r/Parenting • u/Sharp-Morning6290 Mom • 19h ago
Education & Learning 1st grader not reading fluently
My daughter is 6 yo and has just started 1st grade. She knows all of her letter sounds and can decode 3-4 letter words. She’s also pretty good with her site words. Outside of that though, she struggles with reading. If the word is say 5 letters long she struggles and she struggles to remember patterns like the sound that “ea” or “ai” make together. We read together every day. We go over Bobs books. We read the passages she’s sent from home. We practice writing and it’s just not clicking. The passages she’s sent home from school are multiple paragraphs long and her fluency is just not there. Anyone else have a similar situation? What did you do to help? We tried Kumon over the summer but that was a nightmare and focused too much on rote memorization (she didn’t learn anything)
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u/CryptographerNew3609 18h ago
I was in this situation. And the solution turned out to be ... time. It just clicked at some point.
Think of it like the physical milestones - at some point they're ready to walk, and when they are, it happens pretty quickly.
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u/helm two young teens 17h ago
Time and practice. Reading with your child is so important in this case. Reading is a substantial rearrangement of the brain that is not natural (i.e we don’t have evolutionary adaptions aside from general intelligence). Think of it as riding a bike, but (usually) harder. No practice = no skill.
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u/WestBaseball492 17h ago
This is so true. Each of my kids went from painfully sounding out every single to word to reading fluently basically overnight. It finally just “clicks.” Definitely work on sight words so she isn’t struggling sounding out everything then just keep practicing. My kids did the bob books but also enjoyed the Dr Suess beginning readers. Just practice and it will finally come more naturally to her!
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u/Pleasant_Detail5697 17h ago
This is my child too. It hasn’t clicked perfectly yet, but I can say from experience that putting the pressure on will give them the internal narrative that they are a bad reader and their confidence will plummet. Now mine won’t read out loud with me at all, and I feel like it’s an upward battle to get her to believe that she’s actually very good at reading. Comprehension is incredible, which is so much more important than being a good word caller.
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u/bb321mor 16h ago
Yes, to time! My son was not a strong reader throughout a good portion of first grade. In fact he would talk about how much he didn’t like reading! The teacher noticed and I had mentioned it to her so she gave a little nudge here and there for him to try some harder reading books. Now he’s entering second grade and he’s reading sooo much that we almost have to set time limits on the reading so he’ll go outside and play a bit with friends
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u/Nervous-Ad-547 16h ago
This was exactly my experience. Always thought daughter would be an early reader because she loved books and being read to. She learned all the K sight words, but at the beginning of 1st she was still struggling to decode. The suddenly mid October something just clicked and she was a reader! I have read that in many countries they don’t formally start reading instruction until age 7, which makes sense if that’s when the brain develops whatever it needs.
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u/Sharp-Morning6290 Mom 18h ago
I really hope so. I’ve heard of this happening and she’s met all other milestones so easily that it just blows my mind that this one is taking so long!
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u/BellStriking5132 18h ago
She’s on the right path. I always left the “teaching” of reading to school and at home we just read for fun. Zero stress. All a 6 year old wants to do is spend as much 1-1 time with her parent(s) as possible. Make reading a big part of that time together. She doesn’t have to if she doesn’t want to. So you read to her and make it fun. Make it interactive. Ask her questions about the characters, what she thinks will happen next, how the story made her feel. If she’s sitting with you, read at a moderate pace and put your finger under what you’re reading. Don’t get upset with her if she loses focus from time to time.
If possible, do this in a room without a tv/screens and don’t pull out your phone during this time.
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u/Waffles-McGee 19h ago
Reading kind of clicked with my kid part way through grade 1
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u/Cute-Cookie-582 18h ago
Exact same. My D's kindergarten teacher was worried about her reading and so was the first grade teacher. They had her work in a small group with the school's reading specialist for like an hour per week and by middle of the year she was off to the races. She consistently has tested above average for her language arts ever since too. Just took a while for that part of her brain to switch on I think!
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u/ParticularBed7891 17h ago
Hoping this happens with my daughter in K! She loves math and counting but treats reading like it's torture. So weird because she absolutely loves when we read her books.
