Should 6 year olds be able to read

What Your Child Should Know by Age 6 | Scholastic

By age 6, children understand over 20,000 words, and their sentences are longer and not as simple. But even more amazing are the new complexities in their thought processes — their wheels are constantly in motion. With this deepening, you’ll see a change in how your child uses language to express thoughts and ideas.

Reading Development

May be able to read simple books aloud (here are great books for beginner readers!)
Can read and retell familiar stories
Knows an increasing number of sight words
Can decode major sounds in a word
Can invent reasonable spelling and write some words

Your Checklist for Reading Development

BOB Books: First Stories — For the aspiring independent reader, the First Stories set features twelve short, easy-to-read stories, setting up the perfect foundation for more advanced reading down the line.

Sight Word Readers Parent Pack — Transform learning into a fun reading activity with this set of 25 little books that'll enhance your child's reading and writing skills.

Little Skill Seekers: Handwriting Practice — Your child will go from tracing words and sentences to writing them independently with the help of this workbook that comes with additional online learning resources.

Language Development

Speaks an average of 2,600 words and understands even more (around 22,000 words)
Uses many multi-syllabic words
Can use and understand different tenses, such as past and future
May be able to have extended conversations with shifting topics (here are language and literacy milestones for kids ages 6 to 7)
May be able to talk on the telephone (watch out for your cell phone!)

Your Checklist for Language Development

Scholastic Success With Grade 1: Grammar — Help your child understand verb tenses, punctuation, capitalization, and more! This workbook is filled with easy-to-comprehend lessons and explanations, skill-reinforcing exercises, and tests that help quantify your child's strengths.

The Cat in the Hat Beginner Book Dictionary — Help your child identify the objects in the world around her and expand her vocabulary with this illustrated picture dictionary. (Check out the literacy benefits of using a paper dictionary!)

Physical Development

May be able to jump rope, hula hoop, and play hopscotch
Better able to throw, catch, jump, and climb
Can do simple art projects involving cutting, coloring, pasting, and drawing
May be able to tie shoelaces

Your Checklist for Physical Development

Klutz Activity Kits — Tap into your kid's creativity with hands-on Klutz sets that'll have them creating PAW Patrol buddies, sewing fun objects from felt, and experimenting with colors with their own science kit.

Jumbo Book of Fun for Kids — From hidden pictures to illustrated mazes, your 6-year-old will think of it as a fun treasure hunt, but you'll notice how it improves critical thinking skills. This workbook gives children confidence in their ability to solve problems, which is important during this age of rapid learning.

Emotional Development

Loves to learn (and will be particularly inspired by books like Ada Twist, Scientist)
Is eager to please
Plays well in groups (though may want to be in charge!)
Begins to have an easier time with transitions
Can stay focused and pay attention for longer periods of time

Your Checklist for Social and Emotional Development

It's Okay to Make Mistakes — This sweet picture book teaches kids how to accept life's happy accidents and move on from their mistakes. It provides an incredible opportunity to discuss empathy, self-esteem, and resilience with your 6-year-old.

You Are Enough — This beautiful story, featuring full-color pages and diverse characters, emphasizes the importance of embracing one's differences and finding confidence within.

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Language and Literacy Development in Ages 6 to 7 | Scholastic

Although they’re no longer toddlers, 6- and 7-year-olds continue to grow rapidly in their language and reading skills. Their vocabulary is exploding as they learn five to 10 words every day (and sometimes it feels like they’re on a mission to say them all before bedtime!).

They continue to work on reading, sometimes naming a restaurant from the car or reading phones over parents' shoulders. In this stage, there are many fun and exciting new things in store for little readers.

Tune Up Pronunciation

By this age, most sound patterns are established, although your child may still struggle with “r’s” or may say words like ‘pisgetti’ instead of spaghetti. Some children will still say the /s/ sound like a /th/ at age 6, but by age 8, many children can say all speech sounds clearly.

