What age did your child start to read automatically?

[Pigwig22]

What age do children normally start reading “automatically”?

My eldest is dyslexic and one of the things that prompted me to do her an assessment was being out and about with friends kids 1-2 years younger than her that were automatically reading i.e. they would see some text and read it without thinking, like an adult. I’m not saying there might not still be some words they would struggle with, but it wasn’t an effort - they just read. That came much later for my daughter.

My son is in year 1 so I’m obviously conscious there is a good chance he will be dyslexic too, but I had thought he was doing well with reading - although he is still in the bottom 6 out of 30 in his class for reading book level (I know as I read with the class). They have had him on green books level 5 at school for awhile but he is comfortably reading level 6 at home.

However, I’ve not noticed reading becoming automatic yet. It was his birthday yesterday, so he’s just 6, and he wanted to read his cards but he really struggled over it. Positive is that he didn’t avoid reading, like his sister would have done and I appreciate some of the text would be different like bubble writing or handwriting, but the words shouldn’t have been tricky for him. I’ve also noticed there is a fair amount of guessing in his phonics books.

So wondering if this is a bit behind and it should be starting to be more automatic?

He just turned 6? Easy now.

Yes, my daughter was "automatic reading" as you put it from the September of Year One definitely, possibly end of reception with some words. She only really 'sounds out' very long complicated words now that she wouldn't have seen before, so words like "obnoxious" or "adjudicate" was one from last night's story.

I will add though that we read with her every night and she's also preparing for 7+ exams so has a tutor who does reading and phonics with her too

You mean reading a word without sounding it out right. We have had this for some words since middle of reception, gradually increasing, now end of year 1 and only needs to sound out maybe 1 in 20 words. But it was a slow change over about a year. She’s average in her class, in the middle phonics group.

There will be so many differences!

I noticed DD starting to read things around Christmas when she was in reception, things like labels on bottles, menus, cards, street signs etc...

She's now Year 2 and has been a fluent reader for about a year, but she's an exceptional reader (not so much in other areas!) and loves reading.

No, but have realised this is what everyone has obviously interpreted my post to mean…

My son sight reads most words now in his books from school and has done for some time.

What I mean is when you are out and about, do they read menus or bits of text on a display board without consciously thinking about it. They just look at it and without thinking, they know what it says, like an adult would i.e. if there are words in front of your face you can’t not read it, your brain does it without you thinking about it.

Maybe you have to have seen a dyslexic child not doing this to understand what I mean.

I had thought my son would be doing this based on how he reads his phonics books, but I was a bit shocked by how much effort it took to read his birthday cards.

Wow those are mental words in a year 1 book - not sure my 8 year old would know what adjudicate meant!

I don’t mean sounding out though, he hasn’t sounded out and blended for ages, he sight reads but as per my post just now, I mean do they look at stuff out and about and read it without even thinking about it like an adult would or do they consciously think about reading.

I read to and have my son read to me every night too

My 7.8yo can't do this yet, although he is not a very helpful example for you as we are abroad so he only just learnt to read this school year, he's only really been reading at all for about 6 months.

DS1 started school at a similar age but he could definitely do it as you describe within 6 months of starting to read.

We do think DS2 is dyslexic (DH is) and I was in the opposite direction, not quite hyperlexic, but reading came very easily to me, I could read aged 4 and have always read constantly pretty much ever since. I remember driving everyone mad reading every "TO LET" sign etc getting in trouble with a friend's mum because I read a swearword from some graffiti.

So yes, I know what you mean as non-dyslexic parent of possibly dyslexic child. The school do not think he is dyslexic, and other professionals we see for other reasons say he reads well for a Klasse 1 child, so time may tell. It might be that the process of reading becoming automatic just does happen much more slowly for some children than others.

And now I'm wondering if it is even a thing that all/most adults can do - perhaps that is a differing ability between people as well? I definitely experience as you describe - if I look at a written/printed word in text I can't not read it. It sort of automatically gets spoken in my mind, and this takes no effort, at least in English. In my second language I will still "hear" the words automatically, but it takes a bit more conscious cognitive effort to get the meaning unless it is a phrase that I know very well.

Thanks, yes this is what I mean.

His teacher has no worries and says he’s on track. But they said this about my older child too so… Teachers don’t read with the kids nearly as much as parents do so I don’t really think they know. I can see by having read with the class for nearly 2 years that the TAs or me as a parent volunteer write all the comments in the internal school reading records… none from the teacher

DS suddenly read our signs and things from the menu when he was two-and-a-half. But this is not usual.

He couldn’t ever, however, draw or have any sporting prowess. So, swings and roundabouts.

Yes, of course people have different skills / talents and some of us are just average at everything. I’m just looking for more a sense of what is average / normal for reading but thanks for reply your child sounds like a mini genius :)

Reading is an incredibly complex process. It takes mental effort at all ages, but this decreases with experience.

