How well can your 4 year old read?

[oftenpurple]

I'm a bit upset as have been told that my 4 year old is 'behind' with her reading and phonics blending and will therefore require learning support. All in note home .

Just as a general idea, how well and what can your 4 year old read? I thought she was doing really well as she can recognise all the tricky words that have been sent home as well as attempting to sound out all of the letters in her reading books. Phonics blending was brand new to her in September but she seems to have the general idea.

I will be asking her teacher tomorrow where the gaps are exactly and what I should be doing to fill those. Don't get me wrong I'm very firmly on the 'she's 4 and is fine' bench and as certain mums in our class have displayed PFB tendencies, I don't want to talk about it with the class mums yet.

Thanks for your insight

dd was five in sept so older, but she is in reception so same stage as OP's child.

She can blend cvc and more complex words, she is okayw ith 3 syllable words but is still having trouble with some which have consanant clusters of 3 letters eg string

she knows about 20 tricky words and is reading sentences in red band books.

I am also a reception teacher, and wuld say that the range in my class goes from children still working on letter recognition up to children reading sentences reasonably confidently, at this point in the year I am not overly worried about any of my class, and wouldnt call them "behind". I would hope tha by the end of the year they will all be blending simple words and reading simple sentences - but there will still be some that arent ready for that stage yet.

I managed to address all my concerns with the teacher as well as provide her with some feedback regarding the letter that was sent home. It turns out the assessment was done nearly 6 weeks ago and I feel it is now irrelevant. I agree that DD was still working on sounds and learning the concept of phonic blends at that time.

Teacher was initially a bit defensive about the whole subject but was clear that several parents had spoken to her about the same issue today. The tone and wording used in the form letter sent home was the root cause of all the parent's concern. The teacher did say that she would have preferred to have talked to each parent individually but for whatever reason, it didn't happen that way.

I'm still not overly pleased that DD will be taken out of class to work with a learning support teacher at this stage (i.e. 12 weeks in to Reception). Her teacher has said that it will be reassessed in a few weeks and that there would continue to be movement in the various groups throughout the term.

I'll just have to wait and see how things progress.

Is it a school with high KS2 test results, Oftenpurple?

Didn't know the answer to this but a quick look at our website and it would appear very high KS2 results.

I have a DS (7), a DD1 (5) and DD2 (3.5)

At 4, DS knew half his 40 odd phonic sounds. No blending. Very fluent reader now.

DD1, could properly read at 4 whilst in nursery. She was well ahead. A good chunk of the class have now caught up. As a teacher, I would bet my house on the fact that a good few more will catch up before the end of Y2.

DD2, although not quite 4, currently shows no interest whatsoever in letters or learning to read. I have no worries at all about her development and can well imagine she'll be one of those who takes her time with it all.

My eldest 2 are at a highly selective independent school and I would be appalled if I'd received a letter like that about my 4yr old.

Well handled, oftenpurple. Have to admit, I am still a little at the teacher - is she inexperienced?

Ah, yes, I have a theory about schools with high KS2 results being very pushy (for low-medium achievers) to preserve their ratings; you can't get an Ofsted Outstanding without high KS2 results, iirc. A theory often confirmed on MN.

They sound very very pushy compared to DC school (very average KS2 results, lots of school dinners & SN, Satisfactory rated).

I could read fluently at 4.3 and was a put up a class and stayed there for three years (until I moved school). My mother was always very proud of my advanced reading.

However, I recently took a look at some writing I did when I was 7.6 and it is not nearly as good as the writing my DD is doing aged 6.2, although she cannot read at all fluently yet. She is bilingual - I was a monolingual child.

So DD and I have already acquired skills at very different times and I am sure that will continue throughout our lives and will even out in the end

Is it a private school? Lots of 4 year olds barely manage pink band

On a thread about reading, quite funny the last two posters didn't read that it dates from 2011. The OPs child is now 15 and chances are can read perfectly well.

Aside from the fact this is a zombie thread, I felt compelled to say that as a 4 year old I absolutely COULD read fluently at 4. I insisted I read everything my older brother read (2 and a bit years older). For my Christmas present before my 5th birthday - so a term before I went to school, I was given a copy of Winnie the Poo, and in my childish hand I've written the date. I remember it took me to the end of the day after Boxing Day to finish reading it, and I certainly didn't need any help.
DD1 didn't take after me and was probably at least 6 before she could read that book.

