Teaching your children to read - your job or the teachers?

[clarlce]

Apparently, according to Ms Frost, 33% of parents NEVER read to their children.

What lengths should parents go in supporting their children in learning to read?

I volunteer as a reading assistant in my local primary school and the variation in the level of ability, in one year group, is significant and would certainly make it extremely difficult for a teacher to accommodate all those differing abilities.

From my point of view i cannot understand why any parent would want to hold their child back, especially as the benefit of a one-to-one session with mum or dad can have about the same impact as weeks of school.

I am not just talking about reading to your children before bed etc. but actively, imaginatively teaching them how to read as a teacher might.
Is it a parents responsibility to make the teachers and, of course, the child's life easier?

I have huge admiration for teachers who are good at teaching reading, by the way - my DD has learned to read (phonics) in English and in French in the past year or so, and I am very impressed at their dedication. Just looking at it all from a distance makes me a bit square-eyed! I cannot possibly imagine doing the same thing with a whole class of children for 35 years (as one of the teachers at DD's school has been doing!).

I thought my first sentence answered the OP ... "It's a partnership"

then I added my own opinion which I thought I was allowed to do

mrz,

Sorry, am always interested in what you have to say, and was puzzled by you saying you 'agreed with the OP' when I'm unsure she is suggesting what you suggest under 'isn't it'?

But then I realsied when I said 'it isn't' that looked like an answer to the partnership bit, not the 'isn't it' question.

Oh fuck, off to write something simple in unpublishable French so that I won't piss anyone else off.

Sorry it's been a long day ... but I thought I was agreeing ... role on Sunday!

When children take off with their reading in reception there seems to be a degree of hope that this means that they will become 'readers.' But why should a child that has learnt the mechanics of reading early/quickly, end up loving books? Thats dependent on so many other factors.
I want to teach my 3yr old to read and I have the knowledge to feel confident about what I'm doing. I don't think anyone should have a problem with that. Hopefully my extra input will give him more chance of being a skilled reader. Really, whether he 'takes off' as a reader or others 'catch up' will be down to how much he wants to read to himself a few years down the line. That motivation will depend in large part on his personality, but also how much of a taste for stories he has gained from being read to at home etc and how easily he comprehends what he reads - also down to more general home factors.
I guess I hope that the in his case the fact he is rock solid from an early stage with the mechanics of reading will give him an advantage as he will be ABLE to read if he wants to but beyond that I don't expect it to have a great bearing on whether he does or doesn't enjoy reading stories to himself and thus take off.

I think the nitty gritty of learning to read should be the teachers job.

However, my dc went to nursery just before age 4, knowing shapes, numbers to 100, able to recite the alphabet and recognise all letters, make an attempt at copying them and write their names.

I never did the sitting down and "teaching" them thing but I did get books that involved shapes, letters and numbers and read those to them, over and over. I also had posters up on the wall with this kind of thing on, also maps and flags etc. I don't think you have to actively "teach" your kids. They just absorb it if you surround them with it. Also you can't beat an episode of "Numberjacks" for number skills.

There has been lots of research into which children starting school will become proficient readers. Apparently by far the largest indicator isn't intelligence, or even being read to - its whether the child knew their letters well before starting school. By parents doing this they give their child an enormous help. That fact makes me think its mad to wait till school or till the child shows active 'inclination' to introduce letters.
The reseach counted knowing letter names as well as sounds - because in the end what was important was some familiarity with the shapes and the name is frequently similar to the sound that will be learnt at school.

I think because of the amount of 1-1 practice needed, it is the parent's job. This is obviously hard on those dc whose parents aren't managing to do this ofr whatever reason but I think the school does a pretty good job of giving additional help where it is needed (I am not involved this so I don't know but it was always my impression)

I'm a parent and a teacher Year R. DS1 taught himself to read whist he was in nursery - no phonics, just did it by recognising whole word shapes visually and listening to what each word sounded like. DS2 was completely different, went to a school that hoped he'd learn by osmosis - so I ended up teaching him phonics and taking home ORT books for him. He needed the logic and structure of that approach to help him.

