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?

They start on picture books to help the children to learn the skill of "comprehension".

Being able to read, doesn't necessarily mean the child understands what is going on in the story.

I had one who couldn't read words at that age at all. Reading didn't "click" for him until year 3. (He could read before then but didn't manage to blend sounds fluently and consistently until year 3). He's 17 now and still reads so slowly he doesn't bother.

DS2 could read before he started school. I think he bought one wordless book home before the teacher moved him onto harder ones. He's always has a reading age well above his actual age, as did I.

They are all different and develop in their own time.

@stormyweather274 is right. It's not just about being able to read and repeat the words, it's about looking at the pictures and saying what's in the story. Our November born has been reading for a few months, just started reception and he's had one book with no words, one pink ORT and brought home a book he chose from the school library - all about ancient Greeks. And he's reading it. So we do a mix and it is important for them to not only read the words but understand what's happening too

Reception teacher here. At a (very rough) estimate I’d say approximately 1 or 2 children in a class might be reading when they come into school. Most know some letter sounds, usually from their name, a large minority have no letter knowledge at all.
This will obviously vary in different places, but the curriculum expects children to be able to read simple stories by the end of reception, not the start.

Your husband is being unreasonable.

Thank you all so much for taking the time to respond to me - I feel a lot more relieved now knowing that the general consensus is that 4-5 year olds can't read yet!

I think DH does plan on reading with the DC1 of an evening, so hopefully it will be a 'job' shared. However he is expecting me to start doing it with DC2 too, but he won't be 4 until January!

We've always read to our children, and try to get them involved with what's going on in the stories as much as possible, so I'm not really sure what more I can do, other than what I've been doing.

DC1 has only been in reception for 2 weeks - his school seemed to have started much later than most - and I really feel like 2 weeks in is far too soon to be worrying about how a picture book corresponds to our sons 'smartness'

DC1's reception class, for the moment at least, seems a lot like his nursery. A lot of learning through play so I'm wary of forcing him too much to read at home, if that isn't how they're going about things in the classroom, if that makes sense.

A few have asked what scheme the school is using, but I unfortunately don't know!

His picture books have little purple bands along the spine - if that means anything to anyone?

It sounds like your DH needs to spend a good few hours brushing up on how your school's phonics program is taught, before rolling his sleeves up and cracking on with moulding his prodigy...

There is such a spread of abilities at the start of reception. I have had one at both ends of the spectrum. DD1 knew the sounds of a handful of letters, and was sent home with wordless books at first. DD2 was placed straight onto their scheme's equivalent of level 3 as she started already able to read sentences and decode most of the graphemes. DD1 is now in yr3. She whizzed through the phonics scheme once she grasped blending, was in the first group in her class to finish it, and was graded 'secure plus' (previously exceeding/greater depth) in her end of year report last year. DD2 is in yr1 and is on track to complete the phonics scheme at the end of yr1 like her sister did, despite starting well ahead (although this is due to her writing, her reading continues to be racing ahead).

I’m not really a fan of making very able children who can already read a bit take home picture books, for a number of reasons. Firstly, it’s all very well some posters saying “don’t sweat it. We just do the picture book quickly then read our own books at home.” What happens in a household with an innately bright child where there is no money to have a library of extra books at home? Some children just “get it” super quickly, I think we do a disservice to them holding them back so they’re in line with the ones who pick it up slower. We run the risk of teaching children that they must fit in with their peers, and be the same as them, no matter what. It doesn’t value individual skills. What if reading is the only thing that child feels they’re good at? They should be encouraged.

Secondly, I can see the value of picture books if they’re a bit more involved, involving interpreting expressions on characters’ faces which gets the child to think about feelings and motivation. But simple discussion of action pictures ie this happens, then that happens,, and it ends like this.. not hugely valuable to a child who achieved that skill a long time ago at age 2 or 3. A child who finds a task far too easy when they are ready for much more is likely to become bored or frustrated in my view, and sends a message to the child very early on, that “this is what school is all about; having to do things that don’t challenge you or that make you feel frustrated.”

Also, interpreting a ready made visual image is a completely different skill to conjuring up the image of a written description in your mind. Sometimes a visual image in a picture book can actually cause confusion if the image is drawn in too basic a way. Eg As a grown adult I often can’t understand what icons are supposed to be telling me (pictorial instruction leaflets being an example), whereas if it was just a actual written word I would understand that immediately.

I am thankful for my DSs’ reception teacher who 10 years ago was open-minded about individual children’s reading ability when they started and who didn’t feel the need to put all children ok the most basic books for weeks on end. I mean, it’s harder for the teacher to place kids at the right level earlier in the term instead of waiting till half term to assess, I guess.

Picture only books have their place once past the baby and toddler years, but only for encouraging verbal communication, in my view, in a 2 way discussion with another person. “Ooh I reckon he looks angry, doesn’t he? What do you think he’s going to do now?”

There’s also the sense of achievement that children miss out on when they are given just a picture book. How excited are children when they realise they can sound out letters on a page and it translates to a picture in their heads? It’s like magic to them, so powerful. Looking at ready-made pictures don’t give that same level of achievement at all.

a picture book for one week for a very able child before moving onto simple CVC books is fine. Holding a child back and just doling out picture books for a full half term because “it’s just what we do with all the children” isn’t good enough, in my opinion. I’ve seen it happen in poorer schools, and it does end up with some kids being very frustrated.

Mother of three children all very different and all of them started to learn to read when they were ready and not before.