“Ideally, every listener should be able to understand them from a speech articulation standpoint,” says Erin Vollmer, CCC-SLP, a speech pathologist and co-founder of TherapyWorks in Chicago. Pronunciation and articulation are key to social-emotional development as well. “We want to see kids communicate with one another, have simple conversations, and ask follow-up questions. Those are really important skills to have entering elementary school.” If you have any questions or concerns about your child’s speech, it’s important to see your pediatrician, who may refer you to a speech language pathologist.

Help Your Child Sound Out Words

If your 6- or 7-year-old is struggling to sound out words, they may be having trouble breaking down words into phonetic pieces they can understand. “On the brain we literally have a map that is developed with each speech sound,” says Vollmer. “It’s like a topographical map, and we innately are able to distinguish the features of a sound.” By reading these ‘brain maps,’ scientists have been able to pinpoint what many struggling young readers have in common. Often, kids who struggle with reading are the kids that having difficultly hearing the differences between sounds, adds Vollmer.

To help your child, read books that highlight the slight differences in words. The rhyming text in books such as BOB Books Rhyming Words, There Was an Old Lady Who Swallowed Some Books, and Chicka Chicka Boom Boom is a great way to help your child practice hearing subtleties in language.

Rhyming Books for Growing Readers

Sharpen Storytelling Skills

Children this age don’t just love to read stories — they enjoy telling them too! They might amaze you with their dinnertime tales, showing off their skills describing a character’s motive and explaining cause and effect. They’re also starting to understand the use of different tenses (past, present, and future).

While your child’s spoken narratives will outpace written ones, the written word also becomes more sophisticated at this age. Children learn how to use writing conventions, such as capital letters and periods, and can recognize and spell many words. They also often spell things based on how they sound (like “tre” for tree). Help them showcase their budding writing skills with the Sight Word Readers Parent Pack, or enhance their skills with the Scholastic Success With Writing: Grade 1 and Scholastic Success with Writing: Grade 2 activity books.

Help Your Child Become a Strong Writer

Keep Up With Story Time

While it’s important to let kids this age get plenty of independent reading practice, they can still benefit from having a story read to them out loud. Not only does reading aloud to kids continue to provide great bonding time, but it also gives them important brain benefits they don’t get from reading on their own.

“Being read to aloud gives kids practice with a really important skill called ‘movie in the mind’,” says Julianne Barto, a school librarian manager and literacy specialist at KIPP Whittier Middle School in Camden, New Jersey. Basically, because kids aren’t doing the hard work of deciphering words when they’re listening to a story, their minds are free to visualize what they’re hearing — an important part of reading comprehension.

To get the most out of read-aloud time, dive into skill-boosting favorites like The Magic School Bus Presents: Our Solar System or Eerie Elementary: The School Is Alive! (Also, see the best books for an effective bedtime reading routine.)

Great Read-Alouds

How to Choose the Right Books for Your Child

With so many books to choose from, it can be tough to know which ones offer enough of a reading challenge for your child, and which ones should wait until they’re a little older or further along in their reading skills.

The simplest way way to determine if a book is a good fit for your 6- to 7-year-old is to look to the age of the main character. Books with protagonists who are around the same age as an elementary school reader are good picks in terms of reading level and maturity of content.

“If your student is in the 3rd grade and the main character of the book they are reading is in the 6th grade, chances are the content of that book will be not appropriate for your student,” says Barto. “Your child may be able to read each word within that book and understand the main events, but it is probably not the best book for them at this moment.”

Series like Junie B. Jones and the Magic Tree House feature chapter books perfect for eager young readers who are ready for a bit of a challenge.

Shop more books for 6- to 7-year-olds below! You can find all books and activities at The Scholastic Store, where you can get free shipping on book-only orders over $25.

Get ready for your child to go back to school with our guide — it's full of recommended books, teacher tips, homework help, and more resources for a successful school year.

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methods of teaching reading to the first grade

When to teach a child to read

There are early development studios where children are taught to read from the first years of life. However, pediatricians do not recommend rushing and advise starting learning to read no earlier than 4 years old, best of all - at 5–6. By this age, most children already distinguish sounds well, can correctly compose sentences and pronounce words. Therefore, most often parents think about how to teach their child to read, already on the eve of school.

