Do really bright early readers always stay ahead of the game?

[imaginaryfriend]

I suddenly got curious as there seem to be quite a number of mums on MN who describe their children as reading chapter books before the age of 5.

Equally there seem to be a lot of people who say their child (often boys) are verys low readers in Reception but by Y1 / Y2 are reading anything / everything.

So ... do the early readers stay ahead of the others who are catching up? Does everyone end up on roughly the same level? Or do the early readers 'burn out' and start to slow down at some point?

Would I have been slaughtered Quattro?

Probably not imaginaryfriend, but it would have first degenerated into an argument as to whether early reading was G&T or not and then a rant about how wrong the G&T system in UK is. Seems to be the way things go over there.

Thnx for pointers Peachy. You sound like you're taking a great approach to books iwth your boys. It's trying to make kids love books that's the tricky bit, if it doesn't come naturally for them.

I think the memory games thing is something I can use in my 20 minute slots, so thanks for that. I'm also trying to plow thro books for tips on how to pick up on the little, linking words as that seems to be something my boys are both struggling with.

IME getting boys interested in reading at 5 or 6 is quite tricky as they tend to be more interested in physical stuff. I know it's not great to generalise, but it does seem to be borne out by mums I speak to. There are girls who are equally physical at this age and the same thing applies. It doesn't mean these children will struggle more in school long term, but they certainly cause some grey hairs during the early years! Usually their parents, rather than the teachers

I do wonder, though, when you draw a line and say, right...stop playing football, it's time to read. They're little for so short a time and we do seem so keen on making them scholars at an early age. It's a very tricky question...

I could do that in this thread, snorkle if you like. Particularly the whether early reading is g and t or not!

Hello, imaginaryfriend!

ds 1 was the slowest to pick up reading in his reception class. He just wasn't interested but in year 1 it clicked and he now in yr 2 is the top reader in his class. His friend who read from the age of 3 knew a lot early on but didn't really understand what he was reading has been overtaken even though his parents hot house him and it is evident from some of the things ds1 says that he is being pushed to read factual books and doesn't understand everything.

ds2 on the other hand has picked up reading fairly easily as soon as he started reception and is one of the best readers in his class. But he plods along

'IME getting boys interested in reading at 5 or 6 is quite tricky as they tend to be more interested in physical stuff'

totally agree, i find things like getting birdwatching books and taking them o0ut way more effective than story books etc

I think that the main thing is to read for enjoyment and not just the decoding-I think that as parents you can do so much to help like regular visits to the library. It makes me smile on here when DCs get a book from a reading scheme that the parent hasn't come across and the one thing they want to know is the level! I really can't see why it matters-is it suitable for your DC is all that counts.

Haven't read all of the thread, sorry, but to reiterate what Hulababy said on p1, definitely it is the comprehension that can lack with the early reader - I have had a class whilst in Y1 and then later in Y3, and some of the early readers struggled with expression/fluency/comprehension. I hasten to add that I had flagged this up in Y1 with the parents as a problem and they didn't really take me seriously - "Oh xxxxxx is gifted Mrs Shoes, so you are clearly talking out of your arse " Um, maybe s/he can read the words, but I can read a quantum physics book and not actually understand a word of it...

Let each child learn at his/her own pace, and make sure they enjoy it. Nothing worse than all this "My kid's on level 8" nonsense on the playground. Yes, because they're all the same, children, and their proficiency at decoding words reflects immensely on your parenting skills.

Sorry, I appear to have clambered onto some kind of box that has "Imperial Leather" printed on the side of it....

I hadn't thought of this before but what Hulababy and Intheseshoes have said makes complete sense.
We have been told by his teacher that 6 year old DS has the reading age of 10 years and 11 months (I dont know quite how they are screened, we were just given that result).

DS has been able to read from a very early age and we have known that he is above average at reading but his understanding of the comprehension doesn't tally I don't think. Sometimes he surprises me and even gets into character voice etc but more often that not he reads so quickly that he gets words in the wrong order or misses them out altogether (only ever the little ones though). he rarely wants to read novels/stories, much prefering encylopedia, factual books etc. This concerns me. Am I right to be concerned do you think?

Incidently, his handwriting is very poor and his math is average so he isn't particularly bright overall. I think the reading just came because I read all the time as does my DM and I obviously spent a lot of time with DS when he was younger and my DM was my main port of call for babysitting and child care etc so DS also spent a lot of time with her.

Totally agree with Hula re comprehension - this is ds1's weakest area despite him being a pretty fluent reader by half way through reception. I realise now I didn't spend enough time checking his understanding so I've been working on this with him over the last couple of months.

