Are lots of pre-reception 4 year olds reading ?

[flowerpowersd]

My DD is 4, she starts reception in September.

I've been speaking to a few parents who said their child is so ready for reception.

One today told me that their child was ready because she was already reading.

My DD likes phonics and can recognise some words, is making the first attempts at blending sounds and ' reading '.

Should I aim for her to be reading by the time she starts reception ?

Is this quite common that children can read this soon and is this what parents mean when they say they're ready for reception?

Another mum told me her son was also reading and he was not even 4 yet at the time.

Should I invest in some very basic reading books and try to teach her so she can ' read ' when she starts reception ? Or can my DD also technically 'read '?

Or when people say they can read, they actually mean they can read books for their age independently?

She's been going to preschool nursery so far. She loves it and I'm not sure I would say she's ready or desperate to go to reception, although I could be wrong.

It's an area of discussion in dyslexia education. Sight words/red words/non phonic words like the, are recalled by Rapid Automatic Naming, most other words are at least initially learned via phonics and new words we need to tackle as we grow older are also mainly tackled through phonic tools like we know we have two choices for o in old - short o (hot), or long o, we then try stuff out and see what might sound right.

Phonics is widely held to be the best method (lots of scientific research) to teach children to read. I have a hunch that some people like the good doctor here, have very good brains for pattern recognition and word recognition. I was taught (80s UK) look and say/whole word and learned to read fine. Never remember having any phonics input at all. But phonics does make breaking the cod easier for the majority of children or even adults, learning to read as it explicitly links sounds and letters/groups of letters to show the relationship. Some children would pick this up implicitly like me and the doc did but some children won't - they may need more structure to help them pick up the building blocks of reading and writing (including children with dyslexia who it can help a great deal as their processing of language appears to be a bit different - again, still a topic of discussion for the psychologists).

Been there done it with dc1, saw the benefits, doing it again for Dc2.

We do loads of other things together. The learning to read takes about 5 mins a day.

I could read at 3. Some children read early. There's a wide spectrum, but it's not accurate to say that no 4 year old can read.

I'm sorry but my DD could read at 4. She was one of the older ones in her year but she'd shown a huge interest in learning to read before starting school so we got the alphablocks reading programme and made a start. She could read simple sentences and read all the 'pre-readers' school gave her by herself even though they were ones the parents were supposed to read to them. She's year 2 now. Still an excellent reader but things have levelled out and she doesn't hugely stand out. I'm not bragging but your post is incorrect in my personal experience.

No

My child couldn't read at all but is keeping up perfectly after year 1

Don't stress

Let the teachers teach

Welcome to the batshit world of competitive parents OP. You will get a lot of this when your child starts school. As others have stated, take with a pinch of salt. Some kids are naturally good at reading, others get there slower, but they all get there. Stay away from these parents for your sanity.

DD starts school September, she's an August baby. she hates books, she hates been read to and refuses point blank to look through books, shame really as I'm an avid reader. She can only count to 10, can not add or subtract and can just about write and spell her name.

However, she was doing zips age 2 and buttons shortly after, she can use a knife and fork and cut food. She can use toilet independently, dress independently put on shoes and socks, open packets and pots and generally has really good gross motor skills and logic.

She's 3, she will learn things at her own pace. If she still isn't reading and counting past 10 when she's 15, then I may worry

But she loves it! She’s a bright little thing who sees it as a real challenge and is massively motivated by her own progress and wanting to be like her older brother.

She goes to nursery part time and has a nanny and is cared for by me and DH for the rest of the time so has a very wide range of experiences and other play and learning opportunities. All of the social and personal development stuff is also nailed. She is a very lucky girl. If she’d been born 2 months and a few days earlier she’d be starting school in September and would be expected to do quite a lot of formal learning. As it is, I will continue to do 10 mins per day with her and she will have a flying start at school.

Both mine could read by the time they started in reception as could a couple of their friends so it isn't that unusual. We had a basic reading scheme which they both worked through at their own pace so it wasn't a matter of familiarity.

DD by 5 could actually read a lot more than we realised which we discovered when we stopped for breakfast one morning at a diner. There was a board of specials at the entrance and when I said I was going back to look at it, she reeled off the contents from memory. She was right too.

No my DS wasn't but he was reading pretty quickly after starting, you'll be amazed how quickly they pick it up.

I wanted him to be taught the correct way as I didn't want to teach him how I felt it was correct and then he get confused when he started school.

I agree. My eldest could recognise few familiar words but couldn't attempt a new word. My youngest could genuinely read a chapter book he had never seen before and answer questions about it. He was definitely the exception though and we hadn't intended to teach him, he learnt listening to his sister reading.

As others have said, to be ready for Reception, a child ideally needs to:
Be fully toilet trained including knowing when they need to go and wiping their bottom
Put on their own coat and zip it up
Feed themselves with cutlery
Recognise their name and make an attempt to write it
Be able to sit and listen to a story
Generally be able to share and tidy up

Not all children can do all these things, often with good reason, but it helps if the majority can do most things.

