Spotlight: Supporting the Development of Early Reading Skills
Event Date:
24 March, 2026
Event Time:
6:00 PM
Event Description
*This session is online! Do not worry if you can not watch live on the night – still book and we will send you the recording later in the week.*
Kim Wyrley-Birch’s early reading programme Let’s Fly is available to purchase for 10% off via our website here.
This session explains why learning to read can feel especially hard for some children, including those with dyslexia. We’ll break down what’s happening behind the scenes when a child reads and look at common challenges such as hearing the sounds in words, remembering what they’ve seen, decoding new words and holding information in mind long enough to make sense of it.
You’ll come away with practical ideas you can use at home or in school, followed by a live demonstration of the Let’s Fly programme, showing how short, structured activities develop sound awareness, link sounds to letters, build fluency, and support understanding so children can read with greater confidence.
The session will cover:
- Why some children struggle to acquire early reading skills
- Understanding phonological processing and memory difficulties
- Supporting secure letter–sound learning
- Strategies for decoding longer words
- Encouraging engagement when reading books and passages
- Developing early comprehension skills
- Practical activities to strengthen underlying reading skills
- A demonstration of the Let’s Fly approach and why it works
Participants will leave with a clearer understanding of reading difficulties and practical strategies they can begin using immediately.
This session is suitable for both education professionals and parents/carers looking to better understand why learning to read with dyslexia may be tricky and most importantly hot to help with the development of early reading skills.
Kim Wyrley-Birch is the creator of the Let’s Fly reading programme. She began her dyslexia training at the Helen Arkell Dyslexia Centre and is a Specialist Teacher and Dyslexia Assessor.
Kim’s passion for helping children who find reading tricky began at home with her own family. When her children started school, she saw first-hand how challenging learning, especially reading, could be. Wanting to support them led her on a journey that grew into a specialist career working with children with dyslexia and other learning differences.
Through this experience, Kim recognised how powerful the right support at home can be, but also how overwhelming it can feel for parents who want to help and don’t know where to begin. She developed Let’s Fly with busy families in mind: a structured, research-informed programme that is easy to use and gives clear step-by-step support, while children enjoy fun activities and grow in confidence as readers.
