Reading - who taught your kid to read?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I did. I read to them all the time and it was a natural progression for them to learn the sounds and letters and words.

I’ve read to my kids from birth and it did not naturally teach them to read. It did not make them enjoy reading when they finally did learn, although they do still like being read to.

+1

Evidence shows that almost all kids need direct phonic instruction in order to learn to read. Why all schools do not do this is ridiculous.

+1

And many of the kids who learned to read by “osmosis” will hit a wall in 4th grade when the reading gets much harder and hey need to decide and understand word origins for unfamiliar words.

No, they don't. Parent of 11th grader.

+2

Kid never sounded out a word and reads at a college level in middle school, so...

Phonics are great for kids who need it. Some don’t though.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I did. I read to them all the time and it was a natural progression for them to learn the sounds and letters and words.

I’ve read to my kids from birth and it did not naturally teach them to read. It did not make them enjoy reading when they finally did learn, although they do still like being read to.

+1

Evidence shows that almost all kids need direct phonic instruction in order to learn to read. Why all schools do not do this is ridiculous.

+1

And many of the kids who learned to read by “osmosis” will hit a wall in 4th grade when the reading gets much harder and hey need to decide and understand word origins for unfamiliar words.

No, they don't. Parent of 11th grader.

^^Me again. Keep in mind that these kids who enter PreK or K already reading are present for most of the formal instruction that the other kids are getting, so they get it too. It may be review for them or it may be, an "oh that makes sense of what I already knew." They aren't missing out just because their brains were wired to learn to learn reading a different way. FWIW, my DC who picked up reading by being read to has also picked up reading other languages the same way. In 11th, DC is mastering a 3rd foreign language, one of which has a different alphabet. Learning the formal way was OK, but not working as fast for DC; reading along to books on tape, similar to the way DC learned to read English by being read to, worked like a charm.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I did. I read to them all the time and it was a natural progression for them to learn the sounds and letters and words.

I’ve read to my kids from birth and it did not naturally teach them to read. It did not make them enjoy reading when they finally did learn, although they do still like being read to.

+1

Evidence shows that almost all kids need direct phonic instruction in order to learn to read. Why all schools do not do this is ridiculous.

+1

And many of the kids who learned to read by “osmosis” will hit a wall in 4th grade when the reading gets much harder and hey need to decide and understand word origins for unfamiliar words.

No, they don't. Parent of 11th grader.

I am one of these kids, and my parents didn’t realize I had developed my own theory of phonics/ rules for figuring out words without explicit instruction. And I can say my rules were pretty good since I was a NMS and National Spelling Bee state finalist.

Now as I watch my kids learn to read in a school with proper phonics instruction as part of their reading curriculum it is really interesting. One of my kids is breezing through and reading at a high school level in 3rd grade. He will note when he learns a spelling pattern how that matches or doesn’t his hypothesis about how those sounds should have been spelled. It is like reliving my own thinking about words.

My other child is dyslexic and she gets additional multi-sensory instruction with the same structured phonics/ word study content and as a 7th grader she is also above grade level now in reading, and she is on grade level in spelling. Her comprehension has always been advanced and is now in college ranges.

I have realized phonics provides minor benefits for some, major benefits for others, but harms nobody. So I wish we could all support universal design for reading. Imagine how many mildly dyslexic kids could thrive with sound instruction!

[Anonymous]

We were reading to them since they were infants. Montessori (3 hours a day) taught them the phonetics. They were reading by 3. We continued reading to them till they were 7. They are avid readers now with a fabulous vocabulary.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Orton-Gillingham tutor after dyslexia diagnosed in 1st grade.

how did you figure this out? A formal assessment? If so, where?

Schools should screen for dyslexia if there are reading concerns. So you can request that for free. But we know most schools do a terrible job of this, in FCPS they use PALS which has no RAN component.

So most parents end up with a private psycho educational evaluation for dyslexia. There are lots of practices who do this, it is rarely covered by insurance. If you search the Kids with Special Needs board here there are lots ofnpeovider suggestions.

