,,,,,,,,,,,,EARLY/ LATE TO LEARN TO READ...DOES IT mean ANYTHING about future achievement?

[noonar]

ok, i have dd1 in reception. she's just turned 5. i know that she's bright, but is not 'clicking' with her reading as early as many others.

what i'd like to ask parents of older children is this- did your child's reading level at this age give ANY indication of future achievement in reading/ writing? was early progress sustained or did your late reader catch up/ over take?

am trying to make myself relax about it, but her teacher seems quite keen to tell me about all the key words that she can/ can't read.

tia

dh wasn't reading until he was 8 (mind you, didn't start school until 7, different country/school system + summer birthday - but by all accounts it then took him a while to 'get' reading) and won the prize in his year for the best degree dissertation and is doing his PhD.

I think at this stage unless there are obvious other signs of SEN, it's just one of those things with wide individual differences as to when it all clicks.

sorry, obvious signs, not obvious other signs.

thats v interesting, belorina.

she can read a bit, and, unusually writes better than she reads, in a way. so, no sen issues.

story to make you laugh - when visiting my (German) nephew once, I asked him casually if he could already read a bit and he replied, most indignantly: 'Of course not, I'm only 5!'

I don't think that I'm who you're looking for, but definitely some children who weren't readng in reception who have jumped way ahead in Year 1. You've got it right when you talk about readng "clicking", and children can spurt through several levels once this happens. I think that Soupy and Twig have got direct experience of this?

Where we've been told (at the dcs school) that there may be a disadvantage for those children who only speak English at school. These children tend to lag behind a bit for a few years. It becomes an issue when they need to read to be able to work in other topics (esp literacy). That said the bright ones do overcome any handicap very quickly (in fact one of the best readers in Year 1 is bilingual and speaks Greek at home).

Was chatting to a colleague at work the other day in a fairly senior position, and he said that he didn't really learn to read and write properly till he was 12 or 13, and it hasn't done him any harm!

Ds started reading just after his 4th birthday & was reading fluently by the time he started school (which in those days was the term after their 5th birthday in our area)& was put straight on to free readers.

DD on the other hand, despite having the same encouragement at home, was never interested in learning before she went to school (aged 5.2) and was quite happy to plough her way through the reading scheme right from the start.

But they both got level 3 in the KS1 SATs and from then on I could never see any difference in their ability.

thats interesting, rusty. did you ever feel that ds' reading ability influenced your view / other peoples' views of how bright he was? did you ever assume that dd was not as bright, as she was slower to read?

I don't think I ever thought DD was less bright, noonar, but I know my MIL did 'ooh dear, wasn't DS reading by now...' etc

DD was a much earlier/more fluent talker than DS, and I think they definitely learn in different ways - for example when they were younger, DS would learn his spellings by re-reading & writing them, DD by saying the letters. She is also excelent at speaking foreign languages, while struggling with grammar rules - DS is the complete oposite

Both are excellent at writing & got very similar GCSE scores in English.

DS1 who is 6 1/2yrs old and in Yr1 was very slow to 'get' reading. However, it's suddenly started to 'click' with him and on Friday he brought a new reading book home - which is of the level that they would usually be on in Yr2 - so no I don't think it makes a difference.

I'm sure in a statistical averages way, that being a precocious reader is a predictor of future success, etc... but (another anecdote) DS1 didn't get most of those CVC/ Reception key words until about November time of Yr1. He's now Yr2, just been told he has a reading age of the average 10 yr old. So I won't worry if DS2 has the same slow start to reading.

I don't think 5 makes a 'late' reader

For children whose reading does not really click until age 7, it depends what happens then as to what difference it makes.

Most children will achieve the 'standard' by the age of KS2 in terms of literacy, but this doesn't mean they are all equal.

IME the children whose literacy makes a difference to their future achievements are the ones who learn/are taught to love books and literature, and ones who read a lot: fiction and non-fiction; and this is clear in most secondary school subjects.

But you can certainly learn to be passionate about reading, and become a lifelong reader without being top reader of your reception class!

Unfortunately in this country atm many parents and some teachers think that once children have 'learned to read' - i.e. have a reading age of about 8 - that they need no further encouragement to read books; and so many of them stop (or never start) voluntarily reading for pleasure.

My sis was a late reader. She ended up doing a double degree in Economics and Chem Eng, got headhunted as a graduate and earns squillions in investment banking.

I read early, but am nowhere near as successful as her

So I doubt it makes a lot of difference if she is otherwise bright...

I help with reading in dd's school with R/y1/y2 some click very fast but mostly its not till y1 some even y2. Mostly I do notice is that the early readers are slower to go up the levels and the older ones when it clicks are more likely to skip levels, and become freereaders very fast.

wow, what alot of interesting responses. very encourging to hear.

roisin, i didnt mean that 5 is a 'late reader', just that dd is latER than some of her peers

didnt want to own up to this earlier(incase you all thougth i should know the answer to my own question ) but i actually teach top juniors myself. however, i've never taught infants, so its great to hear all your anecdotes.

Well Noonar I hope you are helping all your top juniors to develop into lifelong readers

noonar, my bil couldn't read or write until he was 10 or 11. A combination of it "not clicking" and poor teaching (I don't think he is dyslexic). He is now a Head of Year for maths!

Message withdrawn

i think the teacher needs to change her views about reading. i think those kinds of comments are at best unhelpful.

my dd is at reception and certainly not reading yet. and i've made a point of not pressuring her and not allowing others to pressure me. its more important to me that she has a love of books and i know the reading will happen.

god, i didnt read until i was at least 8 or 9 yrs old ...

My husband is the same as Mious bil. He didn't read until he was 12 but got top marks in the country for an exam (got a special award).
That was because of bad teaching and would probably have been classed as dylexic nowadays.

Son didn't click until 7 and caught up the fluent readers from reception.

can I add another question? what age should they be on free reading?

I could read before I went to achool. I remember very clearly sitting and trying to write something that made as much sense as the books I read - this before I went to school (and I went at 4.3 - I am positive this was before I was 4).

All I could do was little wobbly circles and it was SO frustrating!

I had to read dull books with hard words in them at school because I could read already.

I am barely literate now though, so I think there's more to it than early reading.

dd1's reading didn't take off until she was in Y1 and getting on for 6, but by 7 she was engrossed in narnia books (and at nearly 25 still reads loads).

ds2, nearly 14, was a spectacular fluent early reader but has never read for fun