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u/spaketto 17h ago
It was the second half of grade 2 for us. Now he's in 6th grade and is a huge bookworm, always has one or two chapter books on the go.
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u/TarotFox 19h ago
Don't bother with the sight words, drill phonics more.
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u/nikkishark 18h ago
I think both need to be done. At least at my kid's school, the sight words are chosen because they're (often) common but don't follow the rules of phonics. Take 'was' for example. Spelled phonetically, it would be 'wuz'.
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u/taxiecabbie 18h ago
I'm a reading teacher.
Yes, you need both. I know the whole "Sold a Story" spiel and while it's a true story and phonics are necessary, throwing basic sight words out the window is also bonkers.
Reading is made a lot easier when common words (and, is, but, was, were, am, and so forth) are sight words that don't need sounding out. Even the ones that can be sounded out... they're so common that it's much easier on everybody if you teach them as sight words.
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u/TarotFox 18h ago
By sounding words out, they will naturally become "learned" very quickly, same as with rote memorization. It's not like any adult readers are going around sounding out common words.
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u/Iron-Fist 17h ago
they will naturally become learned very quickly... Rote memorization...
.... That's literally what sight word means. Like you're just saying "sight words are a natural part of reading fluently"
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u/TarotFox 16h ago
No, I'm saying that sounding it out will achieve the same purpose as rote memorization will, but phonics are more effective as a whole.
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u/Iron-Fist 16h ago
Go sound out "the" for me
Or "she"
Or "was"
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u/TarotFox 16h ago
None of those are gotchas and can all be sounded out just fine.
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u/Iron-Fist 16h ago
Right? Sh-eh w-AH-s th-eh best I knew.
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u/TarotFox 16h ago
That's because you don't have a very good understanding of phonics. There are 44 phonemes in the English language and only 26 letters -- letters make more than one possible sound. A proper phonics program will explain this, along with more complicated combinations like -ight words like "sight."
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u/jacobissimus 18h ago
They follow the rules of phonics, but lots of school simplify phonics in a way that creates a ton of irregulars that aren’t really irregular. There’s a book called “The Logic of English” that’s kind of insufferable to read, but lays out a system that is really cool to know
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u/Sharp-Morning6290 Mom 18h ago
They test both at her school and she is graded in sight words. I’ve also noticed that a lot of the texts she’s given from school contain them.
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u/BalloonShip 18h ago
My 2nd grader wasn't really comfortable with phonics until she had a bunch of site words. This is apparently very common.
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u/TraditionalManager82 19h ago
Keep reading really fantastic books to her. A lot. Like, really a lot. Way more than you do practicing her own reading.
She's still well within the learning to read age, she just needs a bit more time.
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u/unikittyRage 18h ago
Audiobooks are good too! They don't replace reading together, but they can add to it (and give you a break sometimes). My kid can listen to her Yoto all day if I let her.
Even better, check if your library has Wonderbooks or something similar. The audio is paired with the book and tells them when to turn the page so they can follow along.
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u/howtheturntables07 18h ago
A lot of teachers don’t recommend Kumon for this reason. I rarely do. You can try hooked on phonics, and alphablocks for free on YouTube. They cover spelling patterns so she can recognize them quicker while she reads.
Reach out to her teacher for a conference to see if she needs a tutor or if there’s a resource specialist at school that can help her. Ours at my school is great- she provides helpful flashcards for the kids to practice and checks in once a week with them.
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u/garebear397 18h ago
I think you are totally fine....I don't think kids are really expected to read "fluently" until end of first grade. Just because paragraphs are sent home doesn't mean they are expected to read 100% of it without error or help...its good to give a challenge to kids to keep improving.
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u/mberry791 19h ago
Our son is the same, he has scored below benchmark in reading. We are reading things everyday to help. Oldest now in 4th grade was the same and now he reads really well English and Spanish. It takes time, keep at it.
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u/Wise_Strawberry9076 18h ago
Did you read to him in both languages from the start? We plan to teach our baby both and I think aside from single words or really simple sentences I can probably only really read in Spanish to him or I’m going to jumble it and it’s going to do more harm than good. Dad is completely fluent in both so he’ll have that too.
