When did you learn to read?

I was in primary school when I was selected to trial a new reading/writing system: I.T.A.
In time, it was deemed to be recognised as a failure as it confused learners away from how we understood spellings etc.
I must have been in the minority: I went on to study phonetics, as part of my B.A. English degree. I have always been interested in pronunciations of words!
Recently, I retired from being a secondary English teacher.
More time for reading.

I have vivid memories of sitting with my mum 'reading' "Ant and Bee" books. Our memories are amazing aren't they, I can still see the illustrations and what the book covers looked like.

My few words were in red and mum read the black ones. I can't remember if that was before I started school or was something we did together once I'd started.

I love to read, always have done. Mr. S. likes books he can dip into as and DS used to be an avid reader too until technology took over and he became an avid game player.

My dyslexic son certainly wasn't reading well when he was 11. He wasn't even reading well at 14. It took me a long time to realise the stress and worry reading caused him. He still prefers not to read. He uses a range of IT assistance to help him. It's time we moved away from equating literacy with intelligence. Some children have great ability and using technology can now get them through. My DS now has an MA and a sucessful career in a creative industry.

I could read when I started school and have always been an avid reader of whatever I could get hold of. Read fathers' newspapers and even my much older brother's comics about the war . The Public Library was a couple of streets away on the High Rd so used to go there with a friend to read and browse the books even went in the reference library after school to write our school 'topic' which was about chameleons.

I could read when I started school. I think my grandparents taught me. I was very interested in books and was reading the paper at the breakfast table. My father would split the paper and he'd read one half and I'd get the other.

welbeck

who needs to have even heard of frontal ? fronted adverbials.
what 's the point of cramming this nonsense into children.
it's like something out of Dickens, Gradgrind. obscure facts.
meaningless. pointless. demotivating. stifling creativity.

This has nothing at all to do with learning to read. It's a completely misguided attempt to improve children's writing skills.

welbeck

who needs to have even heard of frontal ? fronted adverbials.
what 's the point of cramming this nonsense into children.
it's like something out of Dickens, Gradgrind. obscure facts.
meaningless. pointless. demotivating. stifling creativity.

I totally agree! A mix of phonics and look/say will set most children off reading, add in some basic punctuation to underline the meanings, and off they go. Children who find it hard benefit from extra help, and they all need something interesting to keep them going. Books, comics, the daily paper, lists of ingredients, recipes and many other opportunities to add to reading skills. Showing children how relevant reading is in everyday life is vital, as is nurturing the love of a good story.
Of course parents should play a role. From an early age, pointing out road signs, making shopping lists, playing basic word games etc. A walk with children should be an opportunity to talk about the world, and there are so many ways to add in reading skills. I used to make a map of the local roads, where we would walk etc, and read through it with my children. Parents have always been busy, please don’t say they are too busy for their own children nowadays.

The point about this year is that MORE children will leave primary without being able to read than usual. Every year some children fail to learn to read - at least they don't read as well as others in their age group - very few children actually can't read at all.

Reading is actually a relatively low level skill (unlike writing) and is something most children can pick up. The problem is that some children going on to secondary school can't read as well as they need to be able to in order to keep up with the curriculum. They therefore fall behind very quickly.

In answer to the original question, I don't think I could read much before I was 7 and the same goes for two of my children and my grandson. My dyslexic younger son only learnt to read when he was nine but even so had more or less caught up by the time he went to secondary school.

We all now read well and read for pleasure not just because we have to.

It is those who find it difficult to learn to read that need targeted help and the best place to do that is while they are in Primary school.

who needs to have even heard of frontal ? fronted adverbials.
what 's the point of cramming this nonsense into children.
it's like something out of Dickens, Gradgrind. obscure facts.
meaningless. pointless. demotivating. stifling creativity.

Of course, the Steiner schools say that children shouldn't learn to read until they are 7...

well, i was obviously following that curiculum all by myself.
unlike most of you on here, who were scanning the ingredients as you ate your farleys rusks.

I joined a library and learnt to read before I went to school. I taught my best friend to read when we were both eight.
My sons could read before they went to school although the teachers were not happy about that. So I suppose I’ve done something useful in my lifetime ?

I learnt to read when we lived in Malta when my father was stationed there . I was 5 and for some reason I didn’t go to the base school but a local nun led school . They spoke no English and I spoke no Maltese . My father taught me to read from books borrowed from the Officers Mess on his ship .

I spent hours reading at school so by the time we returned 18 months later not only could I read fluently but I had read a lot of the classics ! ( I could also count and sing in Maltese - long forgotten now!) .

It gave me a lifelong love of books .

Well, my DGS was read to from birth by his parents and both sets of grandparents. By the time he was in YR he didn't want to be read to at all. 2 years later he has learned to read perfectly competently but doesn't have any interest at all in books.

However, I'm not worried because reading encompasses an awful lot more than just reading for pleasure. It's an essential skill for learning and for employment. He'll be fine.

