Are lots of pre-reception 4 year olds reading ?

We have 3 children. 1 read before reception class. On her own.

I wouldn't worry about it.

Goodness. Obviously people can do whatever they like. I’m just saying it’s not necessary as the OP is fretting that it is.

Hyperlexia is very strongly linked with Autism but not always a sign the child/adult is also autistic. I did a course once which partly focused on it and I'm sure it was mentioned that about 80% of those who had hyperlexia were also autistic.

@BrieAndChilli I asked this upthread - is hyperlexia (true hyperlexia, where a child is a self taught extremely early reader) always an autistic trait?

I have 3 children. DD and DS2 couldn’t read before going to school.
DS1 however could. He was assessed by Ed psych when he was in reception and had a reading age of 14, he had hyperlexia and high functioning ASD.
So it is possible for a 4 year old to be reading but not usual and often a sign of something.
every child is different. I don’t think now DS1 is 17 you could tell who was an early reader and who wasn’t because once everyone gets to a certain level of reading there’s not much further you can go!
mon the other hand DS1 didn’t utter a single sound apart from ‘uh’ until he was 2.5, in fact I’m fairly certain he could read before he could talk. I know I’d rather have a NT child who couldn’t read until they were in primary school than an early reader with other difficulties.

@Didimum I agree.There is no 'standard' or checklist for what is necessary. Other than the EYFS curriculum as guidance for development. But parents can and do teach their children to read before starting school. This is parental choice. And perhaps also led by a child's interest and curiosity. The national curriculum isn't perfectly designed. Parents have the freedom to choose what to teach/engage their kids in outside of formal education. The op asked a question and has had a range of responses,which is perhaps indicative of the range of ability that children have when entering reception. You responded to my comment, and I have back. My ideas are only based on my experience. But low level literacy is a barrier to success and so encouragement and engagement with reading, from an early age, is in my opinion an essential foundation for young people.

Sure, but it’s not necessary pre-reception. Low literacy pre-reception is not indicative of low literacy in later childhood. It’s also not necessary to get defensive.

As a reception teacher. Please don’t.
It is literally my job to teach children to read and it makes it a lot harder when I have to unteach a lot of mistakes and bad habits that children come to school with when they can ‘already read’.

Mine was reading competently at 4. He started school at 5 (we are not in the UK). He was able to read the parental instructions that we were given with the school readers. The school were brilliant with him and allowed him as much reading time as he wanted when class work was finished. 20 years later he still reads avidly.

My DS turned 4 last month. He is quite clever and is academically ready for school.

He can identify every upper and lowercase letter and give the correct sound phonetically, but doesn't always apply those sounds to words correctly. He can "sight read" certain words that he sees frequently. He can count to 100, and backwards from 20.

Emotionally, I think he will struggle. He does not handle transitions well and tends to get overwhelmed when changing activities. He clings to me, his preferred nursery teacher, and closest friends. He is also being assessed for ADHD, which comes with its own struggles.

Swings and roundabouts. Every child has different strengths and weaknesses, but they nearly always adapt to school in the end!

DS is going to school in Sept. At the parents meeting we were actively told not to teach the kids to read. They said it takes longer to unpick poorly taught technique than starting from scratch. DS can blend phonics to make v simple words eg (h-o-t…hot) but is a long way off reading. I think he’s slightly ahead of his peers in what he can do so I think being able to read is definitely an outlier.

@Didimum Yes, I appreciate that many parents might be unaware of phonics, but there is plenty of information for parents online and on school websites etc for people to learn. Many schools have online videos etc to help parents. As likely, they will need to learn in order to support their child with phonics as they progress. Some parents will choose to learn and involve themselves, others won't. This is ultimately parental choice. I'm a secondary teacher and low literacy levels are a huge barrier for many, so as a family we prioritise literacy and numeracy in an age appropriate way.

A handful can, but it's not standard. Both of mine could, as could I.

But they're both hyperlexic, autistic and have ADHD. Academically, speech, comprehension wise, they're wildly ahead. Socially, not so much! Same as me.

I would say if a child actually can read before school age, as in properly read not just have some words memorised/recognise some etc then actually it's often an indicator of more 'going on'.

Encourage your child to enjoy books and stories as a pleasure, regular storytime is the most positive thing you can do here. Don't worry about the technicalities of learning to read, that's for the teachers to sort out with your support and encouragement at home.

My 3yo can read and write, use cutlery, dress herself, go to the bathroom herself and all of that stuff. But her staying power is awful. So our current prep for reception is that every day we choose an activity and then set a timer, and she has to sit and do the activity until the timer goes. We've slowly gone from two minutes to 15 minutes. I couldn't give a stuff if the activity is reading or just banging some drums to be honest 🤣

My eldest was entirely different, and would sit for hours doing arts and crafts, playing with playdoh etc, but couldn't read properly until half way through reception.

