Western Australian author Hamish Kelly has struggled with reading for almost two decades. In his first of two books, he describes his experience of learning to read:

The letters in words were confusing and words often looked the same […] Each year it got harder. Reading got harder and maths got twice as hard, as maths has lots of reading as well […] By year 5, I was down on myself. I felt stupid and dumb!! My Mum, Dad, and teachers told me I wasn’t, but I still felt that I was. There [were] other challenges […] like anxiety and loss of confidence.

The letters in words were confusing and words often looked the same […] Each year it got harder. Reading got harder and maths got twice as hard, as maths has lots of reading as well […] By year 5, I was down on myself. I felt stupid and dumb!! My Mum, Dad, and teachers told me I wasn’t, but I still felt that I was. There [were] other challenges […] like anxiety and loss of confidence.

What Hamish is describing is reading anxiety. This involves excessive worries and apprehensions about reading activities.

In the last eight years, there has been a five-fold increase in studies of reading anxiety, as we learn more about this educational challenge.

One of the things we are trying to work out is if reading difficulties cause reading anxiety or if reading anxiety causes reading difficulties.

A new longitudinal........

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