Later reading is no disadvantage...

[CSLewis]

www.telegraph.co.uk/education/6937462/Reading-at-five-fails-to-boost-skills.html

I know most of us know this instinctively already, but speaking for myself, it has nonetheless been difficult to keep faith with the notion of reading readiness, and to trust that my 7.5 yo dd will be a fluent reader one day. In fact, she has come on in leaps and bounds recently, and told me the other day "You were right, mum, reading is fun"!

Phew! And hooray! And now there's even more research to back it up . I'm going to make my husband read it...

[becaroo]

Very reassuring! Thanks for that link x

[MathsMadMummy]

That's an interesting article, thanks for the link

I don't think reading should be forced on somebody who isn't ready. It'll just be counter-productive. Mind you, if a child is ready and eager it certainly shouldn't be delayed.

It's great that your DD has started to enjoy it! I suppose if your DD had been in school, she'd feel pretty demoralised about it by being compared to others.

[southeastastra]

what a refreshing article! thanks for linking

[julienoshoes]

My dd2 is severely dyslexic. She is dyseidetic and dysphonetically dyslexic-she recognised neither the shape nor the sounds of words. She had no word attack skills at all.
School failed her miserably. She left aged nearly nine completely unable to read or spell even her own name.

After trying every reading scheme for dyslexics in the book, all resulted in a screaming hysterical child. We finally listened to autonomous home educating peers and left trying to 'teach' her to read alone and became completely autonomous in our approach. HE followed the childrens interests completely, it didn't mean not learning, it didn't mean not engaging with our children-in fact it meant more as I had to be there to read/scribe/faciliatate all the more for her (although many home ed peers helped out)

DD2 finally began to 'get' reading when she was 13. The first novel she read was Oscar Wilde's 'Picture of Dorian Grey' (thanks to the encouragement of Riven's lovely daughter)
She had completed a first OU starter course by the time she was 16.
She reads for pleasure now, has her head in a book all of the time!
She has recently recieved the results of her latest dyslexia assessment from the college she attends.
Her spelling is only slightly behind the average, her reading is average (how she danced around the room and cried with relief and pleasure at that result!) and her vocabulary and comprehension are way above average.

You would be hard pressed to realise now just how late she learned to read!

[becaroo]

Thats great julie You must be very proud of her.

My ds1 is 6 - 7 in June - who had some developmental delay as a younger child and I am just beginning to ease up on the reading thing.....his school made him very unhappy and made him think he was "stupid" because he couldnt read at the same level as kids who were in some cases 8-9 months older than him!

It is going to be a long struggle to get him to see reading as something you can do for pleasure and make it something he is not frightened of, but I think we will get there.

[julienoshoes]

We really wanted to promote an appreciation of books being a pleasurable treat for dd2. She truly hated books/reading of any sort when she left school-she was so traumatised.

She told us recently that we are a severe dyslexic child's worst nightmare as parents as we love books and book shops so much. Apparently going regulary into book shops with us when she was younger made her shake with nerves and gether tension stomach ache back


My joy at the time that she rushed into a bookshop enthusiastically as a 15 year old, to find some more classics to read, after being inspired by her friend, cannot be explained (nor can the look on the shop assistants face!!)

To encourage a love of reading, we read everything and anything she asked us to.
We read stories out loud, long past other parents had finished doing so, we read any article that caught her eye in newspapers or magazines.
We talked of how films are mostly screenplays adapted from stories and how often the books are so much better than the film.
And we used Calibre Listening books a lot (very highly recommended!)

She just loves to read now-and interestingly she is the one who is really keen on knowing the root of words and the language base they come from.
It's as if having learned to read so late she applies logic to the language and questions it as complred to her siblings, who simply accepted that a word is spelled in a particular way.
It is dd2 who is interested in crossword puzzles with her dad!

[OrmRenewed]

Great! Yes some of us always knew it but it's nice to have it backed up. I have 2 late readers and one standard one but the eldest 2 have an advanced reading age and the youngest is getting there (he's 7 now).

[wastingaway]

I couldn't read til a couple months after my 7th birthday, annoyingly just weeks after being kept back a grade in school (in North America) when I jumped straight into the top reading group. Reading age of 16+ at 11.

Julie, that's a great story! I can just imagine how proud you are of her.

[pinkdolly]

Brilliant article - thank you for posting it.

I am attempting to go be child- led with my approach to home-schooling my two oldest. But do sometimes come across some murmors of dissaporoval when people find that my nearly 8 year old cant read vast amounts and my nearly 7 year year old cant read at all yet.

I have always felt that children should decide for themselves when they want to read and indeed learn new things, but it is sometimes hard to convince others in a country that is so obsessed with teaching children things at an earlier and earlier stage. And looking good on the sats tables.