Source: unsplash.com / @jonathanborba
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How to know if your child is ready to learn to read

Before you start teaching your child to read, you need to make sure that the child is ready and wants to learn. To do this, try to answer the following questions:

Does the child know the concepts of “right-left”, “big-small”, “inside-outside”?
Can he generalize objects according to these characteristics?
Can he distinguish between similar and dissimilar forms?
Is he able to remember and execute at least three instructions?
Does he form phrases correctly?
Does he pronounce words clearly?
Can he retell a story he heard or experienced?
Can he formulate his feelings and impressions?
Can you predict the ending of a simple story?
Does he manage to participate in the dialogue?
Can he listen without interrupting?
Can he rhyme words?
Do the letters attract his attention?
Does the child have a desire to independently look at the book?
Does he like being read aloud to him?

If you answered “yes” to these questions, your child is ready and will soon learn to read correctly.

Methods for teaching reading

Most of the methods involve learning while playing, so that the child is not bored and learns knowledge better.

Zaitsev's Cubes

For more than twenty years, these cubes have been introducing children to letters and teaching how to form words and syllables. They allow you to understand how vowels and consonants, deaf and voiced sounds differ. There are 52 cubes in total, each of which depicts warehouses (combinations of a consonant and a vowel). The cubes vary in color and size, the large ones depict hard warehouses, while the small ones are soft. During classes, parents are encouraged to pronounce or sing warehouses so that the child remembers them better.

K Zaitsev's ubiki
Source: moya-lyalyas.ru
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Vyacheslav Voskobovich's "towers" and "folds"

windows. You can put cubes in them to make syllables. And from several towers you can make a word.

Voskobovich's "towers"
Source: catalog-chess. ru

Skladushki is a book with pictures, educational rhymes and songs. Parents sing them and in parallel show the warehouses in the pictures. The author of the methodology claims that a child of six years old can be taught to read in a month using "folds".

‍ A page from V. Voskobovich's "folds"
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Doman's cards

This method of teaching a child to read is based on memorizing whole words, from simple to more complex. First, the child masters the first 15 cards, which the parent shows him for 1-2 seconds and pronounces the words on them. Then the child tries to memorize phrases. This technique helps not only to learn more words, but also develops memory well in general.

‍ Doman cards
Source: friendly-life.ru/kartochki-domana-dlya-samyh-malenkih
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Maria Montessori's method of teaching reading

The essence of the Montessori method is that the child is first asked to feel the writing of a letter, and then pronounce it. For this, didactic materials are used - cardboard plates with pasted letters, the outline of which the child traces with his finger, naming the sound. After studying consonants and vowels, you can move on to words and phrases. The Montessori method not only helps to learn to read, but also develops fine motor skills, logic, and the ability to analyze.

‍ Montessori cards are easy to make yourself.
Source: hendmeid.guru
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Olga Soboleva's technique

The author of this technique believes that you need to start learning not from the abstract alphabet, but immediately in practice - by analyzing simple texts. The Soboleva program allows you to teach a child to read from the age of five - at this age, children are already able to keep their attention on a line of text. Different approaches are offered depending on how it is easier for a child to perceive the world - by eye, by ear or by touch. In addition to reading skills, the technique develops interest in creativity, imagination, attention and memory.

Source: freepik.com / @gpointstudio
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How to teach a child to read by syllables

Teaching a child to read by syllables should be done in stages. First, explain to him that sounds are vowels and consonants, deaf and voiced. Say them with the child - he must understand how they differ. Letters and sounds can be learned while walking: draw your child's attention to the letters on signs and announcements, and soon he will learn to recognize them.

When the child has mastered the letters and sounds, start teaching him to read simple words - "mom", "dad". Then move on to more complex ones - “grandmother”, “dog”, “apartment”. Show your child that syllables can be sung.

‍ Syllabary for learning to read
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Next, move on to word formation. You can cut cards with syllables and invite the child to make words out of them. When he gets comfortable, move on to reading short texts. It is better to start with two or three phrases, and a little later switch to texts of five to ten sentences.

To enroll in Foxford Online Elementary School, a child must have at least basic reading, numeracy and writing skills. To check the readiness of the child for school, we offer to pass a small test that does not require special preparation.

