How many times do most 4 year olds need to read very first reading scheme books before the new words sink in?

[pigswithfludontfly]

How many times/ at what stage is it best to move onto the next book in a reading scheme?
Ds 'got' the new words on the second go of each one I'd say and was then reading the pages quite confidently as the words were repeated.
My gut feel is we should read that one once more and move to the next one?
What would a teacher normally do?

Children, generally, need to see a word between 6-60 times before it sinks in. I think it was more than 60 with my son to start with though, now it is possibly less than 6 for some words. I wish I knew that the first weekend I tried to get him to learn just two words and nearly pulled my hair out!

They change their books every day at my son's school and maybe chose the same book again later, if they choose. Certainly read it 1-4 times each night, as much as your child will allow.

Just because they can read a word in one context doesn't mean it has 'sunk in' yet. They need to keep seeing it, again and again, in lots of different books IMO

Thanks Zeke - that definitely makes sense about different contexts based on reading we've done before.

This is all new to me!

Do the same words not appear in the next book with a few new one added on.

Probably do but I haven't looked

Ah yes they probably add a few new ones each time....

It depends on the reading scheme pwfdf ... newer schemes are based on phonics and don't expect the child to "learn" the words as such just to be able to decode them and eventually to realise that the word on page 3 is the same as the word they decoded on page 2. Older schemes such as ORT (Biff & Chip) rely on Look & Say.

When they first begin "reading" I move the children in my reception class onto the next book if they can decode rather than any expectation of "knowing" the words.

Thanks mrz - ds does a bit of both. He can decode but I think is the sort of learner who whole word recognition 'works' for. I need to be mindful of what they'll do in school but I can't see there being a problem as he can decode if he needs to. Does that sound okay or a bad idea to carry on with these books which teach whole word recognition?

my ds memorises the books so we go over and over them so he can keep recognising words and really taking them in he can read me 4-5 books and he doesn't recognise the same word in next book has just memorised the stories lol

my ds can spot same word in same book but not in another book

memorising is a good skill and I would never discourage it as long as the child can also use decoding skills when they encounter new words.

All I meant was that I would never keep a child on a book until they had learnt all the words as children get bored with reading scheme books after many readings. I usually expect the child to read the book with me - once or twice at home then once more with me so my class get a new book every day usually.

dd is in reception (only just turned 5 in June) and they read from many different reading schemes, some expecting to decode the words others learning my repetition. DD started of as more of a decoder so would spell words out to herself a lot but as she has spent more time on them, the more common ones she now recognises on sight. Also, the 'tricky' words they learn at school by sight and repetition so she also now knows a lot of them. A lot of the books she reads use the same words in the next stage books but with more to decode or extend.

DS1 is 4 and I have had to buy tons of books because his reading is coming on really quickly but he remembers the words after reading a book twice and so then just relies on memory rather than actually decoding the words. Have bought the songbird phonics and the more songbird phonics sets and then the floppy's phonics sets too. We make sure we leave a week or two before returning to the same book so that he isn't just memorising. I too have been concerned about moving him onto the next level too quickly so I've been goign back to level 2 ort some days even though he's comfortably reading level three. I've also now started introducing the normal ORT books since these do not use decodable phonics only and so are a bit more challenging. The Usborne phonics books are quite good too and again a bit more challenging.

We've then been printing off resources from the internet. Things like matching the word to the picture with a line. This has kept it varied.

I did contact the school he will be starting in September to see whether they would lend me some books over the holidays but they were extremely reluctant and said they stock take over the summer. Not sure why its so hard to make a list of the books they've lent us but there you go .