Red Flag: Why the Three-Cueing System Doesn't Work

In the world of reading instruction, there is perhaps no single strategy that is more pervasive, more popular, and more detrimental to students with dyslexia than the three-cueing system. It is the engine behind the “balanced literacy” approach, and it is a method that actively encourages struggling readers to bypass the very skills they need to learn.

As a parent advocate, learning to spot the three-cueing system in your child’s classroom is a critical skill. Here’s what it is and why it’s a major red flag.

What is the Three-Cueing System?

The three-cueing system teaches children that when they come to an unknown word, they should use three main sources of information (or “cues”) to figure it out:

1. Semantic Cues (Meaning): Does the word make sense in the story? Children are prompted to look at the pictures or think about the context.
2. Syntactic Cues (Structure): Does the word sound right in the sentence? Children are taught to rely on their knowledge of grammar and sentence structure.
3. Graphophonic Cues (Visual): Does the word look right? This is where children are prompted to look at the letters, but it is treated as just one of three possible cues, and often the last resort.

You may have seen this in action. A child comes to the word “horse” in a book. They hesitate. The teacher says, “Look at the picture. What animal is that?” The child says, “Horse!” The teacher says, “Great job!”

The child did not read the word. They guessed. And they were praised for it.

Why is This So Harmful for Dyslexia?

Skilled readers decode words automatically and instantaneously. They don’t guess. They look at the letters, connect them to sounds, and blend those sounds to read the word. The three-cueing system trains children to do the exact opposite. It teaches them to use context and pictures as a crutch, a strategy that will inevitably fail them as texts become more complex and pictures disappear.

For a child with dyslexia, whose core challenge is with decoding, this is disastrous. It reinforces their natural inclination to guess and look away from the word. It fails to build the neural pathways required for fluent reading. It is, in essence, a system of sophisticated guessing that leaves the underlying reading problem untouched.

How to Spot Three-Cueing

Look for these signs in your child’s classroom or homework:

• Leveled Readers: Books with a heavy reliance on pictures and repetitive sentence patterns that encourage guessing.
• Teacher Prompts: Listen for prompts like, “Get your mouth ready,” “Skip the word and come back,” or “What word would make sense there?”
• Lack of Phonics: A classroom that does not have a dedicated, systematic phonics program is almost certainly using a balanced literacy approach driven by three-cueing.

What to Do About It

If you see signs of the three-cueing system, it’s time to advocate for a change. In your next IEP meeting, you can ask:

• “Is the school’s reading curriculum based on the three-cueing model or the Science of Reading?”
• “My child needs to learn how to decode words, not guess at them. What evidence-based, systematic phonics program can the school provide?”

Many states are now passing laws that ban the use of the three-cueing system in schools. Do your research and find out if your state is one of them. This can be a powerful tool in your advocacy.

Our children deserve to be taught how to read, not how to guess. By understanding and pushing back against ineffective methods like three-cueing, you are advocating for the scientifically-proven instruction that will give your child the skills and the confidence to become a true reader.

---

Related reading:

• What is Structured Literacy? A Parent's Guide
• Orton-Gillingham Explained: The Gold Standard for Dyslexia
• How to Know If Your School’s Reading Program is Evidence-Based