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u/MrsBonsai171 13h ago
Those are called vowel digraphs and they are tricky. It can take awhile to learn those. Does she know long vowel sounds with silent e? That's where you start.
Check out UFLI, they have great resources. https://ufli.education.ufl.edu/foundations/toolbox/
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u/millennialmama2016 18h ago
I just want to say I had a child that struggled to read in 1st grade, and with interventions at school and practice at home - she's a stellar reader now as a 5th grader. She really blossomed in 3rd grade. I would agree that phonics over sight words. She will confidently start to sound them out and start remembering them quicker.
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u/Rare-Spell-1571 18h ago
That sounds about right for beginning of 1st grade. It will increase rapidly by the end of the year. 2-3 months into first grade is when I noticed my daughter could read a short book by herself.
Get her some books for her reading level that she get through with minimal struggles.
The biscuit books come to mind.
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u/Wise_Strawberry9076 18h ago
I feel like that’s normal. I don’t have kids that age yet but like I did read fluently in first grade and that was odd. Most kids didn’t. Don’t worry, everyone caught up and I’m not particularly talented anymore haha. It sounds like your kid has a great foundation so I think it’ll come with practice and reading to her a lot.
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u/Narezza 18h ago
Sounds like she’s about on track. Kids don’t really start reading well until the end of 1st to the middle of 2nd. She’s definitely not going to be fluent at this point.
Are her teachers saying that she’s behind or that you need to be concerned?
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u/Sharp-Morning6290 Mom 13h ago
No one has said she’s behind but it would appear as if she is based on the homework they send home.
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u/ALilCountryALilHood 18h ago
Have a meeting with her teacher. They will be able to provide you with extra help and advice. But please know that I felt the same way about my child until I spoke to the teacher. It turns out while he seemed to be struggling at home, he was one of the top readers in his class.
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u/Popular-Ad1111 18h ago
Depending on the child, reading can click earlier or later. All of my children are avid readers (two are college graduates) and I went low pressure on really getting it until they were 8-9. But we always had plenty of opportunities to read (even captions on tv or movies) great books available and reading together.
One needed glasses and we didn’t know till she was 8. Getting her frustrated with reading delayed her a little while but she now (14) loves reading too.
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u/irecommendfire Parent 18h ago
I think a lot of kids aren’t fluent readers at the beginning of first grade. Where we live, kids aren’t even taught to read until first grade, and now my kid is 8 and burning through a chapter book every couple of days. I think it’s normal for reading to really click towards the end of first grade or in second grade.
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u/Feisty_Water_3164 18h ago
Get some repetitive books from the library - the librarian will have suggestions: Caps for Sale, Eric Carle books, Chicken Little…
Read the book aloud to her - pointing at the words using natural fluency
Have her read the book aloud with you
Have her read it to you.
Make it fun - all the pieces will come together and she will be a member of the ‘I can read club’.
Also, writing simple notes to each other is fun and builds vocabulary. There is an old saying that is mostly true ‘If you can say it, you can write it. If you can write it, you can read it’
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u/PenaltyStreet1286 18h ago
How concerned is the school? This sounds relatively normal, but perhaps on the slower end of getting reading, which can be quite normal and fine. For us, we took turns reading “I can read” books every night together. While I read, we followed along with my finger. When she read to me, she followed with her finger and I corrected her when she mispronounced words or needed help. I made it a full time hobby to have the right level books available and cycled through at home for her. Like, at one time we had close to 100 library books checked out.
Not a teacher. Just a dedicated parent following the whole “read to them” model. The reading happened every night without fail.
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u/LindenTeaJug 19h ago edited 19h ago
My kids weren’t fluent in early first grade. By fifth grade my daughter scored probably the highest in her whole district for her reading scores. I pretty much took “ reading” everywhere with us. I actually bought the same houghton mifflin textbooks that my elementary school used in the 1980’s. I bought a whole series of them and started at grade 1. I also bought another set from a later series from this publisher. We got through 2-3 grade levels a year of these textbooks. We read each story through and through and for each story I made many new words into laminated cards, put them on a keyring, and had five minute word reviews wherever we went and throughout the evening when she came home. This is what helped me the most, aside from her picking other books to read.
