The Truth About Rote Learning: Why It's Failing Our Kids

10-year-old client shared his version of the alphabet. He was doing his best, but somewhere along the way, the letters between L and P had morphed into "Ella Mella Pe." And at the end? "Y N Zee."

He was confident. He'd sung it a hundred times. But the actual letters? Totally unclear.

And then, just days later, a nine-year-old girl sat in my office and sang a version of the alphabet song I had never heard before. She too was beaming with pride and completely confused.

It astounds me when I really think about it that we as parents and educators have come to believe that if a child can sing the alphabet song, they're ready to read.

But that's not how reading works.

When Repetition Isn't Really Learning

This is the problem with rote learning. It gives the illusion of understanding.

We praise kids for "knowing their ABCs" but do they really know them?

When memorisation replaces comprehension, we risk building learning on shaky ground. And for neurodivergent kids, that foundation matters more than ever.

There's no magic in reciting a song if there's no clarity about the actual letters that make up words. If a child doesn't truly understand what the alphabet is, how can they possibly make sense of the words those letters create?

This is one of those hidden traps in early learning: the things that look like progress but actually mask confusion.

So What Now?

If your child is struggling and you can't quite figure out why, there's always an underlying reason. Something is missing for them, and once we find out what that is, everything can start to make more sense.

Sometimes it's not about their effort. It's about the approach.