Advice for mum of child aged 3.0 who is reading already (phonetically) - how will it be by school age?

[StrikeUpTheBand]

I was hoping someone could advise. I have a DS who seems to be very much above average for his age at the moment with his reading and with his numbers. I am a primary school teacher myself so I am aware of him from a teacher's point of view as well as a parent. However, I have no idea what to expect when he gets to school and was wondering if anyone whose child was similar at this age would tell me how it was for them?

He recognised numbers and counted to twenty before age 2 and is now only just 3 and can read and recognise numbers up to 100 and can count beyond 100. He can do simple addition and subtraction using fingers, can count mostly accurately objects to 20. Reading wise he's known his letters and the sounds they make for a while, and a few months ago started blending them. Then with Alphablocks on TV he really took off and is now reading decodeable words (albeit not fluently enough to read a book, he can read a simple sentence). He also has a great imagination and makes his toys all talk and have personalities (!).

I just worry about him, knowing how pushed teachers are and wanted to know it panned out for similar children? Did they make adequate progress at school? Did they enjoy reception?

I just want to emphasise that I have tried hard to let him lead because I believed there was plenty of time for school stuff later - it has been mostly led by him - I have not coached him or forced anything at all.

Thanks for any input .

[mymumsweats]

Ds was reading sentences at 3 etc. and sounds similar to your ds. He's only maybe a year ahead with his reading but is a summer bday so that's good and he is doing some year 2 stuff in maths.

So far in reception he hasn't been bored at all. Never said he's bored and he loves it. They do so much fun stuff and the 3Rs are just a tiny part of it.

I don't think he learns that much academically at school which is ok as he is happy and we make up for it when he comes home (led by him). And of course he's only four.

The whole class sessions at carpet time on phonics have not brought anything new to his reading as he knew them all but he has not been bored. I'm a little more worried by year 1 when the lessons might become slightly less play based and he might get bored.

I'd look for a school for him which differentiates well and has a positive attitude towards this sort of thing.
I'd also say, be careful not to put the idea of him finding it boring into his head. Not saying you would but I suspect that happens sometimes in this situation.

[mymumsweats]

Sorry but I don't agree Pixie that lots of kids this age do this. He is just turned three and is doing things that the vast majority in a typical reception class won't be doing at the end of the year.

The Op's ds might or might not be a genius and won't be the only one anywhere but to give the impression this is the level of lots of 3.0 year olds is just plain wrong.

Also yes there might be some plateauing but again I doubt "many" plateau...more like some or a few surely?

The thing is yes they are only 4 and reception is about learning to be at school but if 'every child matters' and they should all have 'learning journeys' in all areas, so should her ds and he's going to be at a very different stage to the general curriculum when he starts school.

[StealthPolarBear]

wow really?
DS is coming up to 3, can identify a handful of letters, his name and count up to 20 ish. I thought he was doing pretty well

[mymumsweats]

Really he is Stealth. That's the level the average child would be at going into reception.

[MilaMae]

I don't think it's that unusual especially with EYFS. I also think it varies from area to area. I've taught in some schools were it certainly isn't uncommon at all,others where there would only be 1 or 2.

In answer to the op if it's a half decent school he'll be fine,they'll be well used to differing abilities on intake. My son was absolutely fine and loved reception.

[StrikeUpTheBand]

Hi,

Thanks for all of the replies. It is interesting to hear of your experiences.