It is critical to identify and intervene as early as possible. It is possible to identify dyslexia as early as kindergarten. And the earlier you intervene, the more effective and faster it is. Don’t wait to evaluate!

[Anonymous]

As with most things in education, it's a class/income thing. For kids w/o learning differences, being in a household with adults with intensive verbal interaction and vocabulary, who model reading all the time, and spend a lot of time reading to their children produces kids who learn to read easily. Research seems to indicate that phonics instruction is more useful to kids from lower education and income backgrounds, so it makes sense that it be the principal approach used in public education. But, for parents whose children learned to read early and easily, the amount of formal reading instruction in the early primary grades is not only a waste of time, it feels so basic as to border on the oppressive. That's why none of the selective private schools in the area spend nearly as much time on reading instruction as the publics and none use phonics exclusively.

[Anonymous]

I didn't specifically teach her to read, and neither did her preschool. We did read to her a lot, practice letters, play word games, rhyming games, etc. At 4.5, she picked up a small book and read it. She was reading frog and toad books by early in kindergarten. She continued to be a voracious reader all through elementary and middle school.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:As with most things in education, it's a class/income thing. For kids w/o learning differences, being in a household with adults with intensive verbal interaction and vocabulary, who model reading all the time, and spend a lot of time reading to their children produces kids who learn to read easily. Research seems to indicate that phonics instruction is more useful to kids from lower education and income backgrounds, so it makes sense that it be the principal approach used in public education. But, for parents whose children learned to read early and easily, the amount of formal reading instruction in the early primary grades is not only a waste of time, it feels so basic as to border on the oppressive. That's why none of the selective private schools in the area spend nearly as much time on reading instruction as the publics and none use phonics exclusively.

Rich kids are dyslexic, too, PP. Rich kids, poor kids, middle class kids, white kids, black kids...we come in all shapes and forms. And dyslexia is very common - perhaps up to 10% of kids. My kid's fancy private school has three dyslexics (that I know of) in a class of 40.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Orton-Gillingham tutor after dyslexia diagnosed in 1st grade.

how did you figure this out? A formal assessment? If so, where?

Kid had been in two somewhat academic pre k programs plus K without learning to read. K teacher made some worried noises, and then 1st grade teacher suggested testing since he’d had all the support and teaching at home literacy environment that should have resulted in reading...but hadn’t. Private school. He hid his troubles pretty well - he is smart and creative and actually loves stories and words - just not the written kind. We took him for psycho educational testing at The Treaatment and Learning Centers in Rockville.

Thank you. This is very helpful and makes me wonder if we are in the same boat. Did you have a good experience at that center? Any others to recommend in DC?

Yes, we did have a good experience. We liked the tester, my kid seemed to trust her, and the tester was helpful with recommendations for next steps and accommodations. I'm sorry, I don't know of places in DC but there are multiple threads on places to do psycho educational testing in the DC area on the Special Needs forum here on DCUM.

[Anonymous]

Both boys learned primarily in DCPS, primarily in 1st and 2nd. They got some basics in preK and K, and we did a bit at home, but it was 90 percent school learning. Now in 4th and 6th, they are fine readers.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:As with most things in education, it's a class/income thing. For kids w/o learning differences, being in a household with adults with intensive verbal interaction and vocabulary, who model reading all the time, and spend a lot of time reading to their children produces kids who learn to read easily. Research seems to indicate that phonics instruction is more useful to kids from lower education and income backgrounds, so it makes sense that it be the principal approach used in public education. But, for parents whose children learned to read early and easily, the amount of formal reading instruction in the early primary grades is not only a waste of time, it feels so basic as to border on the oppressive. That's why none of the selective private schools in the area spend nearly as much time on reading instruction as the publics and none use phonics exclusively.

