Can your reception aged child read?

[theplantlady]

DC1 has just started reception, he'll be 5 in December and DH and I have just had slight cross words over the books DC has brought home from school.

They're picture books. No words. We're to sit with dc and help him to describe what he sees in the images, essentially telling the story through description.

DH is annoyed because he thinks this means that the school thinks our dc is 'stupid'. I've told DH that I don't think many children that have just started reception are fluent readers, but he's telling me I need to work with dc more so they can get to grips with reading properly.

For what it's worth, dc is (I think!) very bright.

He's known the complete alphabet for well over a year now, he can count to 30 with ease, will happily tell you rhyming words, he knows a vast amount of colours ranging from your basic reds, greens, blues etc - to teal, maroon, turquoise, beige, lilac etc.
He knows a plethora of animals and I regularly have to hear about velociraptors, pterodactyls and parasaurolophus dinosaurs - essentially, he knows a lot of big words and has no trouble remembering them!

Dh was a 'child prodigy' in that he apparently skipped 'baby' books and started reading adult fiction at a very young age, so I think he expects the same from our dc. Unfortunately, I don't feel comfortable putting that kind of pressure on a 4 year old, unless of course, it does indeed sound like our dc is behind?

After having two older DC who went to different schools who started with wordless books for ages, I was surprised when my youngest DS (same age as yours, 5 in December) came home with a book with words in a couple of weeks ago, he's had several books now with beginner CVC phonics words (sip, pan, tip, nap etc) and he's still getting to grips with sounding out and blending but is gradually improving. I have to say I am surprised as my older DC didn't start on books like this until much later and I was expecting the wordless books too. But I think it's just different schools doing different things.

Also one of mine was particularly slow to grasp blending, she knew all her phonics sounds but just couldn't hear the begining sound and it didn't click. Now she is year 4 and top of her class for reading, and she is constantly praised by her teachers for being a prolific reader. It really isn't necessary to rush them imo, I feel like my son is being rushed too soon, your son isn't behind. We haven't even had half term yet!

It's not personal, a lot of schools seem to do this to develop other literacy skills/powers of observation. They do then move on to books with words!

I can be a bit pushy with the whole reading thing, but even I think your DH needs to chill out a bit!

My DD started on the wordless books and she could read a bit (CVC words) before school. It’s just what they do at our school. I expect he’ll have books with words in soon. And no, he’s definitely not behind!

Oh just to add, I think it also depends on the reading scheme. Do you know what they use? Some are very insistent on the wordless books being given out first to teach them how to look for clues in the pictures to help tell a story as a reading skill.

It’s just what schools do, early on they have to teach the full class together and can’t go off giving individual books only a few weeks of teaching in.

My DS is in reception, sounds very similar to yours in that he seems very able and we have been told that the class won’t get reading books until after half term (they have separate library books).

Just let your DS enjoy it. I know my son is loving learning his letters the way they do it, even though he’s known them for ages and can already blend and read a lot of words.

Reception teacher here. Sending home books without words is absolutely right for this point in the year. You are wanting your child to talk about what they see, possibly using story language and turning their observations into a narrative.

Books with words will come when they can recognise graphemes (written sounds) and blend them together to make simple words. This might happen in the next couple of weeks. Our aim is to get all children blending by Christmas.

The government's guidance and Ofsted's expectations around the teaching of phonics and early reading is a hot topic now. Schools will be heavily criticised if they are sending books that are either too easy or too hard.

My 4yo can’t read yet. Nobody’s told me that’s bad. 🤷‍♀️

“he's telling me I need to work with dc more so they can get to grips with reading properly.” I’d ask him why on Earth this can’t be his job if he’s so bothered?

We did picture books in kindergarten and she has been given one or two word books or very simple sentence books ( she can't read the full sentence just recognise the word she has been working on

The picture books are great for absorbing whats going on in the book, there are usually questions at the back for you to discuss. I do think this is important and agree with what PP said about looking for clues on how the story is unfolding. I enjoyed doing them with her.

Spend a bit of time doing the picture books then ask to progress.

My 4 year old can’t read. He is blending a few words just. I think the way they are taught to read takes longer at the beginning than the old look and say.

Hold on a moment

Your dh is telling YOU to do more. Ahem.. why doesn't he?
Mine didn't get reading books home that young at all. Now ds has a reading age of ten and he's nearly 8. So my feeling is to let them develop vocabulary.. Read to them a lot

Your dh is being ridiculous

My daughter read at 3. My ds, who is about to turn 5, is nowhere near reading. Nobody seems concerned. I must say everyone caught up with my daughter and probably surpass her now so I don’t think it makes my much difference long term

I think this is fine but it's also worth realising that a lot of people will be actively teaching reading at home too to stay ahead of school and get their children reading quicker. If you go down that route then make sure you know what reading scheme they use and how to read with phonics. What you can do is just pop on alphablocks and have a coffee instead though!

Dh was a 'child prodigy' in that he apparently skipped 'baby' books and started reading adult fiction at a very young age,

I'd think this statement was hilarious were it not for the pressure your poor kid is going to be under at home ... and you ... since your DH appears to feel it's all your job to sort it out and do more with him.

