Reading Why is it soo important

[thecloudhopper]

Why is it sooo important to so many parents to get their children reading soo early?

[mrsmaidamess]

Competitiveness? Because they don't know any better?

[thecloudhopper]

I know. To me (someone who works in a school) teaching children basic skills like making sure they can put their own coat on, making sure they can go to the toilet without help, making sure they can feed themselves is far more importnat than how well they read.

Understanding basic social rules like if someone has got the toy you want you do not lob them over the head and snatch it off them .

Sorry rant over

[Littlefish]

Because it's something they can compare with other people's children, or tell the grandparents about.

[deanychip]

What actually "reading" before they even get through the school gates?
is this what you mean?

I dont get that.

I think that if a child shows an interest and an ability...you would encourage them but its not soemthing tha i would consider so important.
REALLY, reading before they start school? Do you know someone who thinks that this is vital cloudhopper?

[motherinferior]

I frequently appear to be the only MNer whose children arrived at school illiterate.

[Hulababy]

It isn't important.

Some children do show an early interest themselves and some may even want to learn to read before they start school. So long as they take the lead and are not pushed, and it is donenaturally without flashcards, etc. then fair enough.

But I see no benefit to pushign a child to read. What better way to put them off to start with?

I would say that pripor to starting school people should be more interested in the social side of things and also ensuring their child is independent in being able to go to the toilet, eat their dinner nicely, how to share, how to get changed for PE, how to listen and pay attention for short periods of time, etc.

In terms of educational stuff I thing pre reading skills are pretty good oo - which way to read a book, where the title is, being able to listen to a story and take it in, being able to talk about what the story might be ablt and then what it was about, and whether they liked it and why. And some knowledge of some letters can give them a good start too.

[francagoestohollywood]

No darling MI (good to see you by the way ). Ds started reception being completely illiterate. And didn't learn much in the yr he spent there. He is learning now, age 6, and in Italian, which is much easier

[thecloudhopper]

no just there seems to be so many messages on here about how do i get my 3 year old to read and should my 4 year old read and all this. Yes I agree if a child shows an interent but some of the threads make it sound like reading is the be all and end all, just wnated other people perspectives.

[fluffles]

i was born into a house full of books to two reading parents, when i was 3 and 4yrs old there was NOTHING i wanted more than to learn to read like mummy and daddy.

i learned from following the words when i got bedtime stories at about 4yo and developed a lifelong love of reading myself but i was bored out of my skull at school subsequently while waiting for my peers to catch up - i'd secretly read ahead at carpet time and would read every reading book cover to cover on the first night home and then pretent to be reading it page by page with the rest of the group.... i really wouldn't advise pushing kids to read early unless they really really want to as it is definitely a double-edged sword.

[deanychip]

See now apostrophe i get why you encourage it, you are giving your son a head start, but we are talking about parents who as another poster pointed out, want to know how to get their child to read aged 3 or 4 just because.....
The OP is posing the question, why is it so important.
You have answered that from your pov.
Its going back to this "competitive" angle perhaps, so that parent can say "my child could read at 3" the sole intention is to make every one else feel inadequate perhaps?

You can also see it as giving your child a head start which means that you are only wanting what is best for them, but what is the rush, aged 3 is so little and learning to read is a big thing to shoe horn into their busy playing day.

I dont perseve you to be pushy at all!

[blackrock]

Pre reading skills are important.

Sharing books teaches the ability to know which words are likely to be in the text, predict events from pictures and predict storylines.

It also enriches their language/word bank.

It familiarizes children with grammatical patterns that we do not use commonly in speech.

It fosters a love of story and enriches imagination.

Listening and looking games foster the skill of looking carefully and hearing sounds, important pre skills for phonics.

These skills are more important than a young child reading fluently, although some children will/do at no detriment.

Reading is a vital skill, but a love of reading is different.

I know i have the knowledge to teach my child to read early and DS loves books, but he is not indicating that early structured reading is for him. I am going to go with the flow and teach him when he is ready, working on all the preskills in a casual manner until then.

We are working on sharing, dressing, eating, throwing and catching, running jumping, etc wihich are far more suited to him right now! DS 2.9 years so very young.

[FAQinglovely]

motherinferior - no you're not the only one - DS1 could recognise him name when he started reception (although only if it was printed - if I wrote it by hand he was stumped ) and he could only write a "T" (but didn't really know what it was)

DS2 could recognise his name written in any way, and could almost write his name when he started reception , but that's only because he bugged DS1 to teach him

[cory]

apostrophe on Fri 20-Feb-09 21:51:51
"Because 25% of boys leave primary school unable to read well enough to cope with secondary."

Yes but funnily enough, literacy levels have always been far higher in Scandinavia where formal learning does not start until the child is 6 or 7. Their rationale is that if you start making children read and write when many of them are not yet mature enough, a fair proportion will become discouraged and have given up the idea of education long before secondary school. I have certainly seen that happen here.

Also, in Scandinavia they have the idea that a child will learn to read and write better if they have something to read and write about; if they know a little about the world around them. Which is why early nursery education is very heavily centered on crafts, domestic skills and outdoor exploration.

Children then normally pick up reading very quickly once they start it. My nephew's teacher was getting a little worried when he was not a fluent reader after spending a whole year at school (the only one in the class).

[blackrock]

I agree Cory. The Scandinavian system gives children thorough pre reading skills because of the early informal learning. However, the pressure in this country for seven year olds to reach a set standard means that although Foundation stage has introduced a similar system, it does not link smoothly into year one and two IMO.

[cory]

But where do you get the idea that confusion will arise if he starts school without having learnt to read beforehand?

If you can teach him when he is 3, surely you can teach him when he is 4 or 5? I have taught my children loads of things since they started school. I certainly haven't found that any learning they are going to get from me has to be slotted in before they start school.

Instead, the support we were able to offer at home reinforced what they were learning at school; they felt we and the school were working together. My son does have mild SN but that didn't seem like a reason for pushing him to do things earlier. He can still have the 1-1 approach at home in the evenings.

[Alibabaandthe40nappies]

It's not really about getting ahead - for me it's just another way to interact with the world around you, it's the tool with which you learn so so many other things. Incredibly important IMO, and if a child shows an interest and an apptitude then why not let them learn?
My youngest brother is 6 years younger than me so I remember his babyhood/early childhood very well. He was desperate to do what the rest of us were doing, and bugged me to teach him to read. He loved it, and would be delighted with himself managing to read signs, adverts and anything else he could spot while we were out and about. He could read fluently before he went to school and really really enjoyed it. Fortunately school used to let him take his own books in for reading time so it was never a problem.