I think what you call reading "automatically" is not a universal thing even for fluent readers.

If you're on the high street, think how many fonts you see in the signs. This increases the challenge level of reading them. Then think of all the other things competing for our attention. There might just be too much around them to process quickly and easily.

DD is at the top set in her Reception class and started reading decodable words automatically in the last couple of months, and now reads most words in her school books without sounding them out. It doesn't sound effortless, though. The next level up in her school scheme is the one where they expect children to have started to read SOME words automatically.

I couldn't until I was seven, and then something clicked. I went from "not being able to read" to devouring chapter books in a matter of months. I'm not dyslexic, though they tested when I was still struggling. This was in the early 90s so it must have been really bad! I came from a bookish family and got read to nightly, and my older sibling didn't ever struggle with reading.

Some kids just aren't ready at six. Lots of countries don't even start school until seven.

I am a dyslexia specialist.

Reading is an incredibly complex skill, and one for which we have not evolved a specialist centre in the brain. To decode words for meaning we have to recognise squiggles on paper, link them to sounds, remember the sounds, join them with other sounds, remember the previous sounds, remember the vocabulary etc. It uses many parts of the brain, which have to work in sync.

To attain ‘automaticity’ in sound/symbol correspondence depends on all those parts working together to create new neural networks.

Some people’s brains do this easily, and some less so, due to the infinite variety of brain architecture.

There may be an average age for fluent reading, but there is no average brain.

Thanks, I’m not really talking about reading phonics books, where your child will be consciously reading, but reading in every day life without even thinking about it.

So my older child would avoid reading and even now it’s a conscious effort, if she could ask me to read a menu or a sign at a museum for her she will.

It was one clue to the dyslexia when she was in year 2 and I noticed friends’ children in year 1 and reception were reading these things when we were out and about without even thinking about it. They just looked at it and said oh look there’s ice cream, this picture is of x or whatever. I’m just wondering what age that normally happens. I know the child in reception is a highly advanced reader but I’m not sure if the one that was in year 1 was or not.

Thank you. Didn’t realise automaticity was a thing! Just googled it, that is what I meant!

So at what age would a child not being able to do this be a concern?

It’s not recommended to assess for dyslexia before aged 8, as lower literacy before then could be explained by lack of exposure to vocabulary, or other factors, and could just be explained by natural variations in development.

So give her a while, keep reading together, and do some rhyming games and visual memory games to support reading skills.

I’m not looking to assess him now, I’m just trying to get a sense of whether he’s reaching normal reading milestones. Appreciate they’re all different, but there is still an average. And I think this is my point, if he is behind it’s not due to lack of exposure - he’s been read to every day of his life and has read to us every day since reception.

I think with my oldest it came about a year after starting to learn to read (but she started much later, 7 for one language, 8 for English, so the later start may have affected things). With my youngest he started learning to read in English much younger, around 4, so it took longer to learn to read but once he was able to sight read he was reading automatically (as I noticed when he'd be reading over my shoulder while I was typing, or reading signs as we go past), with his other language it was even quicker but its an easier language. So based on my own experience, if he can sight read but doesn't read automatically yet perhaps there's an issue but I don't know if my children are closer to the norm or not.

I would be guided by the teacher, and how he is doing in phonics. Phonics is better than trying to rely on sight-reading for helping reading difficulties.

The teacher will have access to the standardised test scores etc, to see where your DS is in comparison to the norm.

I think some dc just don’t display much curiosity about words. They don’t need to know what anything says very much, so they don’t see the reason to try. I’d give dc a menu and see what he makes of it. I’m not sure all dc show interest in reading and some do find it a chore. However they will read adequately when they need to. Some adults read books but many read next to nothing!

In YR for both my DC. They suddenly started saying ‘that shop says Next’ and similar once they were learning to read. Neither dyslexic.

I was wondering about curiosity as well. My son was very curious about words and would actively try to read anything around him in reception. So he developed that automaticity naturally as his reading skills grew.

oh wow that made me laugh out loud 😂

Based on experience with my eldest, teachers have no clue. I repeatedly raised concerns in year 1 about my eldest and was told she was fine. Teachers has 30 kids in the class they don’t and can’t have an accurate idea where they are all at all the time.

I also read with my son’s class and I can see from the internal school reading record the teacher never does. TAs read with each child on average once every half term.

I read with the children the most consistently and they’ve moved children up a reading level when they really shouldn’t have just because they’ve been on it so long. But these children are really struggling and I pray concerns have been raised with the parents but I doubt it.

Anyway they’re not allowed to mention the D word until the children are at least in year 3.

I think that’s sort of circular though isn’t it, if you can automatically read you would be more curious. If it’s a chore you would avoid it.