What the Shift to the Science of Reading Means for Your Child's Classroom

Schools across Canada are moving toward structured literacy, an approach based on the science of reading that teaches the sounds of language, phonics, and spelling explicitly and in a set order. These changes should help most children, but a child with a significant reading difficulty may still need more intensive support than the classroom can provide.

You may have heard the phrase "science of reading" at a school meeting or seen it in the news. Classrooms are changing, and many parents are trying to figure out what that means for their own child. Here's a plain-language overview.

What's changing in classrooms?

For many years, some Canadian classrooms used an approach often called balanced literacy. Children read levelled books and were often encouraged to figure out unfamiliar words using the picture, the first letter, or what would make sense in the sentence. Phonics was taught, but often not in a planned sequence.

Structured literacy takes a different approach. Children are taught directly how sounds connect to letters, in a deliberate order, and they practise reading words by sounding them out rather than guessing. As they move up through the grades, instruction builds to syllables, word parts like prefixes and suffixes, vocabulary, and comprehension.

In Ontario, the change followed the Ontario Human Rights Commission's Right to Read inquiry, which found that many students with reading disabilities were not being taught with evidence-based methods. In Nova Scotia, the new Grades 3 to 6 curriculum builds on changes already made in Primary to Grade 2, with a stronger focus on foundational skills and direct instruction. Other provinces are making similar moves.

What you might notice at home

• Your child brings home decodable books, which use mostly the sound patterns they've already been taught, instead of (or alongside) levelled readers
• Homework includes practicing specific sounds, word lists, or spelling patterns
• Your child is encouraged to "sound it out" rather than look at the picture
• The school talks about screening, especially in the early grades
• Older children may be working on word parts, such as prefixes, suffixes, and roots

If your child is in an upper grade, they may be getting this kind of instruction for the first time, after several years of a different approach. That transition can show gaps that weren't obvious before.

What it means for a child who is struggling

Better classroom teaching helps everyone, and it should mean fewer children fall behind in the first place. But classroom instruction is designed for the whole class. A child with dyslexia or another significant reading difficulty usually needs more explicit teaching, more practice, a smaller group, and closer monitoring of progress.

Schools often describe this as tiers of support. Tier 1 is strong classroom teaching for everyone. Tier 2 is targeted small-group help. Tier 3 is intensive, often individual, intervention. The shift to structured literacy mostly changes Tier 1. If your child needs Tier 2 or Tier 3 support, it's still worth asking specifically what that looks like at their school.

It's also worth remembering that these changes are new. Teachers are learning new methods and materials while they teach, and implementation will look different from school to school.

Questions to ask your child's school

• How has reading instruction changed in my child's classroom this year?
• Has my child been screened for reading, and what did it show?
• If my child needs extra help, what program is used, how often, and in what group size?
• How will you measure whether my child is making progress?

We're also building a short course for families on navigating these policy changes. Watch this space for details.

Next week: advocating for your child

Understanding what's changing is the first step. Next week, we'll cover how to advocate for your child's reading support at school, including how to make a clear request and what to do if progress stalls. If you'd like to talk now about whether your child needs more than classroom instruction, Halifax Learning's clinics in Halifax, Bedford, and online offer assessments and structured literacy programs for every level of need.