My youngest brother had plenty of older siblings to read to him, and opted not to learn to read even though he knew all his letters. It was when there was talk of his having to be put in the remedial class (this was the '60s) that he decided to learn to read. He was 7, almost 8 and went from knowing letters to reading sentences over a weekend and escaped Remedial. You'd no no difference now.

Every child is different and no parent should be made to feel bad, they all learn at different speeds.

@oftenpurple I'm also abroad but at a British curriculum school and my son is just turning 5 (in Reception). They are only just starting to blend sounds. He can recite the alphabet but couldn't recognise all the letters individually. He can write his name. I'm told he is ahead of much of his class as he is blending sounds and definitely ready to push ahead.

The school my older one attended at this age (also Brit curriculum) didn't even start phonics til Term 3 of Reception. She is now in Y3 and definitely behind but that is due to missing all the online provision (although many kids accessed it daily so have continued to progress).

I wouldn't worry. Your son will get there.

Love the fact that this thread is 11 years old now…
@oftenpurple hows your child getting on? Did they do GCSEs this year?!

So funny that this thread has come back to life, as it were! I had to re-read to remember what it was about 🤣 I’m pleased to report that DD got 9s for both English language and English literature in her GCSEs this summer despite not being able to read at 4 (hugely tongue in cheek there!).

Yep, zombie-resurrecting "teacher" above is either no such thing, teaches older kids, or has a narrow range of experience.

My mum tells stories of wheeling the trolley round the supermarket with me sitting in the toddler seat behind the handle, so somewhere around age two, reading the name of the food from each packet she put in the trolley. At three, in nursery, I was found by the nursery teacher sitting in the big chair in the storytelling corner, reading a storybook to some other children who were sitting listening. At four, I'd been reading fluently for at least a year. When reading ages were tested in infant school for some reason, they scored me 14+ on their scale (whatever that was). Nobody taught me; presumably I inferred it from things like seeing the words on the page as my mum read to me.

It's just a glitch or a difference or something, not an achievement or boastworthy — no more unbelievable than picking up an entire spoken language by three or four, which is considered quite normal. And not particularly indicative of intelligence or future academic success either. It's just something kids can do when stuff happens to come together in the brain in a way that allows reading to happen, I think, which can happen early or late depending on what else the kid's brain is working on. Like potty training or walking or certain types of abstract thought or being able to hold a pen.

Congratulations DD!

So funny that when confronted with evidence from an expert, everyone denies it. A four year old can definitely recite sounds learned in order (like the way my four year old can recite “Zog” and “The Highway Rat”), but that is NOT reading. No four year old in the world can, or ever could, sit down with “Winnie the Pooh” and read it independently and understand it, categorically. It’s just not true. It doesn’t matter how much you lie to yourself, it still doesn’t make it true.

Mine couldn't read at all at 4, except familiar words, but he could read anything by 6. I worried about it but his school told me he was doing fine, and it turned out they were right. Most of his friends were a bit quicker on the uptake, but he had caught up by the end of Y1.

But you aren't an expert, you are a teacher of 13 years.
You haven't experienced every child, and have obviously never come accross those that could read at the ages mentioned.

(I know it's a zombie thread, I posted about my reception child above in 2011, he didn't "click" with reading until about 7 or 8, he's just done his GCSEs)

No four year old in the world can, or ever could, sit down with “Winnie the Pooh” and read it independently and understand it, categorically. It’s just not true. It doesn’t matter how much you lie to yourself, it still doesn’t make it true.

I know a child who could have read it with ease, although he preferred to read about weather systems and rocks. He wasn't fully toilet trained (refused to be) and I'm not saying he had the emotional insight to fully understand subtexts about growing up and nostalgia, but he absolutely could have read the story and told you what happened.

My DD has severe dyslexia. She couldn’t read at all then struggled. She is now pre teen and thanks to a lot of one to one support her reading is now average for her age, which is a massive achievement for her. Take all the support you can get and don’t worry. Most will catch up with the right help.

I love it when a poster chats absolute bollocks and then doubles down on it.

You're embarrassing yourself @SignedOnToSayThis