How many years above/below their chronological age is your dc's reading age?

[readingage]

I was wondering how much it is the norm to fluctuate?

southeastastra: Despite the cowardly name-change, I am glad that it helped.

I do really tire of people bragging about how brilliant their 'early readers' are. I am certain that reading well above their 'age level' does not mean that they are more likely to have a positive impact on our planet or any of its inhabitants.

Have absolutely no idea. DD is 5y2m and is doing very well in her class - near the top end from what DD says. Teacher thinks she is doing really well. She couldn't read before she went into school last September, and now she can read a fair few words - so we are happy

Would imagine that reading ages can fluctate due to lots of factors.

How do you work out their reading age?

Do the schools do tests? Ours has never given any indication

Our school did their first one that we were aware of in year 2.

DD is a few years above.

Roll up! Roll up!

a few yrs back ds1's reading age was a couple of years ahead, but since he now refuses to read any books I expect he's now a couple of years behind [shrug]

I'm sure that although my dd can 'read the words' she doesn't always know what they mean or understand the context so it's all a bit of old crap really isn't it?

something else for us to compare our sproglets against others.

Both of my children were slow to read (and to write - at the end of key stage 1 the ds was a 1C and the dd was w). They are both fine now (17yr and 19yr). I think you can get too stressed/ triumphant on this one. I would be more concerned to see if they can play out without getting into fights and can teach their father how to use IT.

ds is nearly 5 and cannot read, apart from a few keywords. I'm quite baffled by this English obsession with reading age. I can see that learning to read in English is more difficult than other languages, still I don't understand. so, if an 8 yrs old has a reading age of 14, what does he/she read? Tolstoj?

But how do you know what your child's reading age is? Do they tell you at school? They don't at my DC's school.

How is the reading age set? Does it move around based on how well the majority read. Would reading ages be different in the 1950s to reading ages now, for example?

They do tell you at our DSs' school. However, there are different types of reading tests, some based on comprehension and some based on simple word reading.

FWIW, as the original poster asked, DS1's last given reading age (based on a comprehension type test) when he was 6.6 was 12.9, though some children in his class had scores of 14+ - the ceiling of the test.

DS2 at 5.4 got a reading age of 12.8 on a word reading test, but that doesn't mean he understood much of it. He is reading and comprehending, according to his teacher, at a Y4/Y5 level though (5.9 now).

As far as what they mean - not a lot. If an 8 year old gets a reading age of 14 on a comprehension type test for 8 year olds, it means they are comprehending that text as well as an average 14 year old would do - not that they are comprehending a text designed for 14 year olds. So of course most of them aren't reading Tolstoy or any other adult material. Word reading tests are based on some notional norm of what words an average child of a certain age should be able to read - so they are pretty meaningless.

I was the bookworm type and always had a high reading age. I was reading things like Jane Eyre and Wuthering Heights(both unabridged) at 10. I am fairly sure that the content of these were inappropriate for me at that age. Although I also think some of it probably went over my head.

DS will b 6 in August and is just coming to the end of Stage 4 in ORT. From info on the ORT site he is around the middle of where he should be in Yr 1. Should have finished Stage 5 according to their dotted lines.

One boy in his class is Sept 11 birthday so will still be 5 starting Yr 2 - he is on Stage 11 ORT.

They are all different. Some "get it" early and enjoy it so read for pleasure and therefore push themselves. Some "get it" but are not bothered by reading so don't stretch. Some plod along.

franca

At our infants, the first thing the yr 2 teachers do when they get their new intake is to test the kids' comprehension and at least half of them go down an ORT level, to the general outcry of parents! The yr 2 team recognise that a child's ability to look at a word, then say it may bear little relation to that child's ability to understand what that words actually means in that context!

DS1 is a couple of years ahead, DS2 is a few months behind, DD can read her name but all three of them will sit and read in bed every night (they'll read to themselves, or DS1 will read to the other two, or DS2 will read to DD while DS1 reads his own book, or they'll listen to audio books for a while).

TBH I'm happier with that than if all three were miles ahead but got no pleasure from books.

dd1 well above
dd2 a couple of months younger

Haven'r read all the thread, so apologies if I repeat someone.
A childs reading age depends entirely on what test is used. Some tests like the Edinburgh Reading Test focus alot on comprehension. Other tests like the Graded Word test focus on if the child can decode the words - ie. they don't have to be able to understand the words at all, just to be able to say them outloud. There can be discrepancies of 2/3 years just depending on which test is used.

miljee ,
Surely your year 1 and year 2 teachers cooperate. Afterall they are both qualified teachers. It seems that something is seriously wrong if children are on reading levels too high for them.

I didn't even know that they stil did this sort of thing. All I can remember is some sort of rating for adults that we looked at during a section on the media as part of my degree. All I picked up from that is about certain newspapers being targetted at certain reading ages; Guardian, Independent (25+), Sun, Mirror, Daily Star, etc (9) etc, etc.

my darling dd, has just turned 5 and has reading age of 8, she has basically tuaght herslef, or picked it up herslef with a bit of prompting.

her dad is v good at language, he is german and speaks english like its his native tongue, and he has no accent.

plus i dont stop talking so she prob gets that bit from me

frances5, yes I feel there is a good degree of cooperation between the year groups, it's just that the teachers have different approaches to reading. Poss. one has a 'child can recognise words A, B and C therefore is on Level X' whereas the other asks 'can the child understand words A-C?'. I don't mind as I feel differing approaches to things means children who don't grasp something in one way have opportunities to look at it in another way. AND TBH, I think the 'putting kids up too high' is partly inspired by the 'value adding' goals OFSTED so endorse!

Dd2 is 7 and in yr 2 and her teacher said she was reading at end of yr3 level, whatever that means. She loves reading, as does Dd1 who is also ahead of her age i think.

Wouldn't know. All I know is she loves reading and therefore is one of the top reader in her class y1. Don't feel what her reading age is important what has always been important that she likes to read and it's not been make into a task.
I see to many older children who can read but don't because there is no pleasure in it. I'm pleased to say my dd is becoming more of a book worm the more she read which in my eye is the best thing regardless of her reding age.