Having said that - there is no denying that he is still a very bright boy and he remains in the top set for both literacy and maths.

He's only in yr2 but from what I can see - those that were early fluent readers are also in the top sets with him. He's been in groups with a few of the same children right from reception.

mckenzie - ds1 is the same - not that interested in 'stories' (although he does read them now and then) and much more interested in factual books.

In tests his class did a few months ago, he was apparently the only child to do better in the non-fiction test than in the fiction test. I thought that was interesting.

He probably takes after me - I do love reading now but I'm definitely more scientific/mathematical/logical than 'touchy feely' iykwim.

non-fiction books are great for newly reading boys - ds loves looking at dinosaur and space books, and encyclopedia type books.
It matters not WHAT (or what level) they are reading, what matters is that they are ENJOYING it. Be it school reading books, fact books, other fiction books, picture books, comics, the back of the cereal packet!
And that you are continuing to read to them.

oh that reminds me, i really hope they bring out an indiana jones book, like the star wars film guides. ds(6) looks at them forever.

actually ds spends most of his time reading his lego mags and catalogues!

On comprehension - and I hope this isn't a hijack & other people are interested - I know what we're meant to do is ask questions to see whether the child understands: but being a parent, & not a teacher, I get very stuck for exactly what sort of questions I'm meant to be asking.

I can come up with some, of course; like:
"What do you think will happen next?" (= prediction) and
"Who was your favourite character?" (= appreciation) and
"Tell me the ending in your own words" (= understanding of narrative)

• but, for inspiration, I'd like about 20 more categories of types of question. There must be teacher resources on this: where are they?

My DD has always been quite advanced with her reading. Early reader and now in Year 3 is still ahead of most of her peers. She just loves reading and I've always talked about what she's reading with her and she seems able to comprehend it as well. Our only quibble is her reading skills have not rubbed off onto her writing skills and a lot of her imaginative writing is quite boring, even though she reads varied novels. I think the most important thing is the fact she loves reading though and not the fact she is still on the higher levels.

Bink, you could try the resources pages on the TES forum - though you would have to register. I've no idea whether there is anything like that on there, but I did use some maths stuff once. My children loathe me asking comprehension questions. I try not to and hope that they do that in guided reading at school.

"How does the author build suspense/excitement?"
"Which words tell us that Johnny was scared/delighted/an Exeter City fan?"
"Would you like to be Billy? Why? Why not?"
"Which character would you really like to be? Which character would you really not like to be?"
"Would you like to live in that house/go to that farm/eat that sausage sandwich?"
"Does this remind you of anything else you've read? Why?"
"Why do we like Long John Silver even though we know he has done lots of bad things? Can you describe how Jim feels towards him?"

Actually my boys would throw the book at me (literally) if I bothered them with things like that at the bedtime story, though I do explain words and check broad understanding.

But you're right, there must be more genres of question.

Bink - I'd say the type of questions you're asking are spot on and I wouldn't get much more technical than this at the moment. Children will tend to use the pictures much more to help them comprehend a narrative at this stage, which is fine, as long as they are engaging with the whole text (words and pics)

On the govt's standards site it's all a bit technical, but the link is here

DS1 is doing practice written comprehensions right now as part of his tutoring, and they are full of questions like: "Find evidence from the passage that the girls' room is upstairs." To which he says, "Well, dur, where it says 'their bedroom was in the ATTIC.'"

Moomin, thank you, I will go through that link.

Singersgirl - for reasons not to bore people with, I have a whole A4 exercise book where over 2-3 months ds & I have done written comprehension questions on Mortal Engines ... I used to sit despairing into the small hours trying NOT to fall back on Find The Evidence questions. (The ones we both enjoyed most were "spot three words you don't know, have a guess (using your sense of word roots) at what they mean, look 'em up in a dictionary & score your answers" - but I couldn't do that every time. Oh, the other good one was when on one chapter I got him to set me questions: he made me to draw a detailed, labelled map of an entire imaginary city . Served me right.)

Oh singersgirl, those comprehensions are DIRE aren't they. We get a lot of, "well, dur!" expostulations at homework time too. On looking at the sheet, I could see what ds was getting at tbh.

More great replies, thanks all.

And hellooo seeker!

Those that spend a lot of time talking about the picture are not wasting time, it shows that they are really interested in the story. Spend time looking at it with them, then you can make the text exciting by saying 'now let's find out what happened'.

Ah, Bink, I see you're well ahead of me on the comprehension questions. Marina, DS1 can orally answer very well, but something often goes awry between his brain and the page ie he writes down a garbled approximation of what he means.