Dyslexia, Standardized Tests, And Why Reading Fluency Matters More Than Test Prep
- Daniela Feldhausen, J.D., M.S. Special Education
- 2 days ago
- 5 min read
Can My Teen Improve Their Reading Fast Enough Before The SAT Or ACT?
In This Post
When parents think about helping their teen prepare for the SAT or ACT, the first instinct is often to sign up for a test prep course. Practice tests, strategies, timing drills, and vocabulary lists all seem like the obvious path forward.
But here is the hard truth that many families discover too late: if your child or teen isn't a fluent reader, no amount of test prep will close the gap.
Standardized tests are, at their core, reading tests. Even the math sections require strong reading skills to interpret multi-step problems quickly and accurately. For students with dyslexia or lingering reading challenges, this creates a major barrier that strategies, drills and vocabulary lists can't fix.
The good news is that it is never too late to change this trajectory.
Why Standardized Tests Expose Reading Gaps
By the time students reach high school, expectations around reading shift dramatically. They are no longer just decoding words. They are expected to read quickly, process complex information, and draw conclusions under time pressure.
For a student with dyslexia, this can feel overwhelming. They may:
Read more slowly than their peers
Struggle with accuracy when decoding unfamiliar words
Lose meaning because so much effort goes into just getting through the text
On a timed test like the SAT or ACT, these challenges are magnified. Even a bright, capable student can underperform simply because they cannot read fast enough to keep up. This is not a reflection of their intelligence. It is a result of missing foundational reading skills.
Many students who struggle with reading are very bright. They simply have gaps in phonological skills, phonics, fluency and morphology that were never fully addressed .
Why Test Prep Alone Is Not Enough
Test prep programs are designed to teach strategies. They help students:
Manage time
Eliminate wrong answers
Recognize question patterns
These are very useful skills, but they assume something critical: that the student can already read fluently.
If a student is still decoding words slowly or inconsistently, test strategies cannot compensate. In fact, they often add another layer of frustration. The student is trying to apply strategies while still struggling to process the text itself.
Parents sometimes invest heavily in test prep, only to see minimal score improvement. This is often why.
Without fluency, comprehension suffers. Without comprehension, performance stalls.
It Is Never Too Late To Build Fluency
One of the biggest misconceptions about dyslexia is that if it has not been fully addressed by the end of elementary school, it is too late. That is simply not true.
Teens can make tremendous progress, even in a relatively short period of time, when they receive the right kind of instruction.
In fact, many older students improve more quickly than younger students because they bring strengths that younger students do not yet have. They often have:
Strong vocabularies
Better background knowledge
More developed reasoning skills
When these strengths are combined with explicit, structured literacy instruction, progress accelerates.
We often see meaningful gains in reading speed and accuracy in just a few months of focused work, especially during the summer before junior or senior year, when many students are preparing for the SAT or ACT.
This window is incredibly valuable. With consistent, high-dosage tutoring, students can build the fluency they need to approach these tests with confidence.
How Evidence-Based Tutoring Changes Everything
Not all tutoring is created equal.
Generic tutoring often focuses on homework help or general academic support. While that may be helpful in some contexts, it does not address the root causes of reading difficulties.
Students with dyslexia need something very specific:
Explicit, systematic instruction
A Structured Literacy approach grounded in the science of reading
Targeted work on phonological skills, phonics, fluency and morphology
At Kids Up Reading Tutors, this is exactly what we provide. Our tutors are trained in the Orton-Gillingham and Kilpatrick methodologies, combining structured phonics/fluency/morphology instruction with the phonological training that allows those skills to stick. This dual approach is critical. Phonics alone is not enough. Students must also have good phonological and phonemic awareness - meaning, they must understand how sounds work within words - in order to become fluent readers.
Fluency is the goal. Not just accuracy, but speed and ease.
When students become fluent readers:
They can move through passages more quickly
They make fewer decoding errors
They can focus on comprehension and meaning instead of individual words
This is what allows test prep to finally work. Once reading is no longer the bottleneck, strategies, timed drills and vocabulary lists become effective tools instead of added stress.
A Smarter Approach To SAT And ACT Prep
If your child or teen is struggling with reading, the most effective plan is not to choose between reading support and test prep. It is to prioritize them in the right order.
First, build the foundation:
Strengthen decoding skills
Improve accuracy
Increase reading speed
Then, layer in the specific test-taking skills.
This approach leads to better results and a much more confident student.
It also changes how your child or teen feels about reading. Instead of frustration and avoidance, they begin to experience success. And that confidence carries into every subject, not just standardized tests. Best of all, becoming a fluent reader will help them not only get into college but be successful in college as well!
The Bottom Line
If your child or teen has dyslexia or is not yet a fluent reader, now is the time to act.
Don't wait until test scores come back lower than expected. Don't assume that more practice tests will solve the problem.
Reading fluency is the foundation. Without it, test prep has limited impact. With it, everything changes. And most importantly, it is not too late.
With the right instruction, high school students can make meaningful, measurable progress in a short amount of time. The summer before junior or senior year can be a turning point, not just for test scores, but for long-term academic confidence.
About the Author
Daniela Feldhausen is the founder of Kids Up Reading Tutors. A former attorney with a master’s degree in special education, she has extensive training in Structured Literacy, the Science of Reading, and Orton-Gillingham–based instruction. Her team evaluates each student’s reading and spelling skills, creates an individualized Structured Literacy Plan, and provides the one-on-one tutoring needed to carry it out.
What sets Kids Up Reading Tutors apart?
Evaluation and Structured Literacy Plan
Evidence-based instruction with Orton-Gillingham+
Data-driven systematic, explicit instruction
For all learners, with or without dyslexia/dysgraphia
Kids & teens in grades 1-12 get caught up ASAP
Customized, 1-on-1 sessions with a dedicated tutor
High-dosage tutoring (2-5x/week) via Zoom
Focused, with an end in sight (not endless tutoring & investment)
Flexible scheduling
45/60 minute sessions
Daytime/evenings/weekends/summer
Team of tutors; switch tutors if needed for schedule changes
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