I will be achiving this one for future use.

[pinkdolly]

Obviously from my post I should not be home-schooling at all . Must proof read for mistakes in future and not try to rush my posts.

Please dont tell anyone I studied A'level English Lit- no one would believe me.

[BertieBotts]

Interesting article, especially in light of the Tory policy to introduce a compulsory reading test at age 6

[Marjoriew]

My 10 -nearly 11 year old grandson has struggled with reading.
It's only been in the last few months that he has shown interest in reading anything.

He is currently reading the Beast Quest books and The Diary of a Wimpy Kid.
I spent a fortune on reading schemes, ORT, Jolly Phonics, you name it, we had it.
He just didn't want to know. I worried about it consistently until in the end I thought 'Sod it', and left it be.
He only reads a little bit every day, but that's OK because I don't have to sit and listen at a school Open Evening and have someone half my age telling me that because he is a 'looked after child' that 'he will struggle, you know, Mrs.W. Statistics do show that children who are 'looked after' have problems in progressing in school......'
Grandson and I were out that door sharpish with a few words the Head had probably never heard before as we left.

[SDeuchars]

Good for you, Marjorie! [Shouldn't all children be looked after? Why do they steal perfectly good phrases from us?]

My DD started to read from about 2 but DS did not show much interest until about 9 when he asked for Harry Potter 1 from DD and read it in a sitting during one week. I knew he was reading a year earlier because DD said she could not be bothered with Asterix because of the long names and DS replied that w/o the names, you miss half the jokes.

They were both reading at the same (15+) level at 11 and 13. Both have been doing OU courses successfully from before 14yo. DD reads voraciously and DS hardly reads books at all, but he reads what he wants and needs to and does not resent it.

[becaroo]

This is all so encouraging! My ds1 (6) really has "issues" with reading now as he has been made to feel (by school) that he is stupid and cant do it (i.e. read)

I am using Toe by toe reading manual with him and he is doing well and I get him to read a bit to me every day BUT something he wants to read, not something prescribed by someone else. Animal books are a big favourite. I know he will get there in the end and now there is no pressure on him to tick boxes and pass SATS.

[Gracie123]

It's a really interesting topic, as I was a very early reader (age 3) and in reception/year one was well ahead of my peers. Gradually, they all caught up though, and by the time I got to Uni I was diagnosed with fairly substantial dyslexia!

I'm not a great reader, I go through phases where I read for enjoyment (although not too often!) but my sisters find immense enjoyment out of the fact that even when I read in my head my lips move!

[robberbutton]

Great thread and article, thank you. Fantastic to read all the positive stories, will def. have to come back to this when the wobbles hit. I'm really proud of how my 4 1/2 year old is coming along, has always been interested in letters, sounds and word games and today he read a couple of the first level Oxford Reading Tree books (I suggested one and he asked to do another). Everything we've done has been entirely from him though and I must remember to take it slooooww... It's the most amazing thing to be a part of!

[sorky]

personally I disagree with "there are no advantages to reading at 5"

Of course there are!! I have a child who read from 3 and one who was 4.5, both read everyday for pleasure, but crucially both asked to learn.
If a child isn't ready then of course they shouldn't be pushed, but read to by an adult.

The disadvantage, surely, of not reading at 5 (should the child be inclined) is the amount of literature they would miss!

[robberbutton]

It depends what you mean by 'literature'. Sure they'll miss out on some stories, maybe, but they'll hardly be classics. One thing I like about HE is the amount of time it gives you to read to your children. So they don't really missIng out on anything. My 4.5 year old and I are just finishing the Narnia Chronicles, which even if he was reading he wouldn't be up to those. Plus, not Reading doesn't mean you can't enjoy books. My 2 year old spends hours pouring over the pictures, and often refuses when I offer to read it to her.

[robberbutton]

Sorry, you did say about reading to your children (it's hard reading posts on an iPhone!). I guess I just meant that it's not exactly an 'advantage' because the child should hopefully be spending his time doing something else he enjoys, and I don't think there are any books worth reading at 4 that aren't worth reading when you're older too.

[sorky]

I just think that waiting until a child reads spontaneously, for instance at 10 years old, means that a lot of stories can be missed.

If you are reading those stories to a child then it doesn't apply.

Not teaching a child to read earlier than 7, when they have the potential to, does disadvantage them imo.

My Dd and Ds can read books now to find out facts etc whenever they want at their own pace and inclination.
If they couldn't read the information themselves they would be dependent on my intervention to relay the information.

I thought the article was poor tbh, though I utterly agree that schooling should not commence until at least the age of 7.