Can reception children read?

[ReadingGeniuses]

I went to DS' nativity this morning (he's in reception). There were 2 girls narrating the play, they were reading it off a script. I was quite confused. Can some children already read this fluently at that age? They hadn't memorised it, they were just reading. Are they geniuses? Or is this way more common than I realise?

I was an October baby so one of the oldest and was taught to read at home. I could read fluently when I started school.
I can't remember if that was usual though and my parents were pretty pushy.

It's different now too with phonics, I imagine it's less welcome if parents teach at home in another way.

Lots can but most wouldn't be able to read fluently out loud which is a different skill. I suppose they may have memorised a lot of it from practicing though

I was an early reader - I was totally off the reading scheme by the end of reception. But also you can learn things and look like you're reading them. I used to be able to "read" each peach pear plum while I was at preschool. I actually just knew the words and when to turn the pages.

My mum taught reception for years and I volunteered a lot in that class - the range of ability within the bounds of ‘normal’ is huge at that age (and most ages really) some will be reading well, others will be nowhere near yet but will get there.

But also - even if they were reading off a script they will also have practiced it a lot so will have memorised it to a degree, it won’t be the first time they’ve read it, the script
in their hands is the backup in case they forget

There’s usually one or two each year that can read in reception at my school.

In most schools the narrating children are year 2. There are reception children reading fluently but very few teachers would get them to do it under pressure.

They hadn't memorised it, they were just reading.

How could you possibly know this? There is no way that they were sight-reading and had not practised. They likely had it mostly memorised and looked at the words as a prompt.

I wouldn't say lots of kids can, but some can. Especially this early in reception. Often it's the more well off areas that have early readers. My nephew is in reception in a very deprived area and he is being taken to Y1 for phonics as he's on purple RWI. If he went to the school I worked in, he would be classed as doing well but within class range.
It's very rare for the kids to be this ahead in writing though, so going too far ahead in reading can actually be a bit of a nuisance, esp if the school uses RWI. They normally learn to read and write the sound at the same time.

@ReadingGeniuses I would expect reading books to be coming home from school though, even if very simple ones

I didn't teach either of my children to read. My son had delayed speech caused by bad glue ear as a tot, had speech therapy while he was at nursery school and I think this was one of the reasons he basically worked out for himself how to read. I was pushing him along in his pushchair one day and he suddenly read a word he could see on a billboard. I was gobsmacked. He arrived at Reception aged 4 and 3/4 and reading fairly fluently.

On the other hand, my daughter, who spoke early, loved books, had a huge vocabulary, clearly very bright, could not get the hang of reading at all in Reception or Year 1. I vividly remember hearing my husband looking at her school reading book with her. He asked her to identify the letters in a word, and she could do that. P. A. T. Great, he said. Now put them all together. But she couldn't. The idea of blending sounds appeared to be a huge problem for her. (Possibly related to being on the autistic spectrum, as we found out much later.) It all finally clicked in Year 2 and I'm convinced that what finally did it was that by that stage she'd got a large enough battery of words she'd learned to recognise on sight to be able to decode whole passages. She went from struggling to Level 3 in her year end SATs in a matter of weeks and was a voracious independent reader from that point forth.

My husband and I are similar. His Dad taught him at home and he started school reading fluently. My Mum, who was a primary school teacher, made a point of not teaching me in case I found it confusing. I vividly remember being baffled by what was going on in my first term at school when I was 5, but something slotted into place later that year and I was reading fluently by the time I was 6.

Long term, reading early or a bit later hasn't made the slightest difference to any of us.

So I wouldn't worry!

When my DS was in Reception none of them could read well enough to narrate but when my DD was, one of her friends could already read very well. It depends on the children.

I bet the narrators weren't in his year group. Ask the teachers and let us know

One of mine was reading by Christmas having started on the Sept being a writing and phonics refuser. School worked some kind of magic on that one!

The others were reading by Feb half term and easter.

~in not on, sorry, typo.

My DDs could both read pretty well before they started school and they are by no means geniuses.

DD could read going into school and was fluent by Christmas. DS2 can read and he is in pre-school. We do lots of phonics at home and use the same reading scheme their school does.
DS1 has had the same input as the other 2 but can’t read. He can recognise his name wrote down but can’t read and is only just starting to blend.

All children are different.

Yep this. I was a fluent reader before I even started school as my Mum thought it very important that I could read before I started reception.

Yes. My dd started last sept and by the end of first term /Xmas she was reading well

She reads every well now at end of first term year one and lots of words and few pics in the books she gets from school

Saying that there are some in her class who obv started at same time and can't read very well

I have always read to dd even as a baby and we read books every day even in holidays

And also agree with many PPs that all children are different!

Mine can similar words like
The cat can look at a book, and the dog sat on a log

2 in her class can read like novels! But no t understand what they havw read but could read
' the butterflies are beautiful creatures with many vibrant colors'

I know this as i volunteer in class with reading

My son could but all kids are different, there are lots that's still struggle in his class now and he's in year 2.

OP these posts must be making you panic. Seems everybody's son or daughter on Mumsnet were reading in the womb

Both DSs could read before they went to school.

My DS reads age appropriate books and he’s 3 (started when he was 2.5). But he loves books, stories, enjoyed phonics so preschool worked with him on it, playing word games, and I’ve always read to him with my finger following the words (I’m dyslexic) & he picked it up. He still can’t draw a straight line and hates even trying to pick up a pen so early reading probably isn’t a sign of academic brilliance on his part lol.

I have a theory that children either walk early or talk early and depending on that depends on how early they read, every child is different and every child enjoys different things. My youngest son is a fluent reader he’s in reception but he can’t draw for toffee, each child will read in the end it just takes differing lengths of time. Don’t stress about it or worry.

I learned to read because I sat either on my mum's lap or close beside her as she read and moved her finger along beneath the words. I learned the stories off by heart. So I got to memorise a lot of words that way, just by looking at them, and started guessing at others. I know that you're not 'supposed' to learn to read like that, but I did.

When it came to it years later, my own dc started to read in much the same way.