To be shocked that the national average reading age is 9-11

[SailorSerena]

I often think why are people finding this confusing? It's not difficult! Did any of these posters even read the OP!? When reading threads here. On another thread I saw someone say so you know what the national average reading age is? When peoples comprehension was criticised. So I googled it. And I'm appalled!

How on earth is the UKs reading ability so poor that the average adult has the reading ability of a 10 year old child!?

@L1ghtP0ur

It does mean they have poor literacy. A ten year old may be able to answer most of these questions, particularly whilst in an educational setting where they are immersed daily in teaching designed to get them to pass these tests, but an adult reading at this level also very often has the same level of understanding and engagement with the world as a ten year old does.

My gran can read very weighty looking paperbacks, but her engagement with and understanding of anything complex in the world is like that of a young teenager at best.

Some people are simply quite stupid, yes. But many people are also developmentally stunted by their misfortune in society.

If a 10 year olds level isn’t poor literacy no an adult at the same standard does not have literacy.

Agree but it's easy to see how this happens. How many parents make sure that their children see them regularly reading a book?

I don't mean reading a book to a child. I mean mum sitting down with a cuppa and reading her own book.

How many kids see that? Honestly. 😢

I know one friend who tries. She makes a point of using actual library books not her Kindle screen to do it.

No wonder so many kids don't read outside of what they are obliged to in class or take the joy of reading with them into adulthood.

@L1ghtP0ur

If a 10 year olds level isn’t poor literacy no an adult at the same standard does not have literacy.

What?

It’s not that hard to understand. Define poor literacy. I’m not sure reading to the level of a KS2 SATS paper is indicative of poor literacy given the texts and questions. A KS1 paper maybe but the op wasn’t talking about 6 year olds.

There is massive variation throughout the UK, right from barely being able to read through to literary wonders! The thing is, being able to read to 9 to 11 standard will suffice for many day to day purposes. I worry more about poor maths and arithmetic skills, not understanding percentages, interest rates and that sort of thing.

I've a friend who was very popular in prison some time ago - because he regularly helped many, many people to read their letters and wrote their responses for them. Most of the other inmates were not able to read at all.

I am not at all surprised, when I consider all the adults I have known who definitely read worse as an adult, than I did aged 8 or so... I have also helped a lot of people read forms; read job applications; read court or police letters; any letters. Saddened, because it makes life so much harder, but not surprised.

Michael Rosen launched his manifesto for reading last year which I try to implement with my Grand children. Books and reading were very important in my house but 2 of my children became readers and one tries now and again but they all had the same base. Although the one who isn't bothered had a class of 39 kids in primary school.

@L1ghtP0ur

If you'll reread your post that I quoted in bold you'll see why I'm struggling to understand what you're saying. It doesn't make sense. Perhaps you can rewrite it.

Have you worked with adults with low literacy skills? I've taught adults with a reading age of 10 and, as I've said earlier in this thread, just because they can be taught to answer papers like these doesn't mean that they are functioning in society at an acceptable level. Lessons on deciphering newspaper articles and identifying bias are particularly illuminating.

You are mistaking passing literacy tests while in school at ten years old with being functionally literate as an adult. They are not the same thing. If someone's literacy is stunted at a ten year old's reading level, this is not a good thing.

I can’t remember being taught how to read at school, and from my children’s and relatives experiences, most of the learning to read came from home.
If children aren’t receiving that support at home for whatever reason, they’re not going to be able to improve their literacy and will remain “stunted”.
Yes, some people are just unintelligent or illiterate, but they might be excellent at other skills.

I had a reading age of almost double my age when I was in primary school, but I was awful at maths. My husband was (and still is) terrible at reading and spelling, but fantastic at maths and science.

All of those concepts are expectations for 10 year olds too. Scroll down in each, the questions get harder.36 questions in 30 minutes is the expectation for the arithmetic. 99% of 600 and 43% of 900 are percentages examples. Below is a reasoning example.

