on themselves.

They say, what didn't I do?

And so the understanding the genetic component is really important.

And when I've worked with families, very often they say, oh, you know,

One of the parents had trouble or an uncle had trouble learning to read, and they can actually link the genetics just by thinking about past histories of family members.

We don't.

We need to start where a child is, and we need to be adjusting based on how quickly they learn.

So my Ladder of Reading and Writing, and for anybody who hasn't seen it, which is probably many of your parents, you can go onto my website.

And if you're listening at home, I encourage you to just pause and go onto my website and have a look at my Ladder of Reading and Writing.

And so on that infographic, the children climbing, that's where the ladder comes in.

They're climbing a ladder and children vary in the ease at which they climb the ladder.

And the colored areas next to the ladder,

depict the approximate percentages.

It's very approximate, but in terms of how easy it is to climb that ladder.

And the research has shown that it indicates...

All humans have to rewire their brain.

Our brain isn't born knowing how to read.

But for some of us, the learning to read happens very quickly, very quickly through exposure, through something called implicit learning, which is natural, just everyday experiences.

And then there are other children for whom it's difficult.

And that's the perplexing part for parents.