Source: freepik.com
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Exercises for learning to read

There are many exercises on the Internet that help children learn to read, you can print them out and start learning right away. Start with exercises that teach you to recognize letters and tell correct spellings from incorrect spellings.

‍ From O. Zhukova's manual “Learning to read. Simple Exercises.
Source: mishka-knizhka.ru

When the child gets used to the letters, move on to the exercises for syllables. For example, like this:

‍ Geometric hint exercise. For greater clarity, blocks with words can be cut out.
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Such exercises not only teach reading, but also develop logical thinking well:

Gradually move on to exercises where you need not only to read correctly, but also write words:

One of the most difficult and entertaining exercises is fillords: you need to find and cross out the words on the field of letters.

‍ Source: graycell.ru
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Games for learning to read

With the help of cubes or cards with letters and syllables, you can play different educational games with your child. Let's take a few examples.

Garages

Take a word of 3-4 syllables and place the cards in random order on the floor. Explain to the child how these syllables are read. These will be garages. Give the child different toys and offer to send them to the garage as you wish: for example, the car goes to the TA garage, the bear goes to the RA garage, the ball rolls to the KE garage, and so on. Make sure your child is positioning the toys correctly. At the end of the game, invite the child to make a word from garage syllables. Perhaps not the first time, but he will get a "ROCKET". Gradually introduce new syllables into the game.

Store

Lay out images of various goods on the table - this is a store, and you are a seller. Give your child a stack of cards with syllables - they will function as money. The child needs to buy all the items in the store, but each item is only sold for the syllable it starts with. For example, fish can only be bought for the syllable "RY", milk - for the syllable "MO", and so on. Give your child a few extra cards to make the task more difficult. When he gets used to it, change the conditions of the game: for example, sell goods not for the first, but for the last syllables. The game is both simple and complex: it will allow the child to understand that words are not always spelled the way they are pronounced. After all, a cow cannot be bought for the syllable "KA", for example.

Lotto

Game for several people. Give the children several cards with syllables. Take out the cubes with syllables one by one from the box and announce them. Whoever has a card with such a syllable - he takes it. The first person to complete all the cards wins. During the game, children will accurately remember the syllables that they had on their hands.

Summary

Finally, a few more tips on how to teach a child to read:

It is better to start teaching children to read by memorizing letters. It is important that the child can recognize and name them without hesitation.
In the early stages, pronounce the consonants as they are read in words: not [em], [el], [de], but [m], [l], [d] - this way it will be easier for the child to find his bearings.
Sculpt letters from plasticine, draw and color, buy an alphabet with voice acting - use all the channels of the child's perception.
Gradually build letters into syllables and then into words. Play rearranging letters and syllables, let the child experiment.
Teach your child rhymes about the letters of the alphabet, look at the primer, use cards with letters and pictures. Thanks to the illustrations, the child will be able to memorize the symbols faster.
Distribute the load: fifteen minutes a day is better than an hour twice a week. Alternate entertaining and serious tasks.
You can hang signs with their names on objects in the child's room - the child will quickly learn to recognize them in texts.
Read aloud regularly to your child and gradually introduce them to independent reading. Every evening, offer to read at least a few lines from a well-known book on your own.
Lead by example. For a child to want to learn to read, he must regularly see you with a book.

We hope that our recommendations will help you teach your preschooler to read. Even if your child is just learning to read, at Foxford Elementary School he will be able to improve his skills.

At what age should a child be able to read

The ability to read is one of the basic human social skills. Without it, it is impossible to receive and transmit information, therefore this skill should be developed in every person. Modern parents strive to teach their child to read as early as possible, so that by the time they start learning, they already have some knowledge base. So when should a child start doing this?

Content:

A Few Important Details

When We Begin

Experts disagree about teaching children to read early, and neither do parents. Someone thinks that a child should get basic reading skills even before entering school: this will make it easier to adapt to the educational process. Others are sure that a teacher in the 1st grade should teach a child to read, since an unnecessarily early start to school is harmful for children: let them enjoy their childhood for now.