35% of the 680 pupils at a school have a pet dog.
159 of the pupils who have a pet dog are boys.
How many of the pupils who have a pet dog are girls?
Show your method

https://assets.publishing.service.gov.uk/media/664dc7a9bd01f5ed32794027/STA248817e_2024_ks2_mathematics_Paper1_arithmetic.pdf

https://assets.publishing.service.gov.uk/media/664dc7b6f34f9b5a56adcc33/STA248818e_2024_ks2_mathematics_Paper2_reasoning.pdf

assets.publishing.service.gov.uk/media/664dc7c14f29e1d07fadcc6f/STA248819e_2024_ks2_mathematics_Paper3_reasoning.pdf

How can somebody who can read and answer KS 2 SATS papers not be at a functioning level
of literacy?

I think that's pretty much the definition of functional literacy. You can read at a level high enough to understand the cooking instructions on a packet, or a letter from your electric supplier. But that also your language is quite "low-level", you perhaps don't have an extensive vocabulary and struggle with interpreting text which isn't straightforward.

There was a TV series a few years ago where they took adults who couldn't read and taught them.

They were from a variety of back grounds including an ex English teacher, who, like @ForeverDelayedEpiphany had lost the ability to read. I think that was due to a stroke but it can happen to anyone.

I worked in one school that had a 'Do Now'. When students entered the room they had to start on the 'Do Now' task which lasted for 5 mins.

I was teaching computer science so mine was always, "log on to your computer" and then "silent reading".

All students had to have a reading book on them from home or the library. 5 mins does not sound much but 5 mins 5 times a day adds up.

Sadly this.

I'm not surprised, reading is just one pastime we can do.
Books are mostly competing with streaming services and gaming.
I think 25 years ago the type of entertainment that was actually available to children, teenagers and adults were books or various model building kits (incl. Lego) and toys. TV consisted of a fewer channels and scheduled programs, - not readily available on demand. Unless you had Video tapes!
These days it's games consoles, YouTube videos and and gaming apps that keep us entertained. All of which are available in seconds to us.

I love books and I collect them, but even I believe the physical book is going to be nishe and specialist in 30-50 years.

I absolutely love my e-reader for everyday reading! Books are cheaper, less clutter and some geners and foreign language books are easier to obtain!

I administer reading age tests in a secondary school and have done so for over a decade. The stated reading age is just the scale. It goes up to 16 years 6 month on my test and boy its hard to get the top score. I have a masters degree in history and I am a rabid reader for pleasure and I found it hard!
The reason the average is low is because it includes children and adults who have very low reading scores. The reason they have low scores in my experience is that that don't read anything for pleasure. This limits their vocabulary.. Obviously some SEND impacts more than others but its not a direct relationship, many very good readers in my current school are ASD and SEMH students ,which often include children with behavioural difficulties.
There is a big difference between being taught to read and actually reading a lot and improving your knowledge of vocabulary and general knowledge. A lot of children stop reading regularly in around year 5 and 6 so their reading age remains at that level which scores as 10ish on my tests in secondary school. Boys stop more often than girls.
The significant minority of children in my school who read a lot for pleasure always do well in their exams. They can read the class materials and of course the exam papers. Few if any secondary schools actually have space to do reading for pleasure on the timetable despite its importance. This is why I always tell parents how important their role is in reading. I fear few listen as reading is not particularly championed in our society by those who hold power.

I'm curious as to how reading age correlates to English GCSE levels.

65% of candidates (from what Google tells me) pass GCSE with a 4 or above. What's the reading age of someone with a grade 4 at GCSE?

Apparently the reading age metric only goes up to 16.

How can somebody who can read and answer KS 2 SATS papers not be at a functioning level of literacy?

That someone is a ten year old currently in education, saturated in teaching every day, being taught in order to get them to pass these tests.

If you take that level of literacy, comprehension, and social and emotional maturity, without further development, and look at the adult it creates... there's your functionally illiterate adult.

I’m surprised that you’re surprised.

It doesn't necessarily mean people have had a poor education.
The number of people for whom English is their second (or third, fourth etc) language - they may be degree educated in their first language but have very poor written English.

Communication in some workplaces has become very challenging due to poor English & lack of a common language. Important information & Instructions often have to be translated into several languages.

Finland has one of the highest literacy rates in the world, has done for years, they start school aged 7. They also don't do homework in primary or sit any exams until they are leaving school as their main focus on happy children, not league tables.

Reading age stops at ‘17+’ according to the NGRT scale (standardised reading tests).

We’re talking about literacy standard. How does meeting the reading standard of the ks2 tests in English and maths mean a person is not functional? What in everyday life won’t they be able to do.