Six Year Old Reading Skills
My son is 6 years old and in 1st grade. My question concerns his reading skills. I know each child is different but can you give me some guidelines on where his reading level should be. We read short stories (like Dr. Seuss) and he has 10 sight words to work on each week from school. He is able to master these new words and recognize them in stories. However, he is still choppy and has trouble sounding out unfamiliar words. He also has a speech/articulation problem. Could this be a factor in his reading level? What can I do to help him? Thanks!
First grade is a some-do-some-don't early school "grade". You should not expect comprehension of the process of reading, which is different from learning to decode letters, numbers and other symbols and form words.
Think of first grade as an "Ah_HA" experience, when all the out-loud reading books you have poured into his experience jells and he begins to see words are real objects that he recognizes and says, "wow, that word is HI or that word is the same as my name." He wants his teacher to love him, and he tries to please the teacher, if he has good role models in the school. He is probably fond of playing teacher and pretending "school". A good first grade teacher instills a love of learning in her class of students. He or she models what fun it is to read a word and match it to the object.
Montessori schools use objects that teach and help children show their curiosity and creativity and also become cooperative and helpful to others. Public schools should also teach organizational skills and following directions. All schools need stuff! The need to have a wealth of materials that let the children learn to write and read, do counting and science and social studies and environmental studies and outdoor activities and a million experiences at their own rate and pace because if that happens, they will make children love school every year...
Reading levels at age 6 vary from understanding all the alphabet sounds, the beginning sounds of words, how letters make words, how words have meaning and stand for something like a chair or a table, or a mom or dad. Children like to match words to objects, or they may just like to call out "STOP" when they recognize a stop sign. Most children enjoy all these reading activities in the first grade without really becoming fluent readers.
The main focus of first grade reading is on enjoyment of hearing books read out loud, pretending to read by recognizing where familiar words are located on a page, on a store front, or in a newspaper, etc. By all means introduce your son to phonics games, too, either on tapes, as part of game board games, on the computer, or by just matching sounds by singing or talking rhyming words that have different first letters. Be silly - rap, tap, clap, and dance around the room, clapping or tapping or whatever occurs to you spontaneously.
Many workbooks are available, but avoid them, and let your first grader write and draw and scribble, and perfect all the fine motor small muscles of the fingers and hands. Skills that he needs to write and read the words he sees and hears. If he invents a weird spelling of a word, but writes it anyway and shows it to you, tell him he's a good reader/writer/ and make a fuss. He needs confidence, not correction of spelling and pronunciation mistakes. He needs to tell you stories from books, and pretend he is reading them verbatim to you.
A good first grade teacher will always be a good role by spelling something out for a child by pretending she is a talking and walking dictionary! Parents should be tolerant of many mistakes in reading and writing so children will love to see the printed word on the screen, in books, on signs, anywhere in the house, so concentrate on household objects. I hope this is helpful - do write back and you'll ge a fast reply that your son might enjoy reading.
Thanks for writing,
Dr. Susan