My point is that all kids have their strengths and weaknesses. I wouldn't worry about it.

Of course some four year olds can read! My DTs could read at 3. By the time they went to Kindergarten at four they had excellent reading and comprehension skills. They could also dress themselves, use cutlery, write their full names and copy writing and swim a length. Not all children can and some may never manage it but many do.

Literally this, my son (now 7) back then could recognize the books from our shelf by the look & from the way I read it to him..(overly panto emphasizing word.. poor him!) no child needs to know how to read that early

4 year olds reading before they start reception is common enough to be unremarkable, not so common that you need to worry if yours can't.

Fwiw, mine could read before starting. I don't entirely know how, they just seemed to get it from being read to a lot. But one needed extra help writing and was quite behind the curve there. Different kids move at different paces.

They are all so different. My almos-4year old Ds (younger sibling so has learned a lot by osmosis) knows all his phonics sounds and has started blending (not with nursery, he’s just naturally started to do it). He is also very good at numbers and can count up to 100, can count in 2s and 3s (this is definitely a result of hearing his big sister sing the songs she used to learn the times tables). We are very VERY relaxed about this stuff - don’t press or push him to do anything - but we do incorporate it into normal life, lots of games etc. and allow him to follow things he is interested in. For instance one day he said “I can count all the way to 100” so I just said “OK, go on then” and he did.

HOWEVER he will not entertain writing at all. He can just about form the wobbly short form of his name, but he is just not interested at all. I try and encourage mark making in other ways - painting with water, drawing in the dirt with a stick etc, circling the differences in spot the difference which he loves, because I’m worried he will get a bit of a shock at school being asked to try and write all of a sudden. But deep down I know he’ll be ok and they’ll all be at vastly different stages.

I’m also sure he will struggle with school lunches. Very picky eater. May be ND I am not sure yet.

by contrast my first born at his age:

1. knew phonics sounds but no blending at all
2. ok at numbers - could count to 20 and recognise groups (eg the four dots on a dice without having to count them)
3. would sit at her little table and write / scribble / draw / colour / cut and stick for HOURS every day. Writing was and is a joy and a hobby for her!

Anyway all the children entering reception will be at different stages, I’m sure your child will be just fine!

Just to reassure people whose children can't read at 4...

I did everything that people say on here... Read to her from birth. Books as presents. Looking at the pictures, talking about them... she LOVED books. She just couldn't turn those squiggles into letters and words and remember them.

The first few years of Primary were hard. We would have a leap.. then stagnate again. Honestly, it was Yr6 before she really caught up. In a way, Covid homeschooling was a blessing as we went at her pace not the expected pace for a bit.

Anyway... shes now in Yr8 at Secondary. She is doing extremely well academically. Struggling a bit in English and languages, but Maths Science etc... top half of top set. Thats her strength. And she could barely count to 10 in Reception.

What her there was her own persistence. We helped as parents, as did some of the brilliant teachers she had. But the biggest marker on her success is hard work. Thats the most important thing... a good work ethic.

Well my DS is really enjoying it. We go on holiday to the Lakes often so I think he imagines himself as one of the characters - he’s been acting bits out this weekend using the climbing frame as an island.

Maybe if you returned to it as an adult you wouldn’t find it so boring? But also - people do have different tastes.

Swallows and Amazons, that’s the pre-Harry Potter brag book. I was reading Roald Dahl at that age and remember my mother trying to push that book on me all the time. Maybe it was more challenging, but my god it was boring. Literally just seems to exist as a book so people can say they actually read it to the end, like Lord of the Rings.

My kid was reading at three. That was just us recognising that his strengths and interests are learning and building (Lego, meccano etc) over football and skateboarding, and nurturing it. He was very easy to teach. It’s harder for me when I take him out skating or playing football and rugby.

If they're interested then great but definitely not essential, my DDs could recognise letters and start reading basic words but we didn't really do reading with them before reception, we read to them a lot. My 3.5yo nephew can recognise a lot of letters but not read or write.
Practical things like getting own shoes & coat on, opening lunchbox and sharing toys are more useful things to work on before starting reception anyway rather than stressing about reading.

As an aside, why is Harry Potter always referred to as if it is some kind of major reading milestone?

The language and sentence structures etc are not at all interesting or complex - on a par with eg Enid Blyton or Roald Dahl which no one ever seems to brag about - but the stories/concepts are dark and scary and not really suitable for small children.

My year 1 child is currently reading Swallows and Amazons which is both much more age appropriate in terms of the story and much more challenging in terms of reading skills. The classics generally are great for this - Paddington, Tom’s Midnight Garden, The Secret Garden - and Katherine Rundell’s novels if you want something more modern.

This!