Pixie, I am a reception teacher myself and this is why I am worried. I am very aware of children in my reception class who can read already to some degree, and although they are definitely enjoying reception because of the child-initiated play, and can receive some individual attention, I don't believe they can make as much progress as they should because the curriculum is built on an assumption that children are starting reading from scratch almost. The truth is, in my school (and I suspect in many schools in this area and a lot of the country), many of the children haven't even reached the national average by the time they finish reception. Yet, my little boy, 3 about a week ago, is already reading labels around the supermarket off his own bat, can tell the time, can read the numbers on houses etc. I have a good working knowledge of the early learning goals and he has already ticked a large number of them off for recepion, and he doesn't even start nursery until September. And my point is, while I am proud of him, I know from a teacher point of view that these children aren't actually moved on with their learning as much as they should because the teacher has to deal with the children who make up a significant minority who spend all year struggling to learn the basic sounds. I have not had the opportunity to work in the sort of school where children come to me reading - in my school 80% of the children come to us with what could be described as emergent levels of spoken English. It's very impressive actually that they have caught up to national average by the end of KS1.

Mymumsweats, your DS sounds like he is getting the best he can from reception. Maybe you're right - my DS may not need the literacy and maths aspects as he seems self-motivated, but I am just hoping that it isn't a problem and he doesn't switch off when he realises he can do it already and not switch on again. I remember being able to read fluently at 5 and reading my reading book again and again because I don't think my teacher realised!

[MilaMae]

But don't all teachers differentiate.

My son was the same as the op's. Everybody does individual reading so it's easy to stretch a child with that. My son certainly was. He also learnt masses from Letters and Sounds. Even though he could read them already,he certainly wasn't putting all the phonemes into his writing.

I'd mention the numeracy but most teachers worth their salt would assess him and work accordingly.

[DilysPrice]

DD was in a similar position (although she's an August baby, so she started school aged 4 and 3 days, don't know how old your DS will be) and it worked out absolutely fine (in a very good inner city community primary with a fairly challenged intake). Reception teacher was very flexible, DD was learning lots of other stuff so didn't mind coasting a tiny bit during some of the whole-class literacy, and she stayed motivated and interested throughout.
DH attended a lesson once, and told me that when they got to the group literacy bit where they had to shout out the words they recognised on the board, DD stayed silent until right at the end when the rest of the kids said "And now it's time for DD's words" and the teacher did a couple of polysyllabic words specially for her - it was clearly a regular part of the routine that everyone enjoyed.
I think it's important for you to make friends with the teacher, if that relationship works well then it really helps.

(Also I was in the same situation myself when I was tiny, and had a bloody minded teacher who insisted that I re-read every single Janet and John book and not skip bits, and it didn't do my long term academic achievements any harm, although it drove my mother to distraction).

[mrz]

By StrikeUpTheBand Mon 15-Mar-10 17:28:40
I don't believe they can make as much progress as they should because the curriculum is built on an assumption that children are starting reading from scratch almost.

but the curriculum is also based on personalised learning and providing for every child's needs so it is up to the teacher to ensure they do progress and not assume they are starting from scratch. If children have completed the ELGs I would teach to the NC as the document indicates.

[primarymum]

Strikeuptheband,
what would YOU do if a child came into your own Reception class of similar ability to your own son. Just as , if a good teacher, I am sure you would ensure that the work is differentiated to suit the child's needs, the same should be expected of your own child's teacher. If you do it, why would they not?

[mymumsweats]

What I just don't get is that even if the intention to do that is there MRZ how can it really be able individualised learning when there are 30 kids in the class and only a limited amount of time for individual reading/ one on one work?

[paisleyleaf]

I'm wondering the same as primarymum.
It seems odd that a teacher has such little confidence in school.
I was concerned about my DD starting school reading a bit already and being good with numbers. But I'm not a teacher.
As it turns out she seems to be thriving (so far) and is happy. I think knowing stuff already gives her confidence.
They have this (controversial on here) gifted and talented thing now so that teachers have to cater for these children.

[mumto2andnomore]

Im a foundation stage teacher too and do find it odd that you are worried about this. Do you not differentiate in your own class ? How would you deal with a bright child like yours ?

[fatsatsuma]

I'm also a primary school teacher, and I would disagree with Pixie that many 3 year- olds are at the level of the OP's ds.

