Reception DD remembering book rather than reading

[SamanthaVimes]

DD has got her first reading book. We’ve had it for 3 days.
She knows all the letter sounds but is struggling to blend them together. I’m a bit worried she’s remembering the words rather than reading them now we’ve done it a few times.

This afternoon she couldn’t blend the sounds together so guessed a word that was actually the next word on the page but not at all related sound wise.

Where the same word appears on different pages she can blend the sounds when the picture is obvious but not on the next page where she gets less of a clue from the picture.

Obviously we’re VERY early days but has anyone else come across this? She’s got full Julia Donaldson books memorised so she’s got a pretty good memory.

Is there anything I should be doing or is this just normal?

I think this is normal. My son is in year 1 now and still does it sometimes. Its not entirely a bad thing, shows she has good understanding of the story, but I think you just need to keep reminding her to read rather than remember.

It's part of the reason I wish we had more books brought home rather than 1 a week, its too easy to tell the story from memory when it's been read 2 times at school and 3 times at home.

Are they actually limited to one a week? Ours always encouraged us to change the books once they'd been read once or twice.

From memory this is pretty normal and shows they have good comprehension/are paying attention.

Completely normal! Please don't worry. (I'm a Reception teacher).

Right now, the most important thing is that she enjoys sharing the book. If she's recognising sounds that's great, but it's absolutely fine to tell her what they are if she's not sure (my turn, your turn). This is much better than 'testing' if she knows them and her potentially guessing wrong. If she's confident to say the sounds, take her lead and let get her do it, but if she isn't sure or is starting to guess just firmly tell her "repeat after me, m-a-t, mmmaaat, mat - your turn". She will eventually get the blending through lots of practise but it does take time, with lots of modelling from teachers and parents first.

Repetition is good so well done for understanding the importance of repeating the book several times. So many parents don't see the point in this as they realise they're memorising it after the first read, so will only read once until the book is changed. Repetition is so important in building their confidence though. By exposing them to the book every night, they're seeing the sounds more often and will therefore pick them up quicker. They're listening to you model how to blend every night, even if they've already remembered the actual word. It may not seem like it right now, but she's taking it all in and will be ready to wow you one day by finally taking over the sounding out and blending herself, when she feels ready. She'll likely get there much quicker than those who only read the book once before it's changed.

Until she reaches that point, it's absolutely fine to read to her and ask her to repeat after you, and it's absolutely fine for her to read it from memory after the first read. All reading practise is useful and will be helping her, even if it does feel like you're heavily supporting the blending right now. Well done for giving her such a positive start. Long may she continue to enjoy sharing books with you.

We change our books twice a week in my class, if they've been read (if no record of home reading has been made, I'll keep them on the same book all week as I'll assume they've not read it. I always recommend 2 or 3 reads of the same book though. So many just don't seem to get the importance of this and only want to read each book once but it's so beneficial for their confidence, to feel like they're reading independently even though we know deep down it's just from memory at this stage. Many ask if they can change daily but I hold firm at this stage that twice a week is plenty as it enables that vital repetition stage. I get that it's incredibly dull for parents to hear the same book 3 nights in a row, but the benefits to the child far outweigh this.

It's part of the reason I wish we had more books brought home rather than 1 a week, its too easy to tell the story from memory when it's been read 2 times at school and 3 times at home.

You can provide books yourself too you know. They are free from the library.

Yes, we've tried that, but they never seem to have many first stage reading books available, let alone any remotely similar to the schools reading scheme.

Mine would tolerate a second read (though my youngest complained bitterly) but a third just totally turned them off and made it a battle or a chore.

TBH doing early readers with small kids is pretty dull whether it's the first or fourth time you've read it, so I'm not sure that's the massive driver of people wanting books more often. Keeping the kids keen and engaged has to be part of the goal.

This is normal, and actually a sign that she's very bright so don't worry.
They do grow out of it when they start reading more difficult books that are impossible to memorise, and also it is a normal thing for adults to do too when skim reading.
For struggling to put words together break it up into smaller parts then stick all the sounds together in stages

Indeed, and I would always promote reading for pleasure but that can be achieved by reading 'proper' books together, in addition to the school books. There's nothing pleasurable about a scheme book (as much as we desperately try to pretend there is to keep the children interested!) so there's nothing to be gained from whizzing through a different one every night.

I totally understand that some children will lose interest after two reads, but I will always encourage more than one as a minimum.

Totally normal, she's reading for meaning, using the pictures for cues is good, as she develops reading skills she'll focus more on the words.

Our eldest has a fantastic memory , he’d memorised hundreds of books by the time he was about 3.5 yrs , he didn’t actually learn to read efficiently until he was 5.5yrs . They get it eventually .

Thanks all for the reassurance! Sounds like we’re doing ok.

I’m finding it tricky as I don’t remember being taught to read (I was a complete bookworm as a kid) so can’t remember things adults did that helped me at the time!

Good to know I’m not messing up by helping with the blending. I don’t want to accidentally make things harder for her.