Rich kids are dyslexic, too, PP. Rich kids, poor kids, middle class kids, white kids, black kids...we come in all shapes and forms. And dyslexia is very common - perhaps up to 10% of kids. My kid's fancy private school has three dyslexics (that I know of) in a class of 40.

Funny how you missed the part where the PP wrote w/o learning differences.

This was my experience as well in fancy private school. One kid was dyslexic in class of 22. By 2nd grade they realized this and he was given appropriate tutoring through a partnership with a fancy SN private school.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I did. I read to them all the time and it was a natural progression for them to learn the sounds and letters and words.

I’ve read to my kids from birth and it did not naturally teach them to read. It did not make them enjoy reading when they finally did learn, although they do still like being read to.

+1

Evidence shows that almost all kids need direct phonic instruction in order to learn to read. Why all schools do not do this is ridiculous.

+1

And many of the kids who learned to read by “osmosis” will hit a wall in 4th grade when the reading gets much harder and hey need to decide and understand word origins for unfamiliar words.

No, they don't. Parent of 11th grader.

I am one of these kids, and my parents didn’t realize I had developed my own theory of phonics/ rules for figuring out words without explicit instruction. And I can say my rules were pretty good since I was a NMS and National Spelling Bee state finalist.

Now as I watch my kids learn to read in a school with proper phonics instruction as part of their reading curriculum it is really interesting. One of my kids is breezing through and reading at a high school level in 3rd grade. He will note when he learns a spelling pattern how that matches or doesn’t his hypothesis about how those sounds should have been spelled. It is like reliving my own thinking about words.

My other child is dyslexic and she gets additional multi-sensory instruction with the same structured phonics/ word study content and as a 7th grader she is also above grade level now in reading, and she is on grade level in spelling. Her comprehension has always been advanced and is now in college ranges.

I have realized phonics provides minor benefits for some, major benefits for others, but harms nobody. So I wish we could all support universal design for reading. Imagine how many mildly dyslexic kids could thrive with sound instruction!

It has been my experience with public and Catholic schools that teachers figure out who needs what kind of instruction, and they get it. It is hard to have universal instruction when kids have different learning needs. The methods used to teach my dyslexic students would not be the best use of time for ESL students, and the methods used for ESL students would not be the best use of time for advanced students, and so on. We are finally getting away from universal, one-size-fits-all education, and that is a good thing.

[Anonymous]

We read to both our kids a lot (they owned several hundreds of children's books thanks to generous hand me downs and grandparents and we went to the library each week). Both learned to read before kindergarten without any specific instruction and were reading chapter books in kindergarten. One went to a home play-based daycare and the other to a play-based center daycare. But it might be in part genetic--I was an 'early reader' too. We didn't have any of those literacy apps or word toys around.

[Anonymous]

I taught letters and sounds around age 2. Daycare solidified my lessons. We started using sight words on Youtube (Preschool Prep company has the best videos IMO). In K the school uses Phonovisual and also taught comprehension. DD is now in 1st grade and reads fairly well sometimes stumbling on 'these, three, and there', but she can read her 90% of her books by herself. We still have story time every night and I anticipate her moving up at least 2 levels (within her grade) this year.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Who taught your kid to read - the sounds, the blends, the combos, the practice.
Preschool, you, an IPad app, or your independent school teacher (and if so what grade)?

We had play based pk and K, lots of specials for grade 1, and no homework policies school so have never seen a word list or literacy pack come home for either of our kids. Now we feel naive since they still don’t know concepts or spelling and I wonder what fell through the cracks here.

Certainly alphabet memorization and reading at school helps at pk/k levels. But if you read to your kids as parents (almost) every night as toddlers thru pre-k they’ll learn almost by osmosis. DC1 got about 3-5 Dr. Seuss books a night from age 2-3 on and was reading independently by 4 / 4-1/2. DC2 was less interested in reading and being read to and started closer to 5 / 5-1/2, which seemed fine.

Please please do not suggest all children will learn to read through “osmosis”. This is absolutely false and it is reckless to propel this myth.