5 Tips for Encouraging SEN Students who Struggle With Reading

# 5 Tips for Supporting SEN Students Who Struggle with Reading

Sandra Parker
November 6, 2025
7 min read

A Journey That Takes Time

I'll be honest with you: I hated reading when I was young. Absolutely hated it. The words seemed to jump around on the page, stories felt like a chore, and I'd rather do just about anything else. But somewhere along the way, something shifted, and I discovered that reading could actually be brilliant. It just took finding the right approach, the right books, and the right support.

That's why working with SEN students who struggle with reading has become one of the most rewarding parts of my job. Because I know what it feels like when reading doesn't come easily, and I've seen firsthand how the right strategies can transform a child's relationship with books.

Let me tell you about one student in particular—we'll call her Ryanne. I've known her since she was 8 years old, and she's now 11. When we first started working together, Ryanne couldn't read a full sentence without getting frustrated and giving up. The words were her enemy, and books were something to avoid at all costs.

But over the years, with patience, the right tools, and a lot of small victories, Ryanne has slowly been able to read a paragraph correctly. Not just decode the words, but actually read with understanding and confidence. Watching that progress has been incredible, and it's taught me so much about what actually works for students with dyslexia, autism, and other learning differences.

Here are five evidence-based tips that have made a real difference for my students.

1. Use Multisensory Learning—Engage More Than Just Their Eyes

Research shows that multisensory learning is one of the most effective strategies for students with dyslexia. This means engaging multiple senses—not just sight, but also touch, sound, and even movement.

Use tactile materials like wooden or plastic letters that students can hold and manipulate. Kinesthetic learning, such as writing symbols in the air or using physical letters, helps young learners link sounds to symbols and build their awareness of written language.

For Ryanne, tracing letters in sand whilst saying the sounds aloud made a massive difference. It wasn't just about seeing the letter 'B'—it was about feeling it, saying it, and connecting all those sensory experiences together.

We also use sensory equipment in our sensory room. Some students need movement breaks or fidget tools to help them focus during reading sessions. The sensory room has become a safe space where students can regulate themselves before tackling challenging texts, and the sensory equipment—weighted blankets, textured cushions, noise-cancelling headphones—helps create the right environment for learning.

What you can do:

• Use letter-shaped foam or wooden pieces during phonics practice
• Have students write words in sand, shaving cream, or with finger paints
• Incorporate movement—let them jump whilst spelling words or clap syllables
• Create a calm, sensory-friendly reading space with soft lighting and comfortable seating

2. Teach Systematic Phonics—Break Reading Down into Manageable Steps

The key to helping dyslexic students learn to read is systematic phonics instruction, which means moving step-by-step through a progression of phonics skills, from the most common and consistent letter-sound patterns to harder and less consistent patterns.

This isn't about throwing all the sounds at students at once. It's about teaching them in a structured sequence, mastering each pattern before moving on.

Students with dyslexia need to learn how to map phonemes (sounds) to symbols or print in two directions: visual to auditory for reading, and auditory to visual for spelling. They need practice blending sounds into words and segmenting whole words back into individual sounds.

For students with autism, phonics instruction is equally important. Children with autism can benefit from phonics instruction that teaches them how to identify sounds in words, map those sounds to each corresponding letter, and blend those sounds together to form words.

What you can do:

• Use flashcards to practise letter sounds consistently
• Follow a structured phonics programme that builds skills sequentially
• Practise blending sounds together: /c/ /a/ /t/ becomes "cat"
• Be patient—this takes time, and every small step forward is progress

3. Use Visual Supports—Make the Abstract Concrete

For students with autism especially, visual supports are absolutely crucial. Students with autism engage with and make meaning from text through visual supports, and focusing them on pictures satisfies their tendency to learn visually.

Before reading a story, do what's called a "picture walk." Look at the images in the book first, talk about what we see, and activate background knowledge. This process of recalling background knowledge through a picture walk assists students with autism to create a mental picture that was previously learned.

In our school, we also use graphic organisers—visual frameworks that help students organise their thoughts about what they've read. Story maps with sections for "first," "next," "then," and "last" help students sequence events and understand story structure.

For older students with more independence and capable skills, we use mind maps and digital tools that let them customise their reading experience—changing font sizes, adjusting spacing, using colour contrast to make text easier to process.

What you can do:

• Do a picture walk before reading any new book
• Create story maps or graphic organisers to help students structure their thinking
• Use visual schedules to show reading routines
• Pair words with pictures, especially for new vocabulary
• For digital reading, adjust font size and spacing to suit individual needs

4. Give Them Extra Time and Read Aloud to Them

Here's something crucial: While it might take one student 30 minutes to take a test, it might take a student with dyslexia two hours—not due to a lack of intelligence, but because it takes students with dyslexia longer to read.

Ryanne needed extra time for everything reading-related. Not because she wasn't trying hard enough, but because her brain was working incredibly hard to decode each word. Rushing her only created frustration and anxiety.

And here's something that surprised some people: While dyslexic students may struggle to read independently, they benefit greatly from someone reading to them, and their listening comprehension is usually equal to or above that of their peers.

This is huge. Just because a student can't read a year 6 level book on their own doesn't mean they can't understand and enjoy year 6 level content when it's read aloud to them. Hearing someone else read offers a chance to work on comprehension without the battle of decoding the text.

Reading aloud to kids every day is not babying them—it's giving them access to rich stories and complex ideas whilst they're still building their decoding skills.

What you can do:

• Always provide extra time for reading tasks—never rush
• Read aloud to students regularly, choosing books above their independent reading level
• Use audiobooks to give students access to grade-level content
• Celebrate listening comprehension as a legitimate skill

5. Choose the Right Books and Celebrate Every Victory

Students struggling with reading can easily become discouraged if the book is too difficult or too easy. Finding that "just right" level is essential.

Books with larger fonts are visually easier, and shorter or less dense books that are equally rich in ideas work well for independent reading time. We also look for decodable books—texts full of familiar phonics patterns that students have already learnt.

But here's what matters most: celebrating every single victory, no matter how small. When Ryanne successfully read her first full sentence without stopping, we celebrated. When she read a paragraph for the first time, we celebrated. When she chose to read a book during free time instead of avoiding it, we celebrated.

Setting achievable goals allows students to see that they're capable of reaching a goal, that they can be successful—you're giving them a chance to develop another strength.

For older students with more independence and capability, we focus on books that match their interests and reading level. If they love football, we find books about football. If they're into space, we explore space books. Interest drives motivation, and motivation drives progress.

What you can do:

• Choose books at the student's instructional level—challenging but not frustrating
• Look for larger fonts and less dense text
• Find books that match the student's interests
• Set small, achievable goals and celebrate when they're met
• Never underestimate the power of acknowledging progress, no matter how small

The Bottom Line

Every child is different. What works brilliantly for one student might not work at all for another. But these five strategies—multisensory learning, systematic phonics, visual supports, extra time with read-alouds, and the right books with celebration—have consistently helped my SEN students make real progress.

Ryanne's journey from struggling with a single sentence to reading paragraphs correctly took three years. Three years of patience, persistence, setbacks, breakthroughs, and countless small victories. But she got there. And more importantly, she's starting to believe that she can read, that books aren't her enemy anymore.

That's what matters most: helping students build not just reading skills, but reading confidence. Showing them that struggling doesn't mean failing, and that with the right support, they can absolutely become readers.

Because every child deserves to discover that reading can be brilliant—just like I eventually did.

- Sandra Parker