DS is just memorising his reading books

[SleepFreeZone]

I'm covering the pictures the second time round as he's just using them as a prompt. The third time round he is menerising the full story so I'm having to cover the pictures and read the pages out of sequence 🙄

Is this normal or he is just being particularly awkward?

[victoire1208]

I think this is a thing. I have heard some mums at my dds school say this has gone on. I would mention it to the teacher. Surely they have ways of dealing with these wily little geniuses.

[SleepFreeZone]

I have a little parents afternoon today so I'll mention it. I think at this stage it probably doesn't matter as there's not much of a story so reading it front to back or back to front makes no difference!

[BetterEatCheese]

Dd's teacher said this is fine and a part of learning to read as is using the pictures as prompts. Dd did it for a couple of months and then stopped

[SleepFreeZone]

I've been watching quite a few phonics videos recently where they discourage allowing the child to be prompted by the pictures. Hence me trying to stop him doing it.

[Anditstartsagain]

It's part of learning to read nothing to worry about. We do pointing to words and sentences/pages out of order.

[Jafinar]

Often there's children become very able readers OP. I'd not worry!

[SleepFreeZone]

Thanks jafinar. I hope you're right!

[Feenie]

You're right, OP, your ds shouldn't be using strategies which encourage guessing, and teachers shouldn't be encouraging this as a strategy either. It has no place in learning to decode, only learning to guess.

Are the books from a decodable scheme or or they a Look and Say scheme (which encourages guessing, and does not match the NC).

[Arkadia]

My DD1 was the same. Out of a Biff and chip book we could get 2 goes, then we could close the book and she could go on quite happily ;) actually that happened earlier as well when she would be read to; after a while should "read" the book back to you. I think it is quite normal (which makes the case for changing early books as often as possible).

[Norestformrz]

I agree with feenie, teachers shouldn't be encouraging children to use these ineffective strategies and certainly shouldn't be misinforming parents. This isn't a part of learning to read it's part of learning to guess.
How often are his books changed? Memorising short books is a problem if books aren't changed often enough. Would he recognise the same words in a different book or is he simply parroting what he's read previously?

[BarbarianMum]

Normal. Just read them twice and move in to the next book.

[ragged]

Normal.
They are still learning what reading is like, what the physical experience is like. It's okay to practice that a bit, too.
Change books if you can, obviously.

[Whynotnowbaby]

My dd is in y1 now so beyond the really short memorisable books but I’m confused and a bit concerned we did it wrong. Are you supposed to read school books more than once? We just did each book as it came in (and she had usually read one of the two at school already so I had similar issues with it feeling like she had memorised it rather than was really reading). Doesn’t it get really boring (for both of you) to keep reading the same thing?

[Mayhemmumma]

I think it's all part of learning to read. My DD has a brill memory and knows our many, many home books of by heart. She changes her school book almost every school day and interestingly when she chooses a non-fiction fact type book it's much harder for her to guess the words than in a story. But I really wouldnt worry, she's 6 now and her reading is great.

[Ekphrasis]

My personal opinion is that some children, particularly boys for some reason, can be easily turned off reading, so just to go with it at home but make a note in the record that the book was memorised. Let the teachers deal with the actually reading skills in school.

Early reading books can be deathly dull to a child who is being regularly read to. If they're memorising it, get them to read it backward

[Ekphrasis]

*Backwards

[JenniferYellowHat1980]

OP, if you want your DS to enjoy reading you need to lighten up. You can't expect him not to start to memorise the story the third time through. I don't mean to be rude.

[Capelin]

I agree. At this stage it doesn’t really matter, the important thing is that he’s enjoying it.

[SleepFreeZone]

Jennifer you're quite right, with the short repetitive books it would be strange not to memorise it.

Well I was worrying about nothing anyhow as his teacher said he's doing really well at school across the board and will hit the government targets (hanging previously thought he wouldn't). So I'm over the moon.

[Feenie]

Decodable books aren't usually repetitive.

Look and Say have to be.

[Strongvegetables]

It’s totally normal, I thought the same. It’s the series of repetitive word books. Dd is doing one book a day and is flying through them

[Bythebeach]

How many times are you reading the books? How do you have time?? We get a new one each day and read it once!

[BertieBotts]

Apparently I used to do this. I did it from about 3 years old apparently. My mum recalls my dad going downstairs open mouthed and revealing that I'd just "read" all of the three little pigs to him word for word, turning the pages at the right time etc. It's then in my school records that I was reading totally new books on my own by 4 so I must have got there in the end!

[MrsKCastle]

While it's natural for children to memorize short books, it won't help with their reading. I would not read those early books more than twice in one go (what I mean is, ok to come back to the same book 3 weeks later). I would then change the book. If school weren't supportive of changing books often, I would start writing my own simple sentences using the words and sounds that the child knows and practise that way. Or look at subscribing to Reading Chest for more books.