#84: The Hidden Skill Struggling Readers Need—But Aren’t Getting With Dr. Kilpatrick
When sounding out isn’t enough…
Have you ever had a student who can decode a word perfectly on Monday… only to look at that same word on Wednesday like they’ve never seen it before?
You’re not imagining things—and you’re definitely not alone.
For years, I thought that if I just taught phonics better—more clearly, more systematically—my students would become fluent readers. But for some of them… the progress just didn’t stick.
Turns out, there’s a hidden skill we’re overlooking—and it’s quietly holding our struggling readers back.
Let’s talk about it.
What We Get Wrong About Phonemic Awareness
In this episode, I sat down with Dr. David Kilpatrick, author of Equipped for Reading Success. You might assume his background is in education, but he’s actually a psychologist—and that’s important. Because as he explains, most of what we know about how the brain learns to read comes from the field of psychology, not education.
And one of the biggest misunderstandings?
We’ve absorbed phonemic awareness into phonics.
They’re not the same. And if we teach only phonics—without isolating and strengthening a child’s access to phonemes—we risk creating students who can sound out words… but can’t remember them.
Dr. Kilpatrick calls this a phonemic proficiency problem, and for our struggling readers, it’s everything.
So What Is This Hidden Skill?
It’s not a program. It’s not a trick. It’s phonemic awareness that’s fast, automatic, and deeply embedded.
To become fluent readers, students need more than blending and segmenting sounds with letter tiles. They need to access the sounds in spoken words—without relying on the letters in front of them. That’s the skill that helps them map new words to memory.
It’s called orthographic mapping, and it hinges on students’ ability to quickly and unconsciously pull apart the phonemes in a word.
If kids don’t have this skill, no amount of phonics will make them fluent readers.
How to Strengthen This Skill in Your Classroom
If you’re working with a student who:
- Can decode but not retain words,
- Needs repeated exposure to the same word without building fluency,
- Or knows all their letter-sound correspondences but still struggles to read with ease…
Then you’re likely facing a phonemic proficiency gap.
Here’s what Dr. Kilpatrick recommends:
1. Teach phonemic awareness separately from phonics.
Use oral activities—without letters—alongside your phonics instruction. This prevents students from over-relying on letter tiles and missing the sound-level work.
2. Focus on advanced phonemic awareness.
Basic segmenting and blending won’t cut it. Target tasks like:
- Phoneme substitution: Say cat. Now change /k/ to /m/.
- Phoneme deletion: Say smile without the /s/.
- Phoneme reversal or manipulation
3. Build automaticity, not just accuracy.
Dr. Kilpatrick’s research shows that speed of response is a stronger indicator of fluent reading than just getting the answer right. Students need to respond within a second—not just eventually.
4. Use free tools like the P.A.S.T. Test (Phonological Awareness Screening Test)
This resource, available at pasttest.com, helps you assess phonemic proficiency—not just awareness.
In This Episode, You’ll Discover:
- Why phonemic awareness isn’t just a kindergarten skill—and why struggling readers need it most.
- The surprising reason phonics alone doesn’t lead to fluent reading.
- What orthographic mapping really is—and why it’s the key to remembering words.
- The #1 misunderstanding about the National Reading Panel’s findings.
- How to identify students who lack phonemic proficiency—even if they know their sounds.
Bringing It All Together
So many of us are pouring our energy into teaching phonics—believing that better decoding will equal better reading. And for some kids, it works. But for others, especially our struggling readers, there’s a hidden skill gap we can’t afford to ignore.
When we understand the role of phonemic proficiency, we finally have the missing puzzle piece. We stop repeating lessons and start building fluency.
This isn’t about teaching harder. It’s about teaching smarter—backed by decades of research most of us were never shown in our training.
Want More Support? Join The Science of Reading Formula
If you want step-by-step tools to strengthen phonemic awareness and orthographic mapping in your classroom, join us inside The Science of Reading Formula.
We’ll show you how to:
- Spot phonemic gaps in older students
- Choose the right phonemic activities (without wasting time)
- Integrate phonemic work alongside structured phonics lessons
👉 Click here to enroll and finally give your students the tools they need to remember words for life.
LINKS
Equipped for Reading Success by David Kilpatrick
Essentials of Assessing, Preventing, and Overcoming Reading Difficulties by David Kilpatrick
Become a Science of Reading Formula member!
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