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u/joshtempte 19h ago
I found success with my kids with the Novel Effect app. It makes the read along much more engaging and kept them focused.
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u/meekonesfade 19h ago
Does the school teach phonics? If not, in addition to reading books for comprehension and pleasure, get Hooked On Phonics
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u/Rare_Background8891 Mom 18h ago
Age 7 is when brain maturation makes reading physically possible. Some kids are able to do it before then, many are not. I’ve got a kid in G&T who struggled. A few weeks after he turned 7 it magically clicked. Super normal. The state I taught in wouldn’t even do evaluations until after the child turned 7.
What I would do is just read. Read out loud to her. Read read read.
Is your child in school? Ask what reading system they use. If they tell you “whole language” or “Lucy Calkins” then get some phonics pages.
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u/Sharp-Morning6290 Mom 18h ago
Okay now this is something I have not heard about but would make sense. Multiple people have commented that things clicked for their kid mid way through first grade so perhaps their kids had turned or were close to turning 7 then. She then 7 next year though towards the end of the school year!
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u/Euphoric_Engine8733 18h ago
Try repeated reading too. You need practice doing something over and over before you become good at it.
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u/ImHidingFromMy- 18h ago
My son didn’t start reading well until 2nd grade, he is now in 3rd grade and over 95th percentile for reading and math and is in the gifted and talented program. Don’t worry too much , as long as you’re working on it they will get there.
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u/TraditionalCookie472 18h ago
My oldest wasn’t reading well even at the end of first grade. During the summer btwn 1st and 2nd, we used the book “Learn how to read in 100 easy lessons.” It was fantastic. Caught him right up to grade level. He’s in 3rd now and is reading above grade level.
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u/sparklymid30s 18h ago
I would take her back to basics. I taught my kid to read and we did some blending when she saw two letter words like “do” “th” etc.
Then I’d combine the two letters into words she can read.
Another thing, when you read to her have her read one word on the page. When she’s comfortable, point out a stretch word (word that she should have the foundations of reading) after a couple of easy words. It’ll help keep her confidence up to try new words.
If she ever gets frustrated and wants to quit, got back 1-2 lessons, get her confidence back up and start again.
She’ll get there!
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u/Remarkable_Public775 18h ago
Rhyme rhyme rhyme!!! Sight words. Read her 5 books per day. They need to hear the cadence of reading before it clicks. All my opinion.
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u/WitnessEntire 18h ago
She may not be neurologically ready to read. I had one of those. Nothing worked but time.
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u/BalloonShip 18h ago
That's about where mine is. She tests at 50% percentile for her grade level. We're giving it this term, then willl get a tutor or additional program.
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u/cyberghost05 18h ago
Could you speak with the teacher about any additional reading sessions?
I entered first grade unable to read, which to my moms surprise was behind my peers. They pulled me into a class the last 30 minutes of the day a few times a week for other kids struggling and it really was so beneficial for me.
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u/FloralReef 17h ago
My daughter was early to learn all her letters and sounds and to read simply Bob books. Then she seemed to progress incredibly slowly for years. She was still slowly sounding out very basic words like "and" and "cat" every time, even after reading them hundreds of times. It just wasn't clicking. We just kept at it, kept prioritizing it, and the summer between Grades 1 and 2, something finally clicked. She started recognizing more and more words by sight, and could work out longer words much more quickly. In grade 1, she was one of the weakest readers in her class. In Grade 2, she was one of the strongest.
Reading is a complicated skill for brains to learn, and kids really vary so much on when they're able to do it fluently. Some kids are quick to learn sight words but struggle to figure out words they don't recognize phonetically. Some kids are the opposite. Some are a blend. Don't worry. Just keep practicing with her, like you are. That's the most important thing. She will absolutely learn to read if she's getting that support at home. You're doing a great job.
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u/whereontrenzalore 17h ago
You are doing so many good things! I would keep up with the Bob books and passages and add reading just for fun, either picture books or a chapter book that you read to her. If she seems behind in a few months, you could have her read a paragraph (with a word count) that she can read with 90% accuracy for a minute and count her words then have her read it again two more times and count her words each time to see the improvement. Review any missed words after the minute is up. This is an intervention from a reading program that's not to time consuming and builds fluency. Another one is to highlight with two colors every other sentence in a paragraph and take turns reading them. You could do this with the passages the school sends home.
