6 year old DD reading level, normal or?

[Gruffalobooks]

I feel ridiculous for asking this, considering I have a DS in Y2. But I don’t remember things being so difficult with him, I read with him in reception. By the end of that school year, he could read and in Y1 read books completely on his own. Now he’s reading Harry Potter books.

With 6 year old DD in Y1, it’s a bit slower, she could only read a few words at the end of reception and beginning of Y1. Now reading one book takes a really long time.

I know every child is different, but she can hardly read a whole sentence without help. Is it normal? Sometimes she can’t even read the word she read in previous sentence, for example: Once upon a time there was..” she will read that with help from me.. then next sentence she will see the word “was”, and is unable to read it. Then I go back and point at the word in previous sentence. After a few mins of thinking, she will remember it and read.

I don’t know if her reading level is normal for her age, she’ll be 7 in November. Anything else I can do to help her?

More like the other way round- reading Harry Potter in year two is unusual.

Some children are much slower and not being able to do a sentence is slow.

So you have two children within the realm of normal- one on the top of the range and one at the bottom.

The only thing that you can do is just make her read every single day - Oxford owl has free book band online

Sounds ok. Sometimes kids can be a bit lazy. Don’t forget lockdown might present a few attention seeking challenges. Just keep reading to, reading together and listening to reading. Plugging at it will help.

Dc2 is normal ability. Dc1 is ahead of expected.

Sounds about the same as my son who’s also 6. There’s definitely kids in his class ahead and who were already free reading before lockdown but plenty of others about the same level as him.

It sounds like your dd is finding it harder than average to learn how to read, but you seem to be giving her lots of opportunity to practice and as long as you’re doing that every day and giving lots of encouragement then she will get there.

How does she find phonics? Does she know the sounds individually and can she recognise the odd, non phonetic words (like the, was, said) if she sees it alone on a flash card? That might be something worth trying with her.

Also, at Y2 your ds could be reading lots of other books more aimed at his age that would be equally as challenging to his reading skills. If you save Harry Potter for the right age, he’s likely to get much more out of it.

The expectation for three end of year 1 is the orange band or ort6, but clearly some kids are above that and some will be behind. Harry Potter however is definately ahead for yr2 are you sure his is actually understanding it rather than just reading the words.

I had the same. Fortunately dc had excellent teachers who said reading just takes longer to click. Maths was fine, and was everything else. They predicted once the reading clicked everything else would also speed up as obviously reading questions and books enhances knowledge.

Part of the problem was, for us, that she hated bif chip and kipper. to be fair, I didn’t blame her. There was a gap between the books she wanted to read, and her ability. And of course ability wasn't going to improve to that level not reading...

It was non fiction in the end that drew her in. I bought a basic “how my body works” book, she could read bits, dip in and out, and anything beyond her ability didn’t ruin the story.

That and moshi monsters website

That was about year 3 I think. That got her up to boy in the dress and similar in yr 4, then it clicked. She still doesn’t read much but she’s top set GCSE’s.

Also just to note I never pushed or made her read. My mum used to tell me to sit her down every night for half an hour and force her to read. I pointed out she did that with my brother, who just learned to hate reading and see it as a chore, to this day he has never read a book for pleasure. We read to her a lot, tried to teach enjoyment of stories and talked about the themes and meanings- boy in the dress for example, gender stereotypes etc...

Dd was like this in year one too. I was shocked as she was ahead with pretty much everything but showed very little interest in reading and I love reading so much and thought she would never pick up a book for pleasure.

What changed for her was going and choosing her own book every Friday after school from Asda/Tesco which encouraged her to read the story to find out what happened rather than having to read it for school ( Biff, Chip, Kipper ) and it was like watching a different child.

She is now 9 and in current year 4 and loves books more than anything and is at the top end of her class. Whenever she gets a treat she usually asks for books. She just wasn’t interested at the time.

Also, charity shops have some great books of course but our nearest has mostly adult ones.

6 is the average age for becoming fluent in reading. Is she just 6 or nearly 7?

It sounds as if she is working by word recognition rather than phobics, if she isn’t reading ‘was’ in different contexts? Perhaps a little fun re-cap on phonics on a regular basis?

I really wouldn’t stress though. I had one who was an incredibly early talker, with a sophisticated vocabulary and understanding and I thought they would sail through learning to read. But in the end it took until 6, and I think it was because remembering the words over-rode taking in the phonics, and then an unwillingness to guess, not wanting to get it wrong, hampered word recognition,

But a year later you would never have known which friends read early and which later.

Nor post GCSE.

The thing about forgetting the word you have literally just read is pretty standard for Reception - my son is now coming up to 6 and has only fairly recently got past that point, and there are definitely children in his class still there, so I don't think it sounds especially worrying for someone already 6 either.

