Could the average Reception age child read this passage?

[Avocadoes]

"I want to go to Lily's party. I will go on the bus, then I will walk. There will be cake and lots of fun. Do you want to come too?"

My DD is nearly 4 and a half and her reading has just been assessed (by school) using the passage above.

I am just interested in whether most Reception kids would be able to read all the words in that passage and do so without halting to figure out each individual word.

[littleducks]

I just got dd who is 5 in may to read this, I had to enlarge text a bit though

She struggled with 'want' and 'walk' and 'Lily' but unlike the others immediately read 'cake' with no hesitation....so she has obviously got the important stuff sussed

[missmapp]

When ds1 was in reception, they told me that he was struggling with his reading, they then told me he had a rewading age of 6.4- he was 5 at the time- it left me very confused! There are some excellent readers in his class, so I guess comparitively he was struggling.

[EvilTwins]

I just got DTD1 to read it. She is 4.7 and in reception, She could read it, except for "walk", "cake" and "come". They're quite far through phonics, but haven't done the "magic e" rule yet, so "cake" was tricky. On the other hand, she's had a million Ginn books with the word "want" in (Sam wants a book... Rosie wants a book (yawn)) so didn't stumble on that one.

[allbie]

Yes, my 4yr old can read it.

[Ferguson]

Having been a TA in an Infant school for ten years, and in Secondary for a couple of years - at the risk of being too provocative - I have known Year 9 kids that could NOT read this sentence fluently and with full understanding!

I have only been in MN a few weeks, but, like a few other post-ees, I have been dismayed at the parental obsession with "reading" at an early age.

Many years ago I think it was Glen Doman (or some such name) advocated teaching babies to read by the use of large flash-cards from a few months old.

Forgive me if I upset people, but the offspring of MN families are NOT your average child; as parents you are obviously clever enough and motivated enough to join MN and take part in these discussions. I have worked with children whose parents can't confidently read and write, some can barely converse in proper sentences. When I try and convince children that the word "think" is thus spelt, they might say, No, it must be "fink" - because that is the only way they have ever heard it spoken.

It has been said that seventy percent of a child's reading ability comes from home. Presently, two days a week (as a volunteer) I support a Reception group of five children in a mixed KS1 class, and they are learning to recognise the first few sounds - s, a, t, i, m. And even this is an uphill struggle. Some can now sound out, or recognise, "Sam sit": we count that as progress! If, as is quite possible, the ONLY use of sounds, words and reading, is what they get in school, and there is NO support or reinforcement of reading in the home, it is hardly surprising that many children come to the end of Primary school with a reading age of around seven.

It was the media revelation a few months ago of the low standards of reading in Year 6 that prompted me to Google "reading standards" : Mumsnet came up first, followed by BBC. I have made a few 'posts' on Primary topics, and in due course hope to delve deeper into this educational 'minefield'!

If I have shocked, annoyed or in other ways, distressed you, I do apologise.

Regards,
Ferguson

[allchildrenreading]

Honestly, Ferguson, the most important factor in reading ability is a. knowledge of the abphabetic code b. a reputable phonics programme which adheres to Sir Jim Rose's Early Reading Report c. a sensitive awareness of those children who take longer to acquire basic skills (nothing to do with intelligence, and little to do with parental input). d. plenty of additional practice using appropriate, well structured decodable books.

[AnaS]

my eldest dd could have read it in reception but she picked it up very quickly. dd is much more average (i know because i help readers in school)and she would struggle. she could probably do about half sounding them out. if this is the assessment, they probably don't expect them all to read the whole thing just need an idea where they're at i would think

[princessglitter]

Think dd is v odd - tried this with her and she read the whole post (just stopping to sound out assessed) honestly!

[princessglitter]

She only read up to the word 'above' think the word 'figure' and 'individual' would have flummoxed her! She is 4.10 and reads ORT 7 at school.

