What age did your child start to read?

[StephanieByng]

Reading another thread just now about whether to teach your child to read or leave it to the teacher....my DS is 6 yrs 4 months old and he can't read - he's in year two.

he can sound out some words, but very very slowly; and if he comes across the same word a few words later, he still needs to sound it out, again painfully slowly!

His teacher has said that she feels he's making 'baby steps' of progress; when pushed she said she might consider it a problem if no more progress by the spring term.

He's read to daily, btw, loves being read to but HATES having to read.

I just wondered if I would be able to get a picture from here about how common this is, whether he's VERY unusual and whether I should be more worried than I am about his lack of reading?

Thanks!

It is a little pointless to compare our children learnng to children in european countries like Norway. English has a far more complicated and illogical phonics structure than any other European language.

I think you are right to be concerned. While it is true that he is still very young, not being able to read can damage a child's self image. They can make the mistake of thinking they are stupid, become demoralised at school or even distruptive.

As a mother you can tell whether its affecting your son's general happiness. It is worth looking at the following websites to find out the logic behind modern ideas on teaching reading.

Even if your child is not dyslexic these websites have loads of good resources and ideas for helping any child.

www.dyslexics.org.uk/

www.rrf.org.uk

If you have the money and your child getting frustrated with each other it might be worth finding a tutor who uses pure synthetic phonics. The rrf has a bullitin board and you might be able to find a suitable tutor through that.

My son is in year 2 as well and finding handwriting really hard. He is lucky in that reading has come easily to him. We been paying for a tutor to help with his writing. It might seem extremely pushy, but he was being bullied about his poor handwriting by a nasty bitch girl in his class. Although having messy writing at the age of six is not a major issue, the damage to his confidence was.

Reallytired, what about Finland? Very difficult language, start school later, and yet top of the Pisa results?

Finnish is not harder than English. A long time ago I had a finnish boyfriend at uni and I did attempt to learn Finnish. From what I remember the hardest thing about Finnish is that it has declensions. Any language is hard to learn, but I don't think Finnish is any worst than German to master.

Its is very phonetic compared to English and has fewer tricky words. English is also hard because it steals words from languages like Latin, German, French, and all the various people like vikings, celts, anglo saxons and normans who came to this country.

However I think a later start to formal education would be better. It would improve reading comprehension to spend more time on improving speaking skills. Children would also be much happier learning at a later age.

There are several aspects to learning to read. My son learnt to bark at print extremely quickly, but comprehension has taken longer to master.

How has the OP son being taught. Does he know his phonics? It might be better to spend time getting him to learn his letter sounds than attempting to read books.

Hi, thanks for the further thoughts!

DS' school seems to run a mish mash system, they teach letters phonically but give the kids the Oxford Reading Tree books.

DS does know all the letter sounds no problem.

Sorry should explain it's the OP trying out a new name in case that last post is not clear!

Leo9, Does your son know the sounds for the diagraphs and the more complex rules like "magic e"?

I think that having a mish mash of systems for teaching your child to read might be the root of the problem. Your poor child is probably confused as hell as he doesn't know whether he is expected to guess from the picture, guess from context, use letter sounds or whatever. It is not his fault, but the ridiculously complex way that reading has been taught to him. I imagine he has also been asked to read books, when he has not yet been taught any strageries. Its no wonder the poor little thing feels like a failure

There are several synthetic phonics schemes you could use with your son. Ruth Miskin does a fresh start scheme. There are decodable books so that your child finds sucess every step of the way. The complicity of English is introduced to him graudually.

There are loads of ways to learn to read, I know schools sound out words, which is the way to let children understand,
but my mum used to show flash cards from as young as 2 and I could recognise baby vocabulary from 3 and could read books at 4.

I DON't KNOW if it works, but surely its worth a try. Do about 5 once a day? until he knows those words?
drawing his own name with magnet letters or in the sand?

ReallyTired, he does know the sounds for the diagraphs and also the magic 'e' - or at least, he talks about them. It's just applying it in his reading that doesn't seem to happen.

We went out ages ago - about a year ago - and bought a box of books which are phonics only - called 'Songbirds'. Completely de-codeable - first page of a book at level one is "Tom got a pot". Ds can manage a sentence like that but not fluently, on a 'sounding out' each letter basis. I will look up the Ruth Miskin ones - thanks for the tip.

They all catch up in the end. Don't worry too much.

You seem to be doing the right things - like reading daily.

"They all catch up in the end. Don't worry too much."

I don't think that is true. 20% of primary school kids leave primary school with literacy skills that are not good enough to allow them to access the secondary school curriulum. 10% of adults are illiterate.

Leo9, your son might like the jelly and bean books

Its brilliant news that he can manage a decodable book. It sounds like he needs to build his confidence with materials that he can access.

Reallytired, you've been reallyhelpful

Those books look brilliant; I will definitely order. Thank you.

Spring term we will defintely do lots of phonics at home and I will talk to the teacher to clarify what system they are using. It does seem a very un-clear system; they don't put them on levels because they feel it leads to bullying by children who are higher up but of course it has left us totally unclear as to his progress (because he is so reluctant to read at home).

They do have lots of reading 'incentives' and say that they want to foster a love of books rather than a competitive "I'm on this level" system, which I do understand and totally support; they have a tree which you move up by completing a reading card daily (even if you're only read TO); so kids who can't read a word can reach the top at the same time as kids who are reading novels. I like that, but it's just the underlying reading system that doesn't seem to be helping ds to actually get there with reading.

I appreciate all the comments!

In answer to your question I don't think your DS is in your words 'VERY unusual' !!I have helped out in an infants class for many years and while it sounds as though he is behind the average , I wouldn't have thought he is outside the normal range.I have found though there is a point kids have to get to before it clicks and if they haven't reached that stage of development they just can't do it.
. From what you say it sounds as if he can sound a word out but then has trouble retaining it and doesn't recognise it again
Have you tried doing flashcards to try and get him to develop word recognition skills.With my own kids we made lots of bits of card with a word on each and then made each other laugh by arranging them in silly sentences.

Please don't worry. My children aged 15, 13 and 10 have all started to read at about the same stage - right at the end of year 1/beginning/middle of yeat 2, so between 6-7.The eldest 2 are at grammar school so it hasn't held them back. My dd2 (6 and 2 months)looks like she'll be the same. She also does not retain words well - I was a bit worried about her because she cannot move up the reading levels because of a complete inability to retain all of her reception words!but she has a wide vocabulary and good imagination. I am trying to chillout about it because really if I push her she doesn't like it and from experience with my eldest child it can be counter-productive.If you can keep your nerve I wouldn't order books: I'd do his school reading religiously with him and read to him loads and if it doen't click in by the end of year 2 ask the teacher for more support at school.

thank you katie and littleshebear - your posts are very encouraging.

Bizarrely enough, in the last week we have seen some progress! All of a sudden he is 'having a stab' at words rather than sounding out every letter first; say he is reading "then" he will start saying TH and add on the EN immediately if that makes sense; before it would have been "T.... H.... E... N..., then"

I am really hoping this is the start of something!!

My DS didn't click with reading until he was 7 in yr 2. He couldn't cope with word recognition but he was also taught jolly phonics. He caught up and passed a lot of those reading fluently in reception.
My DD was on e of those children who just absorbed reading and taught herself and could read very well in reception.
It's fascinating to see the difference between them.
Ds is 13 yr8 now and does have dyslexic problems, mainly with spelling but he is managing very well in the top set