It does sound like your DD has some difficulties with reading whereas your DS is above average for his age. Don't worry, just carry on doing what you're doing reading to her and letting her enjoy books. Try to take it in turns to read bits if she's enthusiastic. It just takes a little longer for it to fall into place for some kids.

Exactly the same as my son at beginning of lockdown (he’s 6, 7 in sept). The reading a word on one page then not being able to read the same word on next page drove me bonkers!! I was told not to worry by his teacher and it would click and just in the last month it has. He’s jumped up 3 reading levels and is so much more confident. Try not to worry as it will click . It probably feels worse as sounds like your eldest is way above average to be reading Harry Potter on his own.

Mine found reading easy and was off the scale for reading at his prep school when he was 5-10 years old. He’s not read a book since he was 10 apart from set books for exams. I love reading. It makes me sad he doesn’t enjoy it.

Since lockdown began I've been reading books to DS9 every night. He'll read a few pages every so often, and he's a good reader, but going back to being read to (and reading books he's interested in rather than school books) seems to have piqued his interest and he's reading much more.

I honestly think so long as you're encouraging and supporting her to read, she'll catch up and reach the point where she's more confident. But reading together will increase her understanding and vocabulary, which is equally important.

What colour is he on the oxford reading tree, you can look at the colours to age chart online. That said, he is where he is and as long as he is progressing you just have to accept it. Siblings can have very different accedemic abilities.

My DD is roughly the same age in Y1 and she still needs a fair bit of help. What level is she on? The best thing you can do is read as often as possible, not even necessarily a full book even just a few pages. Or you do one page and she does the next. Try and find books that might interest her not necessarily school books.

My son is the same age as your daughter and can read the books he gets from school freely. Occasionally he needs help with the odd tricky word depending on the book.

It sounds like your daughter may be finding it more difficult to learn than some other children.

The best advice is to keep practicing reading books. Maybe let her play some phonics games on the computer to help her phonic knowledge.

Also, don't underestimate the importance of reading to her. Reading to a child can really help them.

Oh and your DS sounds very advanced I would say your DD is closer to normal level.

By normal I mean average!

Don’t worry about where your child is in comparison to others, all children progress at different rates and they all pretty much get there in the end. If your child is a concern you will know as the teacher will be putting in interventions to improve and will let you know.
All I would say is continue to read to her, with her and her reading to you. Make sure she is not struggling constantly with a book, occasionally give her one she can read more easily as this improves confidence and makes them believe they are a reader. Go over with flash cards the core words for year 1 these can be found on the Internet. She’ll be fine might just take a little longer. Is she better at maths type things?

I'm surprised at people saying reading HP is very advanced. My Y2 DD is also reading Harry Potter currently too and comparing with her peers this does seem normal, maybe at the front of the norm but not massively so. We do go through what she's read afterwards and check she's actually understanding what she's reading and she does.

I think it's such a range with reading for your DD. I wouldn't worry. It may just be taking a bit longer for DD but she will get there and sounds like she is doing well and perfectly normal.

@Dishwashersaurous

More like the other way round- reading Harry Potter in year two is unusual.

Some children are much slower and not being able to do a sentence is slow.

So you have two children within the realm of normal- one on the top of the range and one at the bottom.

The only thing that you can do is just make her read every single day - Oxford owl has free book band online

My DS is in year 1. He started reading Harry Potter last week. He's a pretty good reader, understanding full stops and commas, and reading with expression.

@Gruffalobooks I'm a year 2 teacher and expectations by the end of year 2 is that a child is able to read 90 words per minute.

If she can read a word in the previous sentence but then struggles in the second sentence maybe she is not concentrating? (Just a thought, please don't take it wrong)

I would make a pack of word flash cards and get her to read them as quickly as she can.

If she does then no problem. Some children hate hate reading and just don't concentrate.

Do you belong to your local library, OP? If so, then you will find a vast array of additional age-appropriate books to help your DD and you will inevitably find a type of book that she likes to read. It may be that the books she brings home from school just aren't that inspiring for her and as another poster has said, would prefer something slightly different.

For my son, who was always in the lowest ability group for reading in his year group (and all other subjects), it was rhyming books. He would imitate the rhythm/rhyming words when we read and repeat those words. It also helped that his dad and I would emphasise words for dramatic delivery to help make reading fun for him. Something he loved and helped him recognise or sound out simple words better.

Also please try not to compare your DD with your DS. Kids are sensitive to this and to your anxiety. She will be reading as any of the other children in her class by the time she is in Year 6 and it doesn't matter how long it took her to get there.

Just to add that my son left uni 2 years ago with a First in his Masters of Engineering, so being in the lowest set for reading at primary had no bearing on his overall ability in the end. The same applies for your daughter.

Sorry I meant to say reading as well as any other children in her class in the third paragraph. Typing with two left hands...