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?

PSA: if there is one thing parents needn't be stressed about it's reading. Adult literacy levels in the U.K. are at 99%. Doesn't really matter if they read Harry Potter in Y2 or Y12, they all get there in the end.

The average reading age for UK adults is 12 years. That may be enough to get by but it's not good enough to allow someone to enjoy reading all kinds of books, get to university, or do many types of job.

Not knowing whether your year 4 child can read is nothing to be proud of either. Don't you care about her education and life chances?

Mine struggled around that age and we got stuck with those flippin awful Kipper books for ages, but by the time she reached secondary at 11 just her reading age was 17 so just let her develop at her own pace unless school flag it. FInd books that interest them even if the subject matter seems dreary and awful to you - mine loves the Fairy books which I thought were awful. We are just looking at media courses with screen writing for her so who knows. All children develop differently and at different paces, try not to compare

I agree with previous posters, actually your son is advanced and your daughter pretty normal ime.

Was is a really hard word, it doesn't work phonetically which is how they are taught to sound out words. W a s becomes wass phonetically. To get it was we know it they would expect to see it as woz.

Don't be too hard on her. My dd really struggled in y1. As individual words she would be fine i.e. Flash cards etc but trying to do sentences she found almost impossible til much later in the year. She is y3 now and on David walliams and Harry potter so I wouldn't stress it too much yet.

Read with her, read to her, get some of the read along books where they have a cd or am app that reads the book and they read the book alongside, look at the vetch range they do a dog and a pen set that reads the words in the books, dd found it great fun and it helped her a lot.

Quite honestly, yes I'd be concerned about a child who came out of Reception barely reading any words. But OP also appears to have little to no knowledge of phonics or how their child is actually being taught to read. They need to be secure in their phonic sounds first and reading phonic based books at the level to match the sounds they know. 'Once upon a time' type books will contain lots of words with sounds above their level of phonic knowledge and therfore are not helpful. OP needs to consider investing in, or borrowing, some phonic based books at the right level if school can't supply them. Think Jelly and Bean, Floppy Phonics, or similar