Your child can’t understand what they read if they don’t know the words.

Reading builds vocabulary incidentally — your child picks up words from context. But this only works for words that appear frequently and in clear context. Academic vocabulary, subject-specific terms, and less common words are rarely learned through reading alone. A child might encounter “reluctant” in a book and understand from context that the character didn’t want to do something. But they haven’t learned the word itself — they’ve understood the sentence. Next time they see “reluctant” in a different context, they may not recognise it. Active vocabulary practice — spelling, synonyms, antonyms, and usage — converts passive recognition into lasting knowledge.

SATs reading papers and 11+ comprehension passages deliberately use advanced vocabulary. The test isn’t checking whether your child can decode the words — it’s checking whether they understand them. A passage about “the consequences of deforestation” assumes your child knows “consequences”, “deforestation”, and can infer meaning from connected vocabulary. The child who has been building vocabulary since Year 2 reads the passage and thinks about the content. The child who hasn’t is still trying to figure out the words.