Interestingly, I was at an area EY conference a couple of weeks ago and the emphasis was on speaking and listening and the importance of it to success in all areas. The Government has been rolling out Every Child a Talker and they research has some quite astounding facts.

In a higher talking family, by age 4 children will have heard (and had spoken to them) about 50 million words.
In a lower talking family this is about 10 million words by the time a child is 4.

They also looked at the way children are spoken to and interacted with.
In the higher talking families children experience 32 positives to 5 negatives.
In the lower talking families children experience 2 negatives to each postive.

They also showed us a CT picture of the brains of children from these 2 groups. The children in the lower talking families had brains that were about a third smaller then the children from the higher talking families.

The biggest single barrier to achievement in children is lack of vocabulary.

So, at the end of the day, the MOST important thing is to talk with your children about anything and everything.

Chatter Matters

Thats so right. that study is fascinating. Talking and reading with your child is what will make them want to read.
However that alone isn't what will help them acquire skills to decode easily. So on mumsnet you hear again and again that if you want your child to read well you should read to them (which you should.) I think helping your child with the mechanics of reading isn't quite the same as helping them to be able to comprehend and enjoy literature.
A mum I know with a dd struggling with reading kept saying in the playground - I just make sure I read to her every night. A year later the poor kid still isn't really reading...

camicaze - I think you make an interesting point. My DD is bilingual and I have always been highly aware of the fact that the "problem" for even balanced bilinguals is their consistently lower vocabulary versus monolingual children in each language (bilingual children do generally have a higher overall vocabulary). Since I am the only person in the family speaking English to my DD at home, and the language of the environment is mostly French, I tried from the outset to overload my DD with English, not just by talking and reading to her, but also by letting her watch a lot of high quality DVDs in English.

At 6.8 DD is a very balanced bilingual, albeit with a few gaps in her vocabulary in French (!). However, her English vocabulary is pretty good and her mastery of 18th and 19th century style English from all those BBC period dramas is just amazing!

Lara2 - I agree, children (age 0 - 6 or 7) will probably benefit most from talking to them about as many different topics as possible, reading, and exposing them to as much as possible. This will expand their vocabulary and understanding of the world and they will learn to read easily.

camicaze - don't quite agree with your point about children who know their alphabet will learn to read easier. I think its not that simple. Those parents who talk and interact with their children lots will surely talk about letters too, they will read and do all the things you should. I don't think it's about knowing letters.

bonsoir - my DS (6.3) is German bilingual here in the UK, also I am usually the only person who speaks German to him and I am always expanding his vocab and language in the minority language. He says he speaks English as well as German, but he prefers me reading to him (in German) and if he watches a video he will always opt for the German version, because he can understand it better he says. And DS will always speak German to me and his sister (2), however he somethimes, especially when he comes home from school he will throw in English words, which he will quickly correct when I repeat it back to him with the German word. DS now starts to read in German and seems to find it quite easy.

For many of those poor little souls age 4 is just too early to start to learn to read. Everywhere in Europe they leave them alone until they are 6 or even older and then they learn quickly. Is it really that important to read at age 4 or even 5?? I can't really see what is being gained, this time could be more sensibly spent letting them do what they enjoy and expanding on that.

However, my DS (6) is in the system but he says he would much prefer to live in Germany and still go to Kindergarten and not do maths and literacy every day. He does enjoy school though and likes going there.

Our schools want children to be able to dress themselves, wipe themselves etc. At the meeting with the head teacher she asked if we read to DS. We said yes. She said it's probably one of the most important things you can do to help a child read.

We have bought some phonics workbooks to do with him during the summer as he is very interested. I have heard of people teaching(or trying) their children to read and who sometimes do more damage than good. Teachers have been left to untrain and retrain these children to read by well intended parents.

I think it's the job of a parent to work with the school once we know how they will teach. Then we can take that information into our homes and continue it.