Learning too early - why it is harmful

The development of a child's cognitive abilities follows certain patterns, certain stages, it is undesirable to change or accelerate it, and often it is completely impossible. Until the age of five, children think figuratively - in pictures, and it is difficult for them to perceive information in the form of letters, numbers or other signs. And even having understood the general principle of reading, little students read, but they cannot understand the essence of what is written.

Learning to read early can lead to health problems:

excessive brain tension;
abnormal blood flow to the cerebral hemispheres;
eye strain.

Intensive classes can unbalance the development of different types of thinking in a child: the emphasis will be on the logical, and the figurative will be “abandoned”. Yes, the child will become better at remembering, speaking, analyzing, thinking logically, but the development of the right hemisphere will be slowed down, and it is responsible for no less important dreams, emotions, understanding of music and color. The emotional development of the baby will be somewhat retarded, and at an older age this may respond with serious problems in the form of:

lack of ability to empathize with others;
difficulties with correct understanding of one's emotions;
inability to determine one's strengths and weaknesses;
difficulties in understanding one's own and social values;
isolation and uncertainty.

It is known that many geeks are developed from early childhood, but most often, growing up, they do not have happiness and are poorly adapted to the realities of the world around them. Therefore, it is more important to raise a socially adapted person from a child than to teach him to read too early.

What the experts say

Psychologists, psychophysiologists and other experts recommend starting to teach a preschooler to read not earlier than he is 5 years old, but at the same time he must be ready to learn. They say about it:

intelligible correct speech without speech defects;

correct listening comprehension of the text;

the ability to explain the meaning of a word;

ability to build coherent logical sentences;

the ability to briefly retell the plot of a cartoon or fairy tale, describe your day;

the ability to concentrate on an activity, such as needlework.

A healthy five-year-old child usually has all of these skills. And at this age it is time to get acquainted with letters and sounds, then by the time of admission to grade 1, the child will master reading at a sufficient level.

Is it possible to instill a love for reading

It is not enough to teach a child to read - he still needs to instill a love for this occupation. View your favorite books and read them, study the illustrations, get acquainted with the adventures of the characters. It is important that older family members show the child that reading is an amazing learning opportunity, and not a hateful duty. It will be useful if the child saw people with books in his close circle, then, imitating them, he himself will want to plunge into the world of literature.

The first reading lessons should be conducted in the format of a game: in this way the material will be absorbed by the child easier and better, the child will not have time to lose concentration during the lesson, and avoid stressful experiences.

Choosing a teaching method

Today there are many methods to teach a child to read, it is important to choose the one that suits your child.

Perhaps the most popular method is classes in the classical alphabet (the alphabet itself can be developed by any author). The kid quickly remembers the letter, as it will now be associated with a certain picture. Later, you can move on to another well-known book - the primer and study reading by syllables from it.

Many techniques are based on the use of cubes or tablets. They are convenient and interesting, but are often criticized by school teachers. It is believed that such training misses a very important component - basic familiarity with the alphabet.

The most famous of these techniques:

Zaitsev's cubes - the emphasis is on making syllables from individual letters and words from syllables, understanding vowels, unvoiced and voiced, hard and soft consonants.
Chaplygin cubes - training not only allows you to compose syllables and words, but also develops fine motor skills, and this will have a beneficial effect on the overall development of the child;
Glenn Doman's cards - learning is based on the use of visual memory: syllables and words are printed on cards, and the child memorizes their spelling;
"Skladushki" by Voskobovich - 21 cards with syllables, from which you can build houses with whole words.

The Montessori method is another well-known teaching option. Toddlers first master the letter, then move on to getting to know the letters, and then learn to read the syllables.

Are there any downsides to learning to read at home? In addition, at home, parents usually miss such an important part of the lesson as the sound analysis of the word, and the child may also have difficulty breaking down words into syllables. It is not easy to correct this mistake later, therefore it is better to immediately entrust a professional teacher to teach the child to read and write. It can be either a private tutor or a teacher of preparatory courses before the first grade - such classes are held today in literally every school.

A few important details

If you decide to teach your child to read at home, it is important to follow a few rules. All studies should be built on the principle “From simple to complex”, that is, you first need to learn letters and sounds, then you can start to compose them into syllables and only then move on to whole words.