Could your child read before starting Reception?

[imaginaryfriend]

Dd (5 in 2 weeks) has just started Reception and they're learning basic words like 'is' 'it' 'in' etc. My mum said to me on the phone last night that I could read the first stage Ladybird books before I went to school and suggested dd was behind.

To be honest I always thought she was pretty bright. She can recognise and write most letters of the alphabet (slower with numbers) apart from lesser used ones like 'j' but she's nowhere near being able to read words yet. She can write my name, her dad's name and odd words she's written a lot on cards like 'me', 'to' and 'love'.

I'm wondering now if she's actually behind her peers at school. I haven't asked the teacher as it seems kind of wrong to ask about what stage your child is in comparison to the others. I'm not competitive, she'll get there when she's ready, just curious.

so I thought I'd ask you guys instead.

3andnomore, I totally agree that school is where they go to learn. Home is for fun, cuddles and whatever comes up. Some people have posted on here that, more or less, they've taught their child to read and their school hasn't played much of a role. I don't want it to be like that for dd and I have huge faith in her teachers. I'm far from knowledgeable enough about education to be doing anything other than enhancing and reinforcing what she's doing at school.

if...indeed...
I sometimes wonder, if it can be really confusing for those children that hae lerned to read at home, if they haven't learned it the same way school teaches it?

Must admit, I was able to read before school, but my sister is 4 years older then me, and we used to play school, and she taught me how to read, she also taught me how to tie my shoe laces...

3andnomore I wouldn't have a clue how to teach dd to read other than sounding out the more obvious words. I'm baffled as to what techniques the teachers will use!

IF...us parents actually will be given a little course soon, where they explain how they are teacing the children and how we can help the best....if you childs school doesn't offer tis, maybe ask them about it, maybe they would be willing to put somehting liek this on, if they know there is some interest?

Actually the teacher did mention something like that to me. I must follow up on it.

The trouble is schools don't always do the job proper;y so a lot of people cannot rely on them.

When my dd started learning to read in Reception 2 years ago she almost gave up becasue the school focussed on 'look and say' or in other words 'look at the picture and guess'. Not much good for a perfectionist who hates to be wrong and actually likes rules for things and to work them out herself. Having suffered several tantrums when trying to read with her in the evening I started to do some reserch of my own (the teacher was of the 'she'll get it eventually' kind with no real help as to how) and came across 'phonics' which was never mentioned by her teacher I acquired the basic kit and off we went - it turned out she had a good grounding at nursery in phonics (shows what i knew about what she was doing there!) and once she picked up decoding and, more importantly, the remaining sounds she did not know (long vowels etc) she fairly flew and started reading for pleasure. BUT if I had not taken that step I am convinced she would still not be reading now, so I am VERY glad i did not just leave it to the teachers!

The added bonus is that ds, then nearly 3, started picking it all up from watching her and so he was reading before he went to school, good job too as it was the same useless teacher!

So the moral of the story - yes school is there to teach, but they teach to the majority and that may not suit your child so you need to be aware of what is going on and be prepared to supplement it at home if necessary.

carb....I thought all schools now teach phonics reading...
I know my es did learn it that way and he just started Secondary school...so, 7 years ago when he started...

Carb - do you think they did partly phonics and partly reading from pictures?

What is the other part of the method of learning to read. How can I teach dd to read, for instance, 'orange' or 'apple' other than pointing to the picture? Or would you point to the picture?

IF - 'reading' from pictures teaches them whole word shapes and many children, particularly boys,pick this up quite easily. Trouble is our brains get full of these shapes when you learn a diiferent one for every word and soon 'reading' stagnates and can even go backwards. phonics teaches 44 sounds which will, with some other more complex rules, make up every word in the English Language.

So for orange you would break it into sounds, but actually this is quite a tricky word because children would need to know that an /e/ softens the /g/ to a /j/ sound - one of the last things they learn. That is why early stage ORT books do not support phonics teaching because they expect children to read words well beyond their phonic knowledge. My 4 year old dd was faced with words like 'fence' and 'ice cream' when they had only taught her the first 6 letters in the alphabet!!!

'apple' is easier except the final /e/ is silent, you just break the word into its sounds /a/pp/l/ and say the sounds one after the other. It sometimes helps to emphasise the first sound and say the later ones a bit more quickly to help children 'hear' the word.

Once children learn blending and the 44 basic sounds they can read hundreds of words, not just the 45 or whatever 'high frequency words' they have learnt by sight / shape. It is a wonderful moment when they suddenly stop learning to read and start reading to learn

That's really interesting carbonel. I've noticed that dd's really grasped the blending of CVC words now and has grasped 'the' 'he' and 'she' but she also really surprised me by reading 'be' as that wasn't a phonic sounding out, she just seemed to know it!

The only reading book we've got at the moment is an ORT 1 book which someone bought her ages ago and which has both orange and apple in it although they also repeat the word 'ran' a lot in the story which I guess makes up the sound in the middle of 'orange'.

I don't think the school use ORT. I've seen my friend's dd's books, I think they were a range called something like GESS but I can't quite remember it. Perhaps it's more phonic-based?

I'm actually very excited about dd learning to read and I"m glad I haven't done much with her up til now as she's finding it quite a thrill to be learning with her mates at school. She's also totally in awe of the two girls who can already read!

I was told that some of the words in the first ORt books are not there to be part of the learning to read type words, and it is perfectly acceptable to tell your child the word or use piuctures as cluees. The harder words are there to make the story more interesting or to increase the type of vocab to the child. The words you need to concentrate on are the CVC and other phonetically spelt ones, and the 45 key reception words.

How do you find out what the 45 Reception words are hula?

Here - teh recption ones are in red. The rest are for all of KS1 - so to Y2.

You can buy them as magnets, etc. If you have a Wilkinsons there are often much cheaper in there.

Thanks Hula!

Wilkinsons is an up-North store isn't it? I remember seeing one in Sheffield when visiting my mum's family.

You can get them on ebay too!

great to see your dd is reading well and picking out 'be' etc - children are incredibly good at spotting patterns and 'tweaking' words to sound right especially at this age.

I can understand your dd having fun learning with her chums - knowing my ds's old teacher i am just glad i did not leave it to chance altho I would not have done anything if he had not taught himself the sounds whilst copying dd in her Reception year!

Thanks Carb, I just put a bid on those!