[AdelaofBlois]

I suspect this wasn't 'assessment' in quite the way it's been explained. The school I work at did a similar exercise: the point is to tick a list of words decoded as the text is read, not that 'passing' is to read it or that it is all expected to be read. When I did it I noticed that the BEd placement simply did the exercise, but that I and the TA explained to the kids beforehand that they weren't expected to read it all, that they should do what they could, and then totted up the total and showered praise on the words they had read. The exercise is odd, but it has clearly been poorly explained here as well. I don't think your DC has been 'assessed' as poor at reading if it was not fully read.

@ Ferguson. Rose based his work on a two-stage model of reading (basically 'decoding' and 'comprehension'). He also recommended early teaching focus on the first stage. My own observations at that level (Reception/KS1) have been that parental input is not as key as would be expected, and where it does matter it lies more in comprehension (ORT have a rather middle-class vocabualry range) not sounding itself. Only now in Yr1 is regular practice at home really starting to show-those whose reading diaries are full are moving up sets and those who were equally bright and able at the start of the year falling back. Basically, you can teach the skills, but practice makes them more natural, and more practice makes patterns easier to spot. But the skills thenmsleves are enormously important, and it would be wrong to underestimate the role of schools in developing them.

Out of interest, does your school run an adult intervention programme too? Ours is trying to get one up and running, especially in Maths. I'm tempted to offer something MFL based, a more typical adult education programme but that would get them working alongside their kids in positive ways.

[Louii]

My 5 year old just surprised me and could read it all apart from Lily and there.

He is in primary 1 and they use Jolly Phonics, I know there are other children in his class whose reading is far better.

Don't think it means anything really, probably just depends on the teaching method, jolly phonics certainly teaches them quickly.

We are not from a posh area and DS goes to local village school.

[AdelaofBlois]

Or a 'reading buddy' system. Several of our kids meet up with their KS2 reading partners out of school. There are more ways than parents to get practice done....

[mixedmamameansbusiness]

There are 5 children in DSs class who would be able to read this (i know this as these children do "reading" separately to the rest of the class), However, there are 28 in the class so most wouldnt.

15 children started in Sept so 10 who have been reading for a term would probably struggle a little.

DS would be able to, but he has really embraced reading and he reminds me to do the reading with him and picks books from his shelf to try as well, if he wasnt really into it himself I imagine he wouldnt either.

[2pinkmonkeys]

my dd could have read it but would have needed to sound out alot of the words.

[TotorosOcarina]

My DS (year 1) could read it easily but my DS in reception would be able to pick out a few words.

[VeggieReggie]

OP: My children would not have been able to read that in R.

[civil]

Depends on the child. My dd would have been able to read that by the end of reception, along with a couple of other children in her class.

[mrsruffallo]

'party' and 'walk' might take a bit of effort but he could read the rest

[ellina]

Yes at 5.5. But most of the 4 yr olds in her class can't read yet - whereas most of the 5 yr olds can.

[howmuchyousay]

DS would be able to read this but would probably struggle with walk.

He is doing jolly phonics at school. He hasn't done magic e at school yet but has played the Alphablocks song ad infinitum .

He's on ORT stage 2.

[IwishIwasmoreorganised]

No, but he's in Welsh school.

He wouldn't be able to read the equivalent in Welsh yet.

[Nippolopolis]

No, he could sound out a few words.

He's 5 next month.

[Xenia]

Depends on the child. At 3, nearly 4, our second one could read lots. At an assessment for a school they couldn't find a book in the reading scheme she couldn't read. her sister who is older and got into her school Habs a year young, didn't really get to grips with reading until she was six. Yet 20 odd years later they have almost identical CVs, exam results, career structures. So I don't think it really matters when they start reading, young or old although obviously if someone has a fundamental difficult with it which requires special help the sooner that is realised the better.

[figcake]

Yes - but it is a shame he would not be given it at school. He is 5 but still being forced to read level 1 and yesterday was a bit disruptive for the first time. There is nothing worse than a school which sets the bar too low IMO