Going against the grain - I taught DD to read before she started school and it was hugely beneficial for her. It's easy enough to read up on phonics so I don't know why people make such a fuss about teaching "the wrong way". DD knew all the letters and their sounds, so we just got the Julian Donaldson songbird books and did it in a low key way from age 3. It was very easy to teach her and it boosted her confidence hugely, as she felt she was good at reading and found it fun. By the time she started reception she was reading independently and for pleasure. She still reads voraciously and in year 2 has a reading age of 13 (the school tested her). Now, she is pretty bright (she loves maths and also picked up musical notation very quickly) but I don't think she is a child prodigy by any means. Perhaps she would have picked reading up quickly anyway, but as a summer born child the confidence it gave her really helped.

readiness at this age doesn’t mean academics. It’s about separating easily, mostly enjoying their day at school, engaging with activities, play with other kids, being able to manage own emotions; some basic skills like eating with utensils on their own, put jacket on, correct shoes (mostly)

My DD is just coming to the end of reception and although she could recognise some words before she started school, I wouldn’t describe this as “reading”. She knew her letters and sounds - although not the way school taught them. She is now confidently reading her school books, which all year have been focussed on the sounds that they are learning at that point. I took the view that the teachers were the experts in this (I’m also a teacher but not primary so absolutely no understanding of teaching someone to read!), so I needed to stay out of it and let them do their job, I supported them/her by listening to her read and encouraging her, but I was also very careful not to do anything that would impact on the way her teachers were teaching. They were also very good at sharing resources to match what they were teaching at school.

I would use this time to focus on the stuff that isn’t their job, like table manners, toileting, dressing etc and read to you DD lots and encourage curiosity and a love of books and let the teachers teach the actual reading part once she starts.

Mine were reading easy words by the time they started reception. Could tell me which cereal was which etc. I know I was reading books independently by age 4 but at 34 I still don't know my 12 times tables. People are good at different things. I wouldn't worry if your dc isn't, they will be soon enough.

One of my dc was beginning to read in nursery.

The other one was not really able to read until 7/8 we were getting a bit concerned. Then suddenly that dc went from that to a "free reader" in a few months.

Both dc went to university but the later reader got a higher degree. Had done English literature A level, loves books and plays etc. Is now a journalist. The earlier reader loves reading and did mfl degree but found literature, English and in mfl difficult.

Basically, you can't tell much at that early stage .

It seems to so depends on the child I have 6 children and they have all learnt at different rates.My eldest really struggled with reading and hates it now, she is however doing a business degree so it hasn't stopped her..... 2nd youngest (5) was reading from 4 and is extremely bright academically, I did however catch him eating dirt earlier so swings and roundabouts I guess. Surely as long as they are happy, healthy and going to school not stressing about reading or writing it's a win

My dd started reading when she was 4. I thought she was just recognising words but she started reading everything she could find. I had downloaded the jolly phonics app and during covid when she should have been at pre school we did stuff like practicing holding a pencil and listening to songs about phonics and practicing. She just took to blending really well and taught herself. She started p1 at 5 years 5 months and she could read quite well. She is learning Arabic and has taken really well to blending there too.

My son also learnt phonics in the same way but didn't grasp blending on his own. I wasn't sure how to go about teaching him or if I even should so left it to school. A few weeks into his first term and it just seemed to stick.

Kids all learn at different rates so I wouldn't worry. I actually think it's more important for them to be able to hold cutlery, put jackets on and take them off and the same with shoes.

Worked as a TA in reception for many years. IMHO, if you are in a school with a very middle class cohort, more of them will be reading, but still only about 1 in 7 or 8. In a school where the majority are on free school meals, only 1 or 2 in a class will read on entry, and in my experience, they will almost always be neurodiverse.

That said, if you read with your child the requisite 3 times a week for 10 minutes, your child will be fine.

It isn’t necessary. Some children could read on arrival in reception, some couldn’t in DS’s year. It has absolutely no bearing on who is in the top spelling/phonics group in Y2 (some kids who arrived unable to read are now in the top spelling group, some who apparently could read are in the intervention group).

Two of mine could decode and read simple phonics books. One couldn’t recognise the first letter of their name, nor any numbers. They all get there in the end and practical skills are so much more helpful.

Some four year olds absolutely can read. I have vivid memories of our head teacher back in the 80s pulling me into his office and having me read pages from books on his shelf because I was such a proficient reader. Two of mine were reading very well by four years old, the other two weren't. Some children can and some children can't. But to say four year olds cannot read is untrue.

I work in Reception.
It's so so important to get the basics right. We've had children who's parents have proudly told us their child can 'read'. But understanding what they have read needs to be closely matched to their reading ability.
There is no point a child reading 'Fred went to play football in the park' if he then can't tell you verbally "what happened in the park?"
We've had children who 'know' all their letters but say them as a - berr - cerr making it difficult to blend into words, they effectively have to relearn them.

The very best thing you can do for your pre-reception child is read to them. Read read read. Get them interested, talk about the story. Ask them questions.

They will pick up the schools phonics scheme effortlessly and fly if they're in the correct place to begin with.

My DS was reading Harry Potter independently at 6. Just because it's unusual doesn't mean it doesn't happen. My youngest who is now 6 wouldn't be able to but older DS was a much more avid book lover from a much younger age.

I don't know if this is a relatively new thing or peculiar to my area but in the 70s we could all read before we started school and it's something I taught my kids before they started.