The books are appropriate 5 weeks into his first year of Reception, completely appropriate. The child needs to be able to verbally tell or describe the pictures himself. They'll also be starting phonics in class. Tell your DH to calm the fuck down.

Your DH sounds a bit silly.

But in any event, why not encourage him to spend extra time with your DS (who sounds like a bright little button) in the evenings and at weekends reading together? Why is this your job?

My ds has started reception this year, May birthday. I consider him to be ahead on reading, but not lightyears ahead. He knows all his single letter sounds, most of the phase 3 digraphs, a handful of tricky words, can read cvc words, short sentences and pink level books, starts to get a bit unstuck at spotting digraphs in the middle of words. By contrast my Dd who is in yr2 now knew no letters at all when she started school. At one point ds who is 2.5yrs younger was actually a bit better than Dd! They are all different, which you know!

From my older Dd I know the way our school do things is very slow, they have just started on a, s, t, p this week. They'll do a letter a day. Then they will bring home 3 cvc words on a slip of paper to read. Then progress to a shirt sentence. Books with no words first. By the end of the year they will have processed to books with short words, which I think my ds could probably manage now. I have in fact purposefully put off teaching him now so he can learn with his class, which I think is really important.

If you're interested in doing a bit more at home to support school then I would suggest steer clear of reading books. You might teach it wrong. You might put him off. He will miss out on the experience of working collectively with a class.

Instead, look up things like phonics family, 5 minute mum, or phonics play (website) and just have a bit of fun
phonicsfamilycom.wordpress.com/phases-of-phonics/

Sorry this ended up really long

I have 4 DC, the winter born could read in reception but was also the days when they were pushed to read in pre-school.

The other 3 were summer born and didn't learn to read until the end of the year/start of year 1.

Your dh is being ridiculous.

Some dc will be reading fluently at this stage in reception, many others won't. It isn't a competition and there isn't a prize for the ones that get there first. Your ds sounds like he is doing absolutely fine and he is exactly where he should be.

The child is not yet 5 years old. He should be allowed to play and to explore the world at his own pace. If your dh decides to hothouse him, he could end up putting him off learning for life.

It's much healthier to learn with your friends than be separated out for prodigy reasons. He's got years to learn to read. There's no advantage to being a few months or years before someone else. What is important is fostering a love for reading and finding out about things.

Both my kids brought home these picture books in reception. They move on to books with words soon enough. The education system is already pushy enough. from year 1 onwards they stop bringing home their little drawings and craft creations and seem to be sat at a desk doing much more strict academic work. I’d let your DC enjoy the more relaxed approach in reception there’ll be more than enough serious work coming trust me!

My 4 year old has just started reception and can read quite well for their age (red band books are fine). I’m not sure if the teachers are aware of this or not but the books being sent home are too easy. We just do our own thing at home. Children will all learn to read on their own time and most can’t read at the start of reception. It’s nothing to worry about.

In our school, they don’t send reading books home until after Christmas in Reception. Then they start with very simple books and move on at their own pace. They will assess all the children at some point and give your son a suitable book!
I am always amazed - and so proud! - of the progress my children can make in a year with their reading as long as you read with them most nights for 5/10 minutes. That’s all it takes! Fast forward a few years to Y2/Y3/Y4 and they can read anything and everything and you wonder why you ever worried!

I don't think any of mine had even taken any books home this early in the first term of reception. But how they do in reception is not an indication of how they will do later, they all learn at their own pace and what's important is having a variety of reading materials available, and reading to them so they know the joy of reading. Leave the mechanics of it to school and introduce them to the world of wonders in a book.

DD1 (autumn baby) hot housed herself, nursery had started teaching her to read and she would come home from school and sound out her picture book stories to herself and was an early and very good reader. She's 14 now and went through a stage of not being that interested in reading about 11-12 but seems to have got over that (she discovered booktok).

DD2 (summer baby) really struggled at school initially and hated practicing reading and didn't start enjoying reading until quite late on in primary school. She's 12 and loves reading and reads every day.

DS (autumn baby) neither loved nor hated reading in reception and was fairly average. He went through a stage of only reading graphic novels comics and factual books (because the information tends to be packaged in small chunks) but has now started reading novels so he's deep in the world of Harry Potter at the moment.

Every child is different. My eldest started reception reading ORT band 6s. She must have been almost 5 though, because she started when they use to have three intakes a year. My now teenagers started on bands 1 or 2, and my 4 year old hasn't brought any reading books home so far. She can just about recognise every letter.

I wouldn't worry, or compare to other children. School will have a system in place to get all children on the correct level for them within a few weeks.

My DD has just started reception and has been bringing home reading books for the last three weeks, she's learning words like Sip and nap etc, she can sound out words and is beginning to blend the letters together. We also get her to tell the story by looking at the pictures and describing them. I think it's different for each school and if there were any concerns they'd let you know. Your DH needs to calm down.

They all start on the picture books in the first few weeks. He’ll get some books with words pretty soon and then they’ll move him up as required. It’s not a race though - teachers have always emphasised to me that they won’t hustle them up the reading scheme too quickly. My DC started on picture books despite being able to decode some simple cvc words but was on yellow (I think?) by Xmas.