When Elissa Aten’s daughter was in third grade, she struggled with reading. Aten tried to help at home, but wasn’t sure how.
“I learned to read easily, and I realized that I had no idea how to help teach a child to read,” she said. “When she couldn't read a word, I would just say, ‘Sound it out,’ and she would say, ‘I can't do that.’”
Jackie Blake had a similar experience with her daughter. Both kids were later diagnosed with dyslexia.
To help other parents like them, Blake and Aten founded Park City Reads in 2014. Now each year during October — Dyslexia Awareness Month — the nonprofit hosts the Raising a Reader event to help parents support their young readers.
Natalie Walker, who has 20 years of experience in literacy education, told parents the most important thing to know is that reading is not natural.
“It's not easy, and it is definitely, probably the most important work an educator will do at any level. It's the most important work a parent will do,” she said.
Walker works with 95 Percent Group, which provides tools to teach elementary schoolers foundational reading skills. The Park City School District and Weilenmann School of Discovery use those programs.
Walker said since reading isn’t natural, it must be taught directly and systematically.
That process starts with word recognition and decoding. Kids need to learn to associate letters and groups of letters with sounds, then be able to put those sounds together to create words. Walker said they also must learn to recognize unusual consonant sounds, like “ch,” and syllable types, like silent e.
“Our goal is to build this word recognition to a point where it is so automatic that there's no cognitive effort to pull the words off the page, so that they can work on building that comprehension,” Walker said.
Walker said some kids catch on fast, but those who need more help in school are split into smaller groups for extra instruction. Still, even students meeting state benchmarks can always use extra help.
She recommends parents try to read with their kids at least 20 minutes a day.
“That doesn't mean your child's doing all the reading. Get a book and read to your child. Think of all those vocabulary words that you're going to be building for them,” she said.
Parents can also point out words in everyday life, including on menus and signs.
The Utah Legislature has prioritized literacy for many years. The state wants 80% of third graders proficient in reading by 2030. Park City School District students have already surpassed that, with 82% of third-grade students meeting benchmarks.
The district also had the best literacy rates in the state in 2025.
