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.

Threadworm that's a lovely and sensible post

Thanks Honoria

Reading to my kids is one of my very fav things. Still read to my 8yo every night even tho he's a good reader.

We chat so much about the books we are reading, we share each other's pleasure in the books. It's lovely.

That's how I hope to be with ds, too. He's five and I hope to be reading to him for years yet, as you say it's one of the very best times of the day.

My mum read to my brother and I till we were ten and eleven!

Now that ds is getting older I'm really enjoying being able to read more interesting stuff with him, too.

Threadworm, I couldn't agree more about reading to your children.

I read 3 stories each night, 1 to my 8 yr old Ds, 1 to 6 yr old DD1 and 1 to 3 yr old DD2.

We ahve done that since they were tiny and they all love books, which is a step in the right direction when it comes to reading them.

It's great isn't it. Ds1 fired me as his bedtime reader as soon as he read well independently . But ds2 is very different.
I really missed the reading time with ds1, and I'm sure that the early ending of that special daily time we had together contributed to a difficult behavioural patch we had with him.

I love reading to them too. DD is 8 and has more or less stopped wanting me to read to her - if she's feeling a bit under the weather she still enjoys it. DS#2 loves it and demands about 5 stories a night - now incl his school book. DS#1 is 10 and I still read to him. I think he's just lazy TBH but I don't care - we both enjoy it.

DD1 fired me as her reader when she was about six, but she has since re-employed me, she is 10 now and we always have a book on the go that we are reading together - White Boots at the moment.

Threadworm - quite right. After all, we can all read here, but I bet we all started at different ages.

In response to a barbed comment further down, I don't need to be defensive. DS learnt to read very well in 3 weeks AFTER starting school (and August b'day).

I was just annoyed that a reasonable opening post brought forth a slew of "well, MY dd was reading at six weeks old - self-taught, of course", type of comments. SOOOOOOO tiresome.

Pot. Kettle.

fircone, I haven't minded the amount of people saying how amazingly well their kids read. I've been thoroughly surprised though. I'm guessing that a lot of people with more 'normally' placed reading levels in their kids haven't posted on here but maybe it's attracted those whose kids have been early readers. I've been totally flabbergasted at the amount of kids reading chapter books at under 4 though. I kind of find it hard to believe but I also can't see why somebody would bother to lie about it.

So I remain just surprised!

as for me I have my first meeting with dd's teacher tomorrow. She seems to have been put in the top group, i.e. most capable, and I'm worrying that will be way too much for her if she's with a lot of children who do free reading. So I'm going to suss out where she's at.

IF - my DD2 was at exactly the same level as your DD starting reception and she has always been in the top literacy group at school. The more advanced readers are in a tiny minority. There will not be a lot of free readers in her class, if there are any.

Oh, that's interesting. I've been thinking dd was probably absolutely in the middle, neither top nor bottom, so I'm surprised she'd be in a top group. Maybe she's got hidden talents she only reveals at school!

Well, I was shocked when I discovered DD2 was in the top literacy group. I had thought DD1 was 'normal' and DD2 seemed to lag so far behind DD1 in learning to read that I thought she was below average. I then discover that DD1 was in fact very far ahead of her peers in terms of reading.
DD1 is 10 now btw and although she is always in the top sets in her class, she is by no means a prodigy. DD2 has a different learning style, but I am sure she will do just as well at school as her big sister.

My dd is shy and perfectionist and so terrified of not getting things just right that she often gives up before she starts. I think perhaps at school though she tries harder because she won't want to get into trouble and because she doesn't have to 'impress' anyone; everyone's in teh same boat. That's why I wouldn't want her to be in a group with some of the kids described on here as she just crumbles when there's seemingly impossible competition. It's better for her to be in a middle group and progress when she's ready.

Chapter books in Reception must be very uncommon !?

Sounds bizarre to me.

Children don't just need to read to be on chapter books, they need the understanding and know how to use expression in the right places.

A class can have such a variance in ability.

Don't stress just go with her rate of learning.
It's the same with babies learning to walk. So many people comment if yu have a late walker (like DD2) but actually you don't see people commenting now and saying 'oo she must have been a late walker'. We all get there in the end.

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Chapter books before Reception is very very uncommon but possible. After two days at school DS1's teacher sent home a note in the Reading Record asking what he read at home so they could send appropriate material home in his bookbag. The friends and family who heard him read were all flabbergasted, as actually we were too! And you're right, I can't be bothered to lie about this - why would anyone?!

One main problem with precocious readers (DS1's nursery teacher said this was the technical term?!) is that books which match their reading age don't necessarily have appropriate content, i.e. my nightmare-prone DS had to be steered away from lots of ghost stories. Non-fiction was a safe bet. He is now a very competent reader, but still loves being read to.

I repeat, DD is nothing like as good a reader as DS1, but got a progress in reading certificate at the end of last year so is doing really well.

Did anyone read that chapter in Freakonomics which interpreted the statistics to say that it was a better predictor of academic success to have books in your home than to read to your children? I find this reassuring when I realise that DS2 gets read to a fraction of the amount we read to his older brother!

ohhh, I totally missed all the 6-week reading babies, how careless of me!

I suppose unless one remains completely literal, inevitably some people will fail to understand one's point. When people here refer to people as being lentil weavers, do those accused leap up and scream "How dare you? I've never actually weaved a lentil"? (Actually, they're probably too busy listening to their 2-week-olds reading chapter books.)

It depends on what you call read. I could read pretty well before school. My son started to recognize letters at a young age and my mother told me he'd be a young reader like myself.

It never happend He's a July birthday and started in Reception going over sounds and simple words. Most of the other children seemed to be at the same stage. He's now just started year two and he's not an independant reader yet and quite frankly doesn't enjoy reading that much.

Loves books though! He carries books around and insists on taking Jamie Oliver cook book to simple story book. He took The Lord of The Rings last night ??

I think one day the decoding will click and he'll be well away. At this rate when he's 16

One of my younger brothers was very slow to start reading but in secondary school was stealing all my Joseph Heller books. He ended up reading much more than his friends and more mature books.

I had a meeting with dd's teacher tonight to discuss how she's getting on in general and she said dd was in the 'top' group at the moment because although her reading isn't top of the class she's one of the most willing and able children to apply herself to the more academic tasks, she always answers questions intelligently and her drawing and writing skills are very strong. She said she thought dd would get the hang of reading very quickly. So far she hasn't given any reading books out but she will be doing as of next week so that'll be interesting!

Inspired by this thread I've been asking a few mums if their child c an read and so far only one has a dd who can more or less free read, nothing like chapter books though. So I guess dd's probably just a little below average.

Ds1 could read before starting school but only because of his SN. Ds2 has just started Reception. He could recognise a few letters but certainly couldn't/can't read.

why would you think she is below average? I have taught reception and have met very few who can read.

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