You can teach them a love of books from an early age but you cannot push a child to do anything until their brain is ready to learn.

I always made reading fun if that helps and I never let other parents make me feel as if they were better at helping their child, or took any notice of the boasting which went on regarding levels or ability.

My first two were reading within a couple months of starting reception. My third has only just brought home his first book and it’s full of pictures. I assumed that they were starting slowly because the majority of kids missed nursery because of Covid, but now I’m wondering because he’s in a different primary school to his siblings

You’re right - wordless books are very common at this stage. Practising organising/sequencing a story is important.

My reception class just turned 5 year old can't read yet but then neither can his year 2 7 year old sister so worrying about DS is a bit off the agenda.

They all have wordless books until half term in DS's class

Yes they could but they always started with books with words - normally usborne phonics readers. I used to sound out the words with them and they soon picked it up. Initially it was more about whether they could recall the story though. Mine are August babies so I was always worried they'd be behind.

My question would be why can’t he read? Is it because he’s not interested? Is it because you don’t want him to yet? Is it because he’s not ready? Lots of people are very fixed in their ideas about when a child should start reading. They fight adamantly for early reading or late reading....I doubt it matters. If dh wants to share reading with his son why doesn’t he? It’s no different than teaching him marbles or fishing.

Most children can’t read at the start of reception and that’s no indication of their intelligence or long term reading ability. My friends soon couldn’t read at the start of reception and now at 10 has a reading age several years ahead of his actual age. Picture books are appropriate first step.

You don’t need to do more than what the school is asking but if you want to help him you need to work on synthetic phonics which is how reading is taught now . Alphablocks or the Jolly phonics DVDs are fun. There is also an app / game called Teach Your Monster to Read that kids love. They have videos online too.

Mostly though just read to him and maintain a log of books and stories and the reading will come in due course.

I have a DC in Reception aged 4 who can read quite fluently (Ort stage 5). School also gave her picture books and now stage 2 sounds - whole class is reading the same book and we work on depth so her spelling/writing will be as good as what she reads at school. We also read books from
the library. She also does year 1/2 maths on a website at home.
Entirely normal for the brighter kids in a class to be ahead in some things, but it doesn’t harm her to read the easy books too and focus on in depth comprehension/punctuation etc - we just get through school books in a minute. I read chapter books to her at night.
Same applied to my older kids and they all got into superselective grammar schools as did their very bright friends. You really cannot take away a child’s inherent intelligence by not pushing them with school books. One of my children read chapter books like Harry Potter in Reception - he still did the school reading scheme too.

My son has just started reception
Too. No he can't read. They're just learning phonics now, reading will come in time.

He could read words, but he didn’t have any reading comprehension.

The picture books are fantastic as they help with context and comprehension later on.

I didn’t start learning to read until I was eight (didn’t really go to school until we moved to the UK), learning later isn’t an issue, if he pushes he’ll just cause his little ones to dislike reading as they’ll associate it with stress.

I'm very much of the 'reading will come with time' approach, but DH seems to think these picture books mark the end of his dreams of having smart children

I too, read from a very young age. I started reception capable of reading books, I'm sure I could write a lot of words too, but just because I 'started young', it doesn't mean I expect the same of our dc. I'm not too sure why DH is panicking so much.

I think I'm going to speak to DC's teacher after school today just to get the confirmation that all (or most) of the other children are being given the same books. I can't see why they wouldn't be, we're only 2 weeks in!

We love alphablocks and have regularly worked on phonics, so I know dc does have a grasp on them, which is why I'm confident reading will come in due time, as he intelligent in all other areas of life!

My 2 children are adults now, but I helped out in their classes from Reception through to year 3. My ds1 could read quite well in Reception, but he loved books and we read a lot. It really made a difference in the birthday of the child, most of the ones in the oldest group could read reasonably age related books, we did the Oxford Tree and the youngest couldn’t read hardly at all. My DS had to choose books to bring home and as he had read all the ones there, picked a harder one. We had to record what was read and make comments. I put that although the book was harder, he did well, but struggled with a few words. Next day I got spoken to by teacher telling me that he shouldn’t have picked this book, as it wasn’t age appropriate.

My 4 year old can’t read- hasn’t even got to grips with the phonics yet- I don’t think she’s behind in anyway, can write and identify her name, count well, understand add and subtract as concepts. It will come- why the rush ?!

Wordless books are completely normal at this stage. Your DH needs to calm down - he sounds a bit of an idiot

@theplantlady if it reassures him my dd I'd very nearly 7 and can't read at all. We suspect when she turns 8 she will be diagnosed as very severely dyslexic. HOWEVER, she has everything read to her and her work scribed and she demonstrates she is incredibly smart. She can do the content well above the others, it's just the reading and writing of it all that she struggles with.

My dd started on level 1+ which seems a bit below her reading level but I assumed they assessed her at entry and wanted to insure she was 100% with it, or possibly because it was a private school and they all start on that level? My older children started on the picture books but they weren't at private schools and couldn't read as well as the youngest can.

I will add that DD has an autumn birthday, her siblings were late summer borns.

I have three teen boys (19, 18 & 15). The oldest two are at Uni and the youngest is doing his GCSEs.

None of them started with word books. And tbh none were terribly good readers until about the beginning of Year 3. As in they were still on the Oxford Reading Tree thing and not free-readers until Year 3.

You really really really dont need to be worrying about ANYTHING yet. Honestly.