I also learnt to read before I was 5 and entered school. As my mum and dad worked full time I was looked after by my grandparents. I was taken to the library evry week by my granddad who spent ages helping me choose my books in the childrens part and once done I went with him to the main part and sat in a chair while he chose his books. Sometimes this was twice a week and is my most favourite memory of him. We would then come home and he would read them to me. He was also a gifted story teller and kept me enthralled with his stories, My grandfather and mum were avid readers and both houses were full of books.Mum and dad read to me all the time My sister got the same experiences but struggled to read and has now what would be described as dyslexic tendancies and this has played out in my youngest son. They are both confident readers but do not enjoy it at all so read for a purpose. My eldest son enjoyed reading when young but now at 30 is too busy to read. He took ages to read but because he was not interested Learned to read in six weeks when he wanted to and is a very quick methodical reader just like my dad was. Both my children had loads of books and were read to just as I had been, I read because to me it is a neccessity to my emjoyment in life. I love it as it calms me, opens new worlds and is something that has always been there. My mum and I were talking at the weekend of the first books I can clearly remmeber being bought for me and she confirmed I was five and that the were the Far Away Tree and The Wishing Chair and she bought them when we were on holiday in Devon as she forgot to bring my books with me. She confirmed that I was reading them on my own and she had trouble getting me to put them down. I think sometimes it just natural for some children and others have to be clearly taught but the love of reading is if you get caught by a book, character or series and become enthralled. I think the best thing my granddad and mum did was never limited the books I could read anything on the book shelf I was able to look at and read even if I did not fully understand it ie reading Watership Downs at 10 and reading it as a story about rabbits and reading it as adult and realising the more adult meanings, I am a primary teacher with my specialism being reading and phonics and I am always keen to give children a love of reading not just the mechanics so read to my classes all sorts of books to engage them

I can’t remember when I started to read, but I do remember being curled up in a chair being totally lost in a book throughout my childhood.

My children and grandchildren grew up surrounded by books suitable for their age, as well as books which were read to them but slightly too old to tackle themselves.

My daughter could read before she went to school, my son really didn’t start to read until he was 7/8.

Every child is different.

There was absolutely nothing significant in their age at starting to read. Both went on to higher education at PhD level.

I started school at age 5.

My mum bought me a Ladybird book just before I started school, and read it with me. That was my
introduction to actually learning to read for myself.

During that first term at school, I remember going back into the classroom after playtime, and the teacher had written lots of similar words on the board to practise with us: the, they, then, them etc. As I can still picture that board in my mind, I am fairly sure that I could read them all perfectly well by then, and when I moved to a different school after one year, I could certainly read simple books very easily.

I could write too - every Monday, we had to write what we had done over the weekend. It's funny what you remember, isn't it - I remember having to ask the teacher how to spell missis (Mrs). She said the letters m, r and s, to me, but I didn't see how that could possibly be right (but was far too shy to say anything), so made up my own phonetic version instead

One of my sons learned to read very quickly after starting school, and has always loved reading.

His brother still couldn't read after a year at school, so I taught him using flashcards over the summer holidays, as I could see that he would soon get behind in other ways if I didn't, after noticing at the parent's evening that the maths cards that they worked from required reading skills too!

Unlike the rest of our family, that son has never enjoyed reading fiction, but soon put his newly-acquired reading skills to use with non-fiction.

One of my grandchildren did not find learning to read easy, despite having always loved having books read to him, but he got there at his own pace and is an avid reader now (age 9) and his literacy skills are well above average.
His younger sister (now 8) learned to read more easily, but still doesn't enjoy reading to herself at all.

All children are different!

I have always been able to read. To me is as natural as breathing and as necessary!
My DD taught herself at about 3 1/2, DS1 was a little later but poor DS2 being dyslexic managed it very late, 8ish. Mercifully he enjoys reading, even if some books are a bit of a trial.

I learned easily through phonics. I also remember a trendy 1960's teacher baffling us with flashcards.

Between 4 & 5 for me. Older for my daughter, but she's dyslexic. Hoping GS isn't and you can bet he'll be getting help from granny. ☺️

I have always been an avid reader, but for the life of me cant remember when I started being able to read. I’m amazed that so many of you can remember that far back.

Some children are really ready to learn to read much earlier than others. Would it be fair to hold them back? I don't think so. An individual approach would be best from ages of 3 onwards.

I wonder if teaching children to read all together so early is part of the problem. Children who are not yet ready get left behind and cannot catch up because the class has moved on.
I was reading prolifically by seven but my learning disabled son ( despite the best efforts of his special schools) was almost an adult before he started to click with written words- and that was because he wanted to be able to join in with texting his friends. I think a lot of countries start to teach reading at age 6-7 ( rather than age 4)- I wonder if that is more or less successful for the less able pupils?

Allsortsofbags!
You are amazing ?

The other and perhaps graver problem is that the children who can read before starting school, or do sums or anything else, will be bored whilst the others are learning these skills. It is hard enough teaching 24 infants at a time, and it becomes even harder if half the class is onto reading book two whilst the other half is learning the alphabet!

I don’t agree with this assertion. Any teacher worth their salt knows how to manage children working at different levels - at least, the teachers I know can do this! My DD’s went to a small school with just two classes, covering seven years, and the staff there were able to teach the curriculum to all those children more than adequately.

Even if children all start at the same stage at the beginning of term, they will make different progress and diverge in their needs pretty quickly.

I started infant school at 4 years old and could already read, as could quite a few pupils. I can’t remember how I learnt but my dear father used to read to my sister and myself every night and I remember my mother taking us to a little local library with my sister in a pram, so I must have been very young.
As others have mentioned, I can’t remember not being able to read.