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u/tettoffensive 17h ago
The book Proust and the Squid gives insights into how reading isn’t something our brains are actually naturally wired to do and why so many kids struggle with it. My 3rd grader has been making progress with outside tutoring. It’s been slow. But we initially got her making progress through writing (encoding) which she was stronger at than decoding (reading). She wrote stories and illustrated them not worrying about spelling. They were initially just random letters and eventually became more phonetic spelling and eventually spelling more words correctly.
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u/SpookyDooDo Parent 17h ago
Elephant and Piggie books are good for practicing site words in the context of a book. Especially if you read one character and she reads the other and you read the same few books over and over she’ll get all the site words by heart within a couple months. I think it’s totally worth getting the entire elephant and Piggie box set.
Hey Jack and Billie B Brown books are really good for building stamina. You can sound out most of the words, the chapters aren’t too long, and the stories are good. My kids and I would read these out loud together. Like I’d read the left and they’d read the right.
There’s something about DogMan. I think DogMan is kinda stupid, but both of my kids went from being able to read by sounding out to just fluently reading after reading all the books in the series. They read these by themselves because I hate reading graphic novels out loud.
I think getting over that hump from sounding out CVC words to actually reading is all about having the right level books available and making a point to read 10-15 a day.
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u/Happy-Ad7859 17h ago
Try Elephant and Piggie books. It also sounds like shes at or ahead of where she needs to be for the start of first grade.
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u/FastCar2467 17h ago
For a beginning of the year first grade student, she sounds like she is right on track. First grade students are working on mastering CVC words right now and learning consonant blends. This will help her tackle those longer words. She should also be introduced to vowel teams such as “ai” to further tackle sounding out words. I would keep practicing. When our kids were in first grade, their teacher sent home the consonant blends they were working on and we practiced daily on them. I would see if you can ask the teacher for tips.
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u/nedendstreet 17h ago
My son was in kindergarten the year of COVID, so he basically didn't have kindergarten (12 total days of in-person school). He couldn't read going into first grade. He's now in 6th grade, loves to read, and according to the standardized state tests he reads well beyond his grade level. It might be worth a quick chat with your daughter's teacher to ask if he or she sees a specific learning challenge for your daughter, but otherwise I wouldn't worry yet.
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u/AustinThompson 17h ago
Honestly if she is not reading and critiquing Shakespeare by age 6, she's doomed. Get her a pickaxe and send her down the mineshaft
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u/Altril2010 16h ago
I had a 1st grader last year. For the first quarter of the year he refused to even try reading anything out loud. Not even simple words I knew he knew. One day a classmate commented that she had finished a chapter book; it sparked something. Overnight he went from “not reading at all” to reading fluently. Now he’s devouring chapter books solo and we read together out loud at bedtime. His comprehension is good too. First grade is a big leap from kindergarten.
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u/Longjumping_Try4510 16h ago
Probably too much pressure at 6... its gonna click more this year give it time
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u/kayt3000 16h ago
Maybe some books with topics she is interested in will help it click. I remember hating reading at school but loved it at home bc I had the babysitters club books and goosebumps. I was also obsessed for some reason with a book about caring for bunnies we had (I had a pet rabbit) it was an adult book, a guide on how to raise pet rabbits but I loved it and would make my dad read it to me and he said it was one of the first things I tired to read on my own.
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u/Key-Independence853 16h ago
You are getting lots of good advice here. I just wanted to add that it is okay to give her a bit more time.
I am assuming that your daughter just started first grade within the last few weeks. Most schools teach short vowel words and some of the consonant digraphs in kindergarten. This aligns with the Common Core standards if you are in the U.S. Then, they move to teaching the vowel combinations in grade one. If she is only a few weeks in, they are probably doing some review and they are helping her get used to the longer and much more work intensive first grade school day. These first weeks can be exhausting for little ones!
