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Primary education

Join our Primary Education forum to discuss starting school and helping your child get the most out of it.

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Original poster

Please tell me DS will just "get" reading

189 replies

PeterParkerSays · 03/04/2014 09:01

DS is in Reception and an August baby, so one of the youngest in the year.

I admit that this concern has been caused by the mother of DS' friend saying how she was surprised the her DS has just jumped up their reading scheme from level 9 to 16, having started on level 2 in September, but DS is just toddling along with level 2 books - he's only had books with words in since Christmas, has no interest in reading, says he doesn't know what words say, makes no attempt to read, and just doesn't "get it".

I think I naively thought that DS would jump at the chance to read because we've read to him loads from being a small baby, and he loves being read to, but he just has no interest in reading at all.

If you had a child who couldn't read when they started Reception, when did they start making notable progress? Also, if we try to push this with him, are we just going to put him off reading altogether? I don't know whether to just carry on with him as we are, and wait for it to click, or to try more intensively to get him to read.

I know that he's only 4, and won't get to 18 still on his level 2 books, but I'm just concerned that other children seem to be showing progress in their reading level and he's not.

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columngollum · 03/04/2014 22:29

Possibly ironic, maybe cruel and pig headed. If the schools in the area are so bad that this is the only option then it's a solution.

But, if it's a freekin lifestyle choice there is still room to line up against the creaky, old wall and quite a few blindfolds left in the hat...

mrz · 03/04/2014 22:33

I can't imagine a child who loves books not wanting to be able to read them

columngollum · 03/04/2014 22:35

I doubt many can. But, presumably, there's some argument to be had about where the inability to read them stems from.

mrz · 03/04/2014 22:35

Schools don't suit every child CG and better a parent understands their limitations and hire a tutor (especially if your older child has plans for uni and the subject is outside your expertise)

columngollum · 03/04/2014 22:44

I see where your argument is going. But I think, in the latter case, that kind of teacher-for-hire blends into what most ordinary people would already think of as a tutor.

Martorana · 03/04/2014 23:21

My children could both read at 4. Not a boast- it was just a party trick. And it made absolutely no difference to how much they were read to- reading to yourself and being read to are completely different things. And in my experience a 16 year old might want to read all sorts of things she wouldn't want her mother reading to her. And also, even if you read aloud all day it would take ages to get through Great Expectations, or the Hunger Games. It's not the same.

Feenie · 03/04/2014 23:53

Bauhausfan both home eds and tutors - she said that before she threatened to report me for daring to answer her posts

Feenie · 03/04/2014 23:55

Still pondering what those 'reports' could possibly be about

NeedsAsockamnesty · 04/04/2014 01:50

If the whole point of autonomous education is that its totally the child's choice and the child does not wish to independently read then pushing or forcing is not denying them anything they wish to do.it is clearly not a gift they want.

Just the same as if they announced they wished to return to school or learn about science. They do what they want when they want,if they decide they want to learn reading then you teach them until that time there is not much point.

Children who actively want to learn something do tend to master it quicker than they would if they did not want to.

op the majority of the time they get there,little Peter who got there quicker may very well not do something else as well as your dc.

Martorana · 04/04/2014 06:47

I am prepared to be shouted at, but I don't think you can autonomously educate yourself without the tools to do it........

Feenie · 04/04/2014 06:50

That's fine - everyone is entitled to their opinion. My opinion is that denying.g a child the skill of reading until sixteen is not a good idea at and is an example of home wedding gone wrong, rather than a success story.

Ds wants an autonomous breakfast of pickled onion Monster Munch, but I'm not going to let him.Sometimes it's better that I guide his choices

Feenie · 04/04/2014 06:52

Home wedding? [edding] My kindle wants to post autonomously, it seems.

mrz · 04/04/2014 07:28

What if the "child" never wants to learn to read and reaches adulthood illiterate?

mrz · 04/04/2014 07:30

I don't think labelling a child who has actively chosen not to learn to read as dyslexic either accurate or necessary.

NeedsAsockamnesty · 04/04/2014 09:10

A child who has a formal dx of dyslexia is dyslexic regardless of the choices he/she makes.

freenie you may very well choose to guide your child's choices others don't, that's a choice based on opinion. What a word means or a process of doing a recognised LA accepted method of education is not a matter of opinion.

If you are instructing the choice they make then you are not educating autonomously.

martorana I did not see any information saying that child was not given books nor did I see any saying she had been denied the opportunity to learn to read. Just that she made a choice to not want to until she did want to.

A child who leaves school with a decent exam result is a success story no matter how they got there,this is no different to one who does not attend school.

Nobody here knows what led to the child making that choice,nobody knows how much early assistance she had and nobody knows why she could not read.

What I do know is with an older child with a dyslexia dx who could not read it would have had to be quite clear in her education philosophy statement that she was receiving an education to avoid accusations of her being a CME.

Would you all be quite so scathing of a school pupil who could not read,lots leave school unable or unwilling to.

Feenie · 04/04/2014 09:14

Not from my school, they don't.

And I'm not scathing of the child - it's the parent.

NeedsAsockamnesty · 04/04/2014 09:16

So is your school somehow different from other schools?

Martorana · 04/04/2014 09:16

"Would you all be quite so scathing of a school pupil who could not read,lots leave school unable or unwilling to."

I'm not being remotely scathing. I am saying that a child who reaches 16 without being able to read has been badly let down by whoever is providing/facilitating her education- whether it be school or parents.

NeedsAsockamnesty · 04/04/2014 09:27

I have a child who is unable to read,he attends one of the best schools in the UK is in a class with 2 kids and 2 teachers,is receiving the most (afaik) expensive education that it is possible to obtain in this country with the addition of extensive learning support when he is not at school.

Is he being failed?

Martorana · 04/04/2014 09:31

I don't know. He might be. What do you think?

NeedsAsockamnesty · 04/04/2014 09:39

Is it likely that someone would facilitate an education of that nature given the personal cost if they felt the child was being failed or indeed if anybody who was responsible to him thought he was?

He just so happens to be unable to read.

NeedsAsockamnesty · 04/04/2014 09:40

For him not to

Martorana · 04/04/2014 09:43

I obviously can't make any comment at all on your situation- because I don't know anything about it.

In other case we're talking about, the fact that she learned to read very quickly at 16 suggests that she was capable of reading and was not severely dyslexic- and so in my opinion should have been encouraged to read for herself much earlier. The complete dependence on her mother to provide her with the information she wanted and needed was infantilising and contrary to the autonomous education idea.

NeedsAsockamnesty · 04/04/2014 09:54

Just the same as you know nothing about this girls situation other than the end result and that she was autonomously educated.

You know even less about my son as the only information you have is he attends a school that is considered to be very good and has no problems getting the huge fees they ask

maizieD · 04/04/2014 10:45

you know nothing about this girls situation other than the end result and that she was autonomously educated.

No, we also know that she was said to be severely dyslexic. Martorana made the perfectly logicaland valid point that it was highly unlikely that a 'severe dyslexic' could suddenly learn to read (and, presumably, to write) and achieve a B grade in English GCSE in the space of a year.

Unless, of course, the 'dyslexia' was some sort of excuse to hide behind.

Which is a bit insulting really to people whose children have real extreme difficulties with learning to read and whose difficulties will be lifelong, not suddenly wiped out by an autonomous decision...

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