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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

Reading and "Extra" Words

14 replies

NotQuiteCockney · 17/10/2006 07:37

DS1 is just starting to learn to read now, and has been sent home with a book for him to read to me, rather than visa versa!

He's doing pretty well, but keeps inserting "extra" words. Rather than "Mat sat. Sam sat.", he reads "Mat sat and Sam sat". And I have to go through all the words patiently for him to see that, no, "and" isn't there.

I realise he's trying to make the (rather clunky) writing better, and it's perfectly normal. He can read some words, he is making progress.

Should I be pointing out his errors? Or ignoring them? I'm currently not telling him off, but just patiently getting him to look at each word again so he can see that the extra word isn't there.

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carol3 · 17/10/2006 07:52

my dd has always done this and still does in year two, it does n't seem to have held her back and she reads very well, so i wouldn't point it out, but would ask class teacher if your worried. Hope that helps.

Spagblog · 17/10/2006 07:58

I think the problem is that they are initially taught to get clues from the pictures. My DD looks at the pictures and then reads out what she is expecting the words to be.
So frustrating, sometimes I cover the pictures and make her read the words without her visual clues.
I guess they grow out of it

Original poster

NotQuiteCockney · 17/10/2006 08:37

He is reading, I think. He does seem to get the words, he's sounding things out etc, but he wants to go faster, and is changing things a bit. I know adults do this too, but I'd just like him to be reading "fully" first ...

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Mell2tingPotofGooooooo · 17/10/2006 09:33

I really wouldn't point it out. Just say "that's right" and repeat it "Mat sat Sam sat". The most important thing is that he enjoys reading to you. Only correct him if a word is actually wrong.

Gobbledispook · 17/10/2006 11:34

I've just been in to do reading with yr1 children - quite a few of them do this, or actually make up words! I think spagbol is right - they are taking ideas from the picture so get a bit carried away.

I agree with mell2... and I wouldn't worry too much about it.

sorrell · 17/10/2006 11:36

I'd ignore it unless he cannot make sense of the text. I do this when I'm reading to ds - and he points it to me, and it's really annoying!!

Original poster

NotQuiteCockney · 17/10/2006 12:47

Ok, I will do my best to ignore, against my instincts, as I can see sense behind this ...

He is doing really well at reading, and he knows I am proud of him for it. Normally we have to hassle him to let us read him the tiresome books he gets sent home with, but he was asking to read to us again, which was great.

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Original poster

NotQuiteCockney · 17/10/2006 19:53

Hmmm, mentioned it to the teacher, and she said to point out the error and go back to the start of the sentence.

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SoupDragon · 17/10/2006 19:59

Blimey, I wouldn't point out the error as such, I think I'd say "well done" and read the sentences again, pointing at the words. But I'm not a teacher!

DS1 used to get rather disheartened and kept saying "I can't do it" if mistakes were pointed out.

Original poster

NotQuiteCockney · 17/10/2006 19:59

Ah, DS1 is (so far) quite confident, perhaps overly so ... the books are laughably easy, though. Which is good ...

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jakeandbensmummy · 17/10/2006 22:13

Can I just poke my oar in here?
(I am a teacher btw!!)
I would say go for a balance - let him make a bit up now and then but occasionally go through the whole sentence with him. Key issue here is not to dishearten him as boys historically do worse at reading than girls (despite government moves to try and boost boys' reading) so enthusiasm is far more important than accuracy...
Hope that's a bit helpful.

willowcatkin · 17/10/2006 22:13

If my kids do something like that (and don't self correct) I ask them to look at it again, and if they still add the extra word i ask them to show it to me.

Means you are not actually saying 'that is wrong' and are actually making them look carefully at the text which is what reading is all about.

Be wary of letting him guess from pictures rather than reading / decoding the words as this can be ingraind and difficult to shift later when there are no pictures.

You can get some fun books that kids can read to you (rather than the dreadfully boring school ones) from Jelly and Bean my kids (age nearly 4 and 5) love them

Original poster

NotQuiteCockney · 17/10/2006 22:35

Oh, I've not been saying "that's wrong", so much as saying "where does it say that, let's say each word while we point to them ..."

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willowcatkin · 17/10/2006 22:40

That sounds good to me - kids need to understand the correlation of words in print to what they say.

I am sure he will soon stop when there are more words to read, sometimes they struggle with the concpet that there is only one or 2 words per page - especially if they have been used to people reading to them!

If they want to make up stories around the pictures I let them but make it clear that we are 'extending' the story rather than trying to 'read' it

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