I can really empathize with your concerns, StrikeUpTheBand. My ds1 was very similiar to yours, and we live in an area where, as in your experience, many children have very low literacy levels when they start school.

Just to encourage you, however, he did NOT plateau out, and has continued to be strongly self-motivating and a great independent learner. His reception/Year 1 teacher allowed him to move at his own pace and he had an IEP which gave him a bit of 1:1 time with a TA to pursue things he was interested in. He had a reading age of 13.6 when he was 6, and now aged 11 is passionate about science and still loves reading.

He has had issues with handwriting because he taught himself to write aged 3, and at KS1 his idiosyncratic letter formation was never corrected.

But that aside, he has been very happy at school and is lucky to have ended up at a school where there are some other very bright kids so they are going at the same pace.

Your ds won't necessarily switch off once he gets to school. If he is self-motivated, he will enjoy learning and find ways to feed his hungry brain. My ds has always spent hours reading and pursuing his current interests, and has never complained of being bored at school. As others have pointed out, there is so much more going on at school than just the 3Rs.

I also agree with mymummysweats about the sorts of things you should be looking for when choosing a school.

[siblingrivalryisrelative]

I was going to ask the same question. How can you, as a reception class teacher, not know how they will stretch him?

Have you never had a child in your class as 'advanced' as you think your DS is?!

[piscesmoon]

I wouldn't worry about it, there will be others. As a teacher I would be thrilled to have one who could already read. They do differentiate! Even if they all start at the same point on day 1 they will be at different stages by day 7.It isn't possible to keep them all at the same point.

[Mrsdoasyouwouldbedoneby]

This is the case for an acquaintance of mine. Her DS could read before he attended school. Her DS's school do the same reading system as my DS''s School (RML), and they start very slowly when they first enter reception... because of this, he was fast tracked to yr one after xmas (for RML time). Handwriting is harder, but he is actually ahead of my DS (who is in yr1) in the system... in fact he is near the end of the system... something not expected for most children till yr2...

If the school is good they WILL make for exceptions.

Again, they do challenge those ahead in maths at my DS's school... some where working with addition/subtraction with big numbers crossing the 10's in yr 1... so 32+12 or something, brain can't remember (might have been more complex). DS is not that far ahead! But again I say, any school worth its salt will work with children like this!

[StrikeUpTheBand]

To answer your question, I know if I was his teacher how I'd like to stretch him, but last year in my class we had 1 teacher and 1 TA (who was mostly attending to the child with severe autism who was violent and the child with cerebral palsy in a wheelchair as they were only given 12 hours of integration support per week). There was also a group of 6 who had absolutely minimal English. I had 16 children who came to me already with IEPs.

I am not a negligent teacher but you can see how if a child with DS's needs had arrived in class it would have been a challenge. There would have been noone even halfway close, and since we were expected to get at least 80% of these children to at least point 6 of the ELGs for everything, and we were mostly starting from scratch.

I do realise it will not be like that in some areas and in some schools, and that there are quite a few 3-year-olds reading, but given what I've seen of the schools in my area, I don't think it's that common around here.

[Mrsdoasyouwouldbedoneby]

Can you not (in tyour school), refer children to higher classes for literacy and numeracy? That really is an option isn't it? I'm sure you would have to have done that as a teacher if there was no other resource.

Am also shocked at your school's funding for those children... If I was one of those parents I'd be seething that my child wasn't given more support (not the schools fault... I know).

[StrikeUpTheBand]

Mumto2andnomore, I do have exceptional children in my class but they are barely above the national average in reality. I have paired them up across classes before with a similar child in the other reception class but not always as we had timetabling constraints.

Thanks to people who replied with their own children's experiences. It is nice to know that your children still enjoyed school. I think he will get a lot out of being in school because bright as he is he's still a young child who needs to learn a lot more than numbers and letters. I think it will probably help that we are aware of his needs before school and can warn his teachers who will hopefully make allowances.