Why would a childs reading age drop significantly?

[streetdog]

Dd has always been a strong reader. Far ahead from reception. Started reading before she went to school. She has sen and it was her one strong point.

In year two her reading age was 8 years something.

In year five she had an officially assessed by ed psych reading age of 12.02.
She was 9.10 years

In year 7 she was a reading age of 12.02 and was 12.04 years.

Now her reading age is 11 years and she is 13.03

Makes no sense.

[Gizlotsmum]

Does she still enjoy reading? Does she do it regularly?

[Lonecatwithkitten]

How much is she reading? As I understand it not reading very much can mean your skill deteriorates.

[Micah]

Those reading ages are very specific.

I think it's more likely she's plateaued with her "reading age", and its difference is assesment or measurement that appear to have her going backwards.

Is the difference between a child who is 11 years and 1 month measureably different to one who is 11 years and 2 months?

"Reading age" must become a senseless measurement at some point.

[streetdog]

She does read at home.
I do find it hard to motivate her though as her secondary school have a primary type reading system. I.e they have to choose books between certain levels and there is limited choice. They HAVE to read them but i would rather dd learned to read for pleasure.

[Acorn44]

Was one measurement from primary and another for secondary? Or from two different schools? In my school we have noticed that different tests can give quite different results, especially if one test is just a 'read the sentence aloud' type, another requires answers in sentences and another is a tick box style comprehension. We have also noticed a small difference depending on who does the test and the style in which they do it - ie friendly and relaxed or else very serious and possibly over-whelming).

I would not worry too much, providing your DC continues to read as much as possible. Perhaps raise your concerns with the teacher (or SENCO if secondary?).

[streetdog]

Yes the second two are secondary.

The primary one was a neale test.
The secondary is read this book from the screen and answer questions.

I am only bothered because it keeps saying they have to have a reading age of 14.4 for gcses.

[eyebrowsonfleek]

Has she had her eyesight checked? My dd (age 13) got her first pair of glasses recently because her eyesight has deteriorated from too much phone use.

[eyebrowsonfleek]

Somebody might know the tests in detail but are the tests equal? Is there a chance that the person administering the test gave too much help in primary or did not explain clearly in the secondary?
My understanding was that reading tests are not very accurate and you could administer it to a child 3 days running and get different results each day.

[ChablisTyrant]

Neale tests a mixture of accuracy, fluency and comprehension. I suspect the screen one in secondary is a comprehension test that students can complete without supervision.

A good reader might not do so well if they don't find the text interesting, or can't understand the arguments made in the text. Any number of reasons really.

[PrincessHairyMclary]

Work at a Secondary and we use Accelerated Reader which sounds similar to what your Dd does. There are two types of tests STAR reading test which are used for assessing baseline reading ages and then book tests. The students read their books and then have to answer comprehension style tests on their books their result gives a reading level and a grade they can choose their books from. The reason that some of our students don't do as well as they could are normally because they aren't actually trying on the tests, don't read the questions properly and just click randomly OR quite frequently finish their book and then don't do the test for a week or two when they have forgotten the content and don't bother skimming through it to remin themselves what happened.

[HonniBee]

Are these ages from Accelerrated Reader by any chance?

This is a computer based quiz which students do as part a lesson. I saw strange fluctuations in my tutor groups reading ages time and time again. Often a conversation with the student would reveal they'd had an off day that day, had rushed the quiz, or even completed it randomly! They often aren't bothered about the results...

Perhaps ask the school if it's possible to retest to confirm the drop before you look into other interventions?

[HonniBee]

Cross post, Princess!

[chocolateworshipper]

Different tests will give different results. It could also be that she simply didn't enjoy the book, or perhaps read it over too long a time period and couldn't remember enough to score well on comprehension. Does she have any other signs of dyslexia - e.g. poor spelling and/or handwriting? If so, it could be that she now needs a covered overlay for the longer texts.

[Autumnsky]

Maybe it's because vocabulary? The book she read in the test has some vocabulary she is not familiar with? And the abililty to read behind the lines?
Sometimes, once your reading ability reach a stage, you start to enjoy the books, but when you meet any words you know, you may just skip it. This way, your reading age may not go up, but you may read lots of books.

Just my guessing.

[user789653241]

What Autumn says makes sense.
Recommend this site.

www.readtheory.org/

[streetdog]

Thank you all. Will check out that link.

She does use overlays already. She has awful spelling but because her reading age has previously been so high they won't test her for dyslexia despite words jumping on the page etc.

[streetdog]

Yes the second are accelerated reading.

[BertrandRussell]

That online test is really difficult! I am a very literate adult who reads a lot, and I got timed out on one question because I couldnMt decide between two answers.......