To be fed up with primary teachers holding readers back due to ‘comprehension’?

This really frustrates me when teachers can't understand that speech delays are isolated expressive delays and do not always affect understanding. Edited: as I said at all which isn't true.

Sometimes our children's expressive language (how they get their words out) doesn't always catch up at the same pace as their receptive language (what they understand) when they have a significant speech delay, and it's unfair to expect them to suddenly develop this skill especially if there is an underlying cause.

I had something similar with my daughter back in the 1990s. She was a prodigious reader but they had a ridiculous rule that placed a barrier level for each year group that no child could go past. As she was a fluent reader when she started school, it was total madness. And she did understand what she was reading. But her teacher's hands were tied.

I then went to the head and really had to fight my corner. He then called her teacher in who confirmed that my daughter understood what she was reading (much to his clear disappointment) and 'as an exception' DD was allowed to progress through the levels beyond the barrier.

I had the advantage of being a teacher though, and so could argue my case educationally in a way that other parents might not have been able to.

I'm disappointed that this kind of thing is still an issue in some schools.

This is way too common I think. A friend had this last year with her DD. Friend is the literacy coordinator at another primary school, and raised it many times with the teacher. She brought books home from work.

My own DC have been held longer on a level than necessary because they are not reading with expression.

I've been teaching kids to read over 25 years. The current system removed professional judgement, is backed by pseudo-science, and removes any joy there might have been in getting lost in a book.
Ignore school and enjoy your own books at home.

I am a Teaching Assistant coming working with adults. The adults I work with are people who haven't achieved GCSE English (and/or Maths) at school and now the lack of it is holding them back in employment. Some of these people come to us straight onto GCSE courses, others are several levels behind this.

I have a one-to-one with every student at the start of the year to see what they find easy/hard/what they needs support with etc. The number of people who say some version of "I can read, but I don't feel like I've fully got the meaning of the text" is high, and often it's what people feel is holding them back in life, because in the real world you read to understand. If you are reading some instructions, a pay slip, a memo about something in the office, a report on your child's schooling. or your workplace structure and you don't really understand it, then being able to read it doesn't really help you!

If you actually mean that the school is refusing to accept your child's explanation of what they have read because his teachers don't understand every word of his explanation, then that is really bad and you need to be talking to the school about how they are failing to meet your son's communication needs like big time! However if your child is really failing to understand what he is reading, please be working on why this is and how to help him understand, not push for him to get harder reading because he can read!

You need to talk to your child's teacher. Comprehension is really important. The ability to sound words out correctly is the base (like learning times tables) but it's the ability to guess what might happen next, to understand what has happened that's crucial to navigate the world around them, to create written pieces of work etc.

I like the idea that they want children to understand what they are reading but surely they need to adapt how they do this to meet additional needs. I’d push back on this.

You need to discuss this with the school. The system we use does use multiple choice questions to assess comprehension so you might want to check what they are using (ours is AR).

Comprehension is important. I have a lot of good readers in my phonics group, yet some of them haven't moved up due to lack of understanding. They read the words on the page but have no idea what they have just read. We spend some time talking about the words and how they might be spelt the same but have different meanings e.g. minute could be a minute of time, or minute as in very small, so it's important they understand the rest of the sentence to know which pronunciation and meaning is being used.

My youngest had a reading level way in advance of her writing, but had to complete all the written answers before moving on. We ignored the books sent home and carried on with chapter books at home. She did the tick box work at school and enjoyed reading fluently at home.

We had this albeit years ago. It’s of course important that they understand what they’re reading but at times it was more about protracted comprehension exercises which went too far. I remember the teacher telling me once that my DC got 91% in the test which wasn’t good enough but they’d put her through as it was borderline. It turned out the answers DC was giving to very specific (and a bit odd) questions about bee-keeping were more detailed than the system required due to the fact a relative knew about it and had discussed the process with her.

I found the whole thing frustrating. Clearly it’s only a short period of their school life but made reading at school really boring. The 32 page book about bike parts and head injuries for not wearing helmets was not a high point either…..

It was years ago and said child has just graduated with an English degree and is still a great reader and articulate so all’s well that ends well - but I definitely remember the frustration. There did seem to be a system of putting a large number of hoops for the ones who read well early so the official reading level gap with the others in the class wasn’t too big.

Yes I saw that happening in my kids primary school. Not that it was “approved of” but answers ryat would show comprehension at a deeper level. However not sure what deeper level there is when Biff, Kipper and others travel through the ages 😆😆😆

anyway do buy your own books. Thats what I did. I explained to the kids that those books are homeworks, and those ones are pleasure. We used to go to the bookshop 3/4 times a month, and the library.

Have you discussed with someone above this teacher to ask why they are discriminating against someone with a speech issue?

He can read and understand and show that he understands by answering written questions. I assume he could write the a sentence with the answers the teacher is looking for? He can’t just do multiple choice; he needs to be able to come up with the answer himself and not just tick a multiple choice.

I have never heard of another school doing this and I disapprove in the strongest terms. To the extent that I would consider changing schools.

I despise reading bands of all kinds - they absolutely inhibit reading (I was extremely slow to learn to read as a child - absolutely stuck and wag behind everyone else - until I finally had a teacher who let me skip out all the banded books and take home an actually enjoyable chapter book - then I more or less taught myself to read fluently in a night. )

Most primary schools seem to favour book bands sadly. But to inhabit your son's progress through them due to his speech delay is absolutely disgusting.

Definitely go in to speak to the teacher. And meanwhile, get him some actually interesting reading books for home if you can. And totally ignore the books he is sent home with, and tell the teacher that's what you intend to do.

I mean, way to make the poor boy hate reading.....

I assume school are well aware of his speech delay? What have they said about letting him show his understanding in different ways? Are they doing this?