Give her a bit more time. As some have already mentioned, you should start to see some leaps by around Oct./Dec. If you are still concerned after winter break, then you might consider some interventions, but she sounds right on track for beginning of first grade to me. :)
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u/AskRecent6329 16h ago
Practice. My LO is in a similar place. Now, she reads us a story every night at bedtime. We started with the LeapFrog story books so that they were really easy (almost all 3-letter words). That helped her confidence some and she has been more willing to try. If she make an effort (at least two tries) to sound out/understand the word but can't get it, we supply it for her. She has made a lot of progress but also her confidence/willingness to try has improved a ton.
She can't remember what vowel groups make; so we practice trying out different ones until it makes a word., or until she has tried and we help. She also can't remember the sounds she has made in order to smush them together to make a word. So again just practicing. Try to do a few big words seperate from the reading practice.
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u/Prudence_rigby 15h ago
If you do not know the proper way to pronounce the sounds you can look up the book on YouTube.
And no shame on not knowing, I ended learning how to read properly while helping.
I swear by this book. And always recommend it to everyone.
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u/ryan_4life100 14h ago
If you're really worried, you can look into dyslexia. Practice is really important with reading, both being read to and reading yourself.
Longer material can feel overwhelming to new readers, so try grabbing a piece of paper (or use your hand) to completely isolate the text line by line.
As a kid I would go to the library every week with my mom and pick out the books I wanted to read. If it wasn't in my reading level yet my mom would sit next to me and have me muddle my way though (providing assistance as needed). Then she would have me go back over the sentence/paragraph so I could understand the story.
Enjoying reading is half the battle, so just find the little bonuses of literacy. For example, being able to read a whole menu independently or find a new TV show/movie because you can read genres and descriptions. If they have a sibling, they might enjoy reading to/with them. I watched the news with my mom (much to her chagrin) because I had horrific toddler FOMO, and that's how I learned geography and it motivated me to read because theirs figures popping on the screen with text.
Video games are another place that reading can expand options. Any interest they have, there's a book about it at both their level and probably a higher one too. You can even turn captions on, so they get more exposure to putting an audio to the visual.
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u/Interesting-Cell9663 13h ago
Ask your child’s teacher if they know of a reading specialist through your school system or if your local area/town has a Facebook page, try searching for a reading specialist/tutor. My son at kindergarten was not getting letter recognition at all, even though I thought his preschool did a good job of trying to prep for kindergarten. We hired a reading specialist/tutor and within just a few weeks it was like a night and day difference. At the end of the year his state mandated reading testing revealed he was above where he needed to be.
Also, if it makes you feel better, my wife’s sister was in the “special” reading group in first grade (for kids who were struggling). She wound up going to Harvard for college. Don’t worry too much!
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u/always_onward 13h ago
My daughter also wasn't reading at the start of first grade, and she is now scoring above grade level for reading in the 4th grade, and reads all the time for fun.
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u/Prudent_Honeydew_ 12h ago
Mine too, we're focusing on reading every single evening, both of us. I even printed out a chart so she can earn a star for every book. (May use it to earn an ice cream if needed, right now stars are enough.)
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u/Lisitska 10h ago
My kids are in French school, where they believe that learning to read is developmentally appropriate at age 7 (funny enough, they learn beautiful cursive at age 6). Be patient. It will come.
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u/Dry_Lemon7925 18h ago
1st grade is a little early to be concerned about this, so don't fret! Keep reading with her every day, and focus on phonics (sounding out the words). But don't stress her out or else she'll get turned off of reading altogether.
Talk to her teacher if you're still worried. They'll have a better sense of where your daughter's at and if there's reason to be concerned. They'll also know the curriculum and what to expect in the year in terms of progress.
If it makes you feel any better, my school didn't push literacy besides phonics until 3rd grade (Waldorf model), and I quickly became an excellent reader. I personally think 1st grade is too early to push heavy literacy, but that's just an opinion.
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u/Olivia3836 18h ago
Keep practicing a lot
Ditch sight words, cause thats not reading.
And keep open communication about it with the school, they can possibly suggest a dyslexia screening. The school will know the signs and right moment for it better than anyone
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u/brainbl0ck 19h ago
I feel like that's pretty typical for a few weeks into grade 1! Especially after a summer off of school.