Can your 4 year old read?

[Dinoswearunderpants]

My DS started school in September and I've got communications saying at age 4, he should be to read simple books.

We read to him every night before bed and have recently started reading a simple book where we breakdown the words and try to get him to read along.

Invariably he's tired so just before bed isn't the best time to try and get him to read but straight after school I want hm to have some downtime.

Just curious if my DS is behind or not?

You've all made me feel so much better. We have parents evening soon so I think I'll raise my concerns with them saying he should be able to read unaided.

He can spell his name, knows the alphabet (although none capitalised letters confuses him more bless him).

If

Tap
Tap tap
Tap it
Tip
Tip in
Tip tap

counts as a book, then yes 😂

More seriously, my reception DC is learning four sounds a week and can sound out and then blend CVC words with those sounds with some help.

Other DC is year 1 and I was amazed on how much he learnt in reception. We didn’t do any more than the school suggested but I really think wanting/like to read is the main aim this early on.

I could read at that age - but turns out I’m autistic so I wouldn’t say I was the norm.

Honestly, OP I always used to point out that the country with the highest rates of literacy in the world (Finland) doesn't start teaching children to read until they're 7! Keep reading as many fun stories as you can, as many picture books as you can and see how many new words he can absorb. Your games sound great. The more fun they have now, the more likely they are to be readers when they're older.

Nope. My four children couldn't read at 4, and my grandson has just started reception and can read his name, and recognise a couple of favourite words (dinosaur!) but absolutely cannot read. They are doing a few sounds a week in school and learning to write their names...and that's what I'd expect (I also work in Early Years)
Children who are keen (or have pushy parents) appear to have a head start but it levels out .. don't worry!

Yes. Not fluently but he can sound out words and put the sounds together to read sentences.

It's hoped they can blend simple words that are made up of the sounds they've learned in school, but even if that means they can read the book, they'd be saying the words rather than understanding the story, if that makes sense. You'd be repeating it back as a sentence with expression and talking about the pictures etc, so not actually reading independently.

One of my DC started primary 1 two weeks before turning 6yo.....not able to read. Then suddenly was doing all of this very quickly. Children learn in their own time.

Are we talking about simple CVC words with letters SATPIN ?

What are they books they are sending home?

What exactly are there expectations and what is he able to do?

You say that he knows that alphabet, is that phonetically? Or Ay, bee, see dee?

Fair play that he can spell his name...my child can't get past the first letter. I'm not one beit worried and you shouldn't be. Such diculous pressure on a 4 year old is not necessary

My 3.5 year old has just started recognising SATPIN words (off her own back/nursery, nowt to do with me!) but her brothers didn’t bother before reception. But by this point in reception they had got it - I remember being surprised how rapidly phonics was taught. Certainly not more advanced than the initial sounds by this point in the year though. So I wouldn’t count CVC/satpin as ‘being able to read’, no.

Oh and my actual point that I meant to make was - yes he’s tired at bedtime, what about reading in the morning/over breakfast?

My reception child can sound out CVC words like ‘cat’ and ‘mat’ and blend them. Her sister was further ahead at this point in Reception, but she is a very strong reader

My son coud read fluently by 4. It turned out that he had hyperlexica though so was unusually advanced with letters and numbers. By contrast my 4 year old daughter could identify letters and read some very basic words but not 'read' as such. When she was 6 it all clicked and by 7 she had caught up to my son's ability at that age. She's an avid reader so has now overtaken him in some respects. Similarly I was very advanced when I started school (could read and write sentences). Again by the age of 7-8 everyone had caught up to me. There's a reason why they don't hold too much store on outcomes until around 8. It's just not an accurate marker of ability. Just relax, enjoy books together and watch Alphablocks. It all comes good in the end.

My DS is bright and engaged, but he couldn’t read unaided by October of Reception year! He loved practicing phonics and reading with me, and by the end of Reception he was really good at reading (not just books, but signs, labels, number plates ….).

I don’t have any suggestions of how to manage it with the teachers, but I personally think they have a very high expectation of Reception children in October. They’ve barely begun to learn to read, and phonics/letter recognition are the important things for a long time yet; reading will come when those things are sound.

Yes, because I taught him to read using 100 common words flash cards and First Steps into Reading Alphabet book set. I left school to fill in the phonics blanks. He went to the school nursery for a year ( in the mornings) and I was told he used to gather up the 2 yr olds and read the story books to them.
His Reception teacher gave him a poem to read out at the class assembly in the Autumn term. He is an October baby, and it did take him much longer to master writing.

Both of mine could read at four, it was something both appeared interested in early on.

It was before the days of phonics being a big thing, I suppose they did the look-say method if anything.

Both were average or below average in other things though, I don't think early reading is a sign of great ability. I'm sure my Dd's reception teacher would have been happier with a fully toilet trained non-reader.

One of mine was reading by her 3rd birthday, the other was still struggling at 6 - varies so much

By this point in Reception they are usually giving out very simple books with a few words per page and they should be able to read those independently, albeit slowly.

However, if he can't yet, it's not the end of the world. He might just take a bit longer to get to the next band.

Our DD’s reception class is nearly finished going through alphabet phonics, which they also did in nursery but much slower, and have talked about blending sounds to make words in the last couple of weeks. They send home simple books and call it reading but DD is working it out more from the pictures than the letters.

Possibly the most useful thing they’ve done is provide Reading Eggs app accounts which DD enjoys and it seems to have helped her start reading a few simple 3 letter words. She thinks of screen time as down time so will do it after school to relax and there’s lots of play built into the app.

We dont even have reading books yet!

They're doing great with phonics and will get up to the 20th sound this week, is doing well blending CVC words and wrote a couple for me this morning. But they definitely can't read!

Can they read alien words?

DS Reception teacher gave him the yr 1 Phonics test at some point in the year and he got them all right. So school phonics teaching must have been pretty good.

Dd2 worked out how to decode basic words at 3. Dd1, however, really definitely did not. She was 5 a few weeks after she started reception but absolutely not ahead in any way. Remained on the lower side of average all through primary.

She’s 18 and got 99 in both English GCSEs (and four other 9s). Predicted A star A star A at A-Level.

At the time I was bothered and thought that I was it. It really wasn’t! Thought I’d give the long view as a reminder that the first few months even years at school don’t shape an entire education.

I haven’t tried. We are working our way through Teach your Monster and the Songbirds series, basically.