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Schools and Education General Discussion
Do you depend on your school to teach your child how to read?
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Anonymous
I don't see where anybody implied that early readers require no additional assistance. To the contrary. It's just that it should be at an appropriate level. |
Anonymous
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You bet I'm relying on my children's schools to teach them to read. That's why kids go to school, right?
I read to my children, 45 minutes or an hour every evening, and they love being read to. My older child is finishing first grade and still does not read chapter books, but is fairly fluent with simple picture books. My pre-k child is interested in letters and writing but can't read at all. I am completely, 100% confident that both of them will grow up to be good readers. Our house is full of books and the children see us reading and discussing books all the time. DH was a precocious reader-- started reading at 3 or 4. I did not learn until 1st grade and my reading didn't really take off until 2nd grade. We both went to Harvard. And we both now earn our living as writers. My point-- which the research does back-- is that the age at which a child learns to read (4, 5, 6, 7) has very little predictive value when it comes to later achievement. If your child is interested and reads early, great! If he is less interested and reads later, also fine. Unless his or her teachers tell you they see some really developmental problem, just relax. Kids learn at different paces. |
Anonymous
| And the research also suggests that the most important factors in eventual reading skills-- assuming no developmental disabilities-- is lots of reading to your child, and having a household in which parents themselves read a lot, and thereby demonstrate themselves that reading is valued and is enjoyable. |
Anonymous
I actually think it is vocabulary development that has been shown to be most important. Reading to a child CAN develop vocabulary, though -- but so can just talking seriously with your child. Reading aloud books that do not have challenging vocabulary in them will not develop vocabulary. |
Anonymous
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We read to our DC and sent her to preschool. They did a lot of reading readiness. We did not make any special effort towards reading. We read to her every day. Beyond that, I didn't want to push and make reading a negative.
We allowed kindergarten to teach her to read and they did a great job. |
Anonymous
That's way too normal for this thread. |
Anonymous
It's what we did too. Normal parents unite! Let's take over! bwa ha ha ha |
Anonymous
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Does early reading at say, 2 or 3, really mean the kid will be accelerated for the rest of his or her academic life? Or do some of these kids level off? Anyone know about this?
And what, exactly, does early reading mean? What does a 2 or 3 year old understand or get out of reading a book himself? What is the advantage to the child vs having someone read him the book? What is he missing by spending his time learning to read? |
Anonymous
Most children aren't reading on their own at 3, let alone 2 (yikes!). There's no reason to push it unless the child shows s/he can do it. |
Anonymous
No, an early reader will not necessarily be accelerated for the rest of his/her academic life. They don't necessarily level off, but children who read later (5-7) are often able to close the gap with early readers within weeks from first learning to read. If you scroll to the top of this thread and read down, you'll discover many bones of contention. I am one who believes children will learn to read in due course, an early reader still needs to be monitored to determine their comprehension skills, etc, and that many K and 1st grade teachers believe that early readers still need assistance. So, no big advantages and no need to fret. |
Anonymous
| Studies show that very early reading is correlated with high math achievement later on--at the beginning, reading is basically code-breaking! But it's not necessarily associated with higher verbal skills later on. |
Anonymous
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My daughter taught herself to read starting at around 3ish, mostly reading phonics-type books (that we got as birthday presents) by 4, and at 5 now reads chapter books, multisyllabic words, the newspaper, almost anything I can read. She is in Pre-K. I have always read to her but never attempted to teach her to read. It's something she did on her own, and I don't even know how.
From what I can tell, this doesn't have much of an impact a few years out, but can result in boredome in K and 1st grade. I don't think that it will be an issue with my daughter because we're putting her in bilingual immersion, where she doesn't know the target language at all. That ought to keep her busy and challenged. |
Anonymous
What a refreshingly normal post from a parent about an early reader - not fraught with fretting that child will be stunted by having to sit in a classroom with other children learning to read. Reporters and publishers will be thrilled to hear that she is already reading the newspaper - maybe a source of new subscriptions! |
Anonymous
My DD7 did not read early (learned to read in K at age 5), but she progressed very rapidly and was reading at third grade level by the beginning of 1st. For us it has not been been a question of being stunted, but being bored and honestly, it has been an issue for her in first and second grades. She is very bored in the reading program and unfortunately she is the kind of kid that acts up when bored. Some kids will quietly occupy themselves and some don't. And some teachers are better than others at finding ways to deal with the more advanced students. Also, not all schools have resources for more advanced books for first and second grade advanced readers. We have found that in second grade she is reading the EXACT same books as in first grade. The school only has so many book kits for the reading groups at each level and her group has essentially maxed out the advanced books available for first and second grade. |
zumbamama
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I tried to teach them before school, or at least give them a foundation for learning to read. DS learned to read around 3-4ishh and that was with me reading to him everyday, pointing to the words I was reading. I also labelled everything in the house (chair, table, piano, etc) with big blocky letters and also let him play spelling/reading computer games. He has been in the advanced reading group in pre-K, K and 1st gr.
However, I do this with my youngest, who is 4 now...and she is not reading like DS was at that age. She'll read when she's ready, but I still like to encourage it. I won't be upset if its a couple years before she gets it...they each have t |