In saying that, my 2 yr old DD listens in on the phonics teaching we are doing and draws with her own pen and paper. I saw her yesterday drawing an "i" and pronouncing it correctly! I think she will learn faster once DS starts school in august(we are in Scotland)

"Adela - why would a parent need to be taught? All a parent needs to be doing is reading regularly to and with their hild generally. If the child is finding phonics hard then maybe yes, some ohonics awareness would be good - but in every school I know of all that would involve is a 5 minute meeting with a teacher arranged after school to go over some basics."

In the class I teach, I would say at least a fifth come from families where all the adults are illiterate or sub-literate (so they would have difficulty, for example, understanding a letter from school sent home with the child).

I don't think that a 5 minute chat with the teacher would be enough to teach those parents how to read with their child, much less teach them to read.

While some of the children from these families are in lower or SEN groups, one is reading above the level expected at her age. How does she practise at home? Apparently she gathers all her siblings together every evening and reads them a bedtime story. She carefully marks any words she didn't understand for someone in school to help her with the next day....

I don't understand whats so hard about teaching a child to read. Pre-school has given my DD all the phonic foundations, she worked out blending and now we do 10-15minutes reading a day she starts school in September and she really loves reading but I never push it. I did not learn phonetically but its not hard to do unless you are illiterate/sub-literate. I think its all been overthought and overanalysed. Teachers can't get through 30 pupils to read each day and i do think it needs to be each day and so parents are essential.

Teaching to read I always left to the teachers. But I did read to my DCs all the time and supported the school as much as I could in terms of homework and reinforcing learning. They have researched the best way to teach reading. As both DCs were summer born, I did not teach them to read before school as neither were ready. Result DS loves reading (now 11) and DD coming on (now 7).

teacherwithkids - I welled up a little at the little girl reading bed time stories to her family. I really hope she manages to succeed in life.

I don't understand this obsession with children's ability to read at age 4/5

My eldest couldn't read when she started school. She'd been to preschool, we have loads of books at home, we read to her every day but she didn't get it.

I don't think it helped that they had one style of phonics at preschool and another at school, that must have been confusing, which is why I was happy to let her be taught the mechanics of reading at school with support at home. I was like motherinferior, listening to her reading and inwardly screaming BUT YOU READ THAT WORD A MINUTE AGO ARRGGHHH. I honestly think that if I'd actively tried to teach her I would have either confused her or fallen out with her.

She didn't read fluently until the beginning of Y2 but by the end she'd caught up with many of her peers.

She has always loved books, she just struggled to read them herself until she was about 6 1/2. I honestly think that if I'd pushed it when she was 4 she wouldn't love reading as much as she does now.

Thanks pip, makes me sad too. She will almost certainly leave school to be 'home educated ' (= learn to become a mum, and mind her siblings) at the end of Year 7 - she comes from a traveller background and very few go on to high school (3 tier system).

I teach but also have a 4 year old son who is due to start school this September. I have throughly enjoyed the time I have spend engaging with my child in discovering the joy of reading (I do not consider it a chore, or a job to do). We spend time discussing how the story makes us feel or how we can relate to the character etc. He now loves books (although he cannot read) and often chooses to sit with a book at home or at nursery. He recognises his letters and most diagraphs and independently has started to blend. I do feel it is a parents job to spend quality time with their child sharing books, but I also feel really sorry for those children who come to school and can read but, bark at the print, having developed no joy or love for books. I also believe that a lot of parents worry that they will, 'do it wrong' so believe that it is a teachers job to work alongside parents when teaching their child how to read.

That's so sad - we have a lot of travellers locally and the girls in particular disappear after leaving primary school.

Chestnutx3 Sat 16-Jul-11 11:33:45
"I don't understand whats so hard about teaching a child to read."

My dd used to be so tired after school that she would scream hysterically during our reading sessions and simply refuse to look at the book: a 3 word sentence could take us over an hour. And she hated being taught anything by me; she much preferred getting it from the teacher.

We got on a lot better when I decided to relax and just read her stories and talk to her about books at her own pace. It has done her no harm: she is now top of her year in English and predicted A*s. But I think I could have messed up if I had carried on pushing her.

If it was easy Chestnutx3 every child/adult would be able to read without difficulty ... alas that isn't the case.