My daughter has had her share of developmental delays: she couldn’t jump until after her fourth birthday and still has trouble opening doors at four-and-a-half! I’m no stranger to fears and concerns about my little one’s development. It’s impossible for a parent to see (or hear about) children doing something at a certain age and not think, “Is my kid supposed to do that already?”
I’ve heard this kind question a lot from the moms of kids in my daughter’s age group. Despite having delays in one area (gross motor development) she’s always been very advanced in another: literacy. She was sounding out simple words at two, reading short sentences at three, and reading whole books at four. Lots of nervous-looking parents in my daughter’s preschool and playgroups have asked both me and my daughter’s teacher, “Are kids supposed to know how to read before kindergarten?”
The short and simple answer is no– absolutely not. Kindergarten, for five- to six-year-old kids, is the normal time at which most children learn how to read. It isn’t a sign of a delay or developmental problem if your child is approaching kindergarten-age and can’t read at all. In fact, children who can read before kindergarten are in a very small minority. The National Center for Education Statistics states that about one child in fifty, can recognize words on sight before entering kindergarten, while only one out of a hundred can actually sound out words in a sentence before kindergarten. In other words, children who read before starting “real” school are quite unusual, while those who can’t read before starting school are entirely normal.
Most kids enter kindergarten with some early precursors to reading– 66% can identify letters by name, and at least half can recognize their names on sight. But reading skills like phonics are usually learned during kindergarten, not before. The NCES states that 29% of children can associate letters with beginning sounds (like associating “Z” with “zebra”) upon entering kindergarten, and 17% can identify which letter a given word ends with (such as knowing that “cat” ends with “T”). These kids are likely to excel in learning to read during kindergarten, and they’re actually ahead of their peers despite not knowing how to “really” read yet.
If your kiddo’s approaching kindergarten age and isn’t reading yet, don’t sweat it. Kindergarten is tailored to teach children to read simple words and sentences, to write letters, and to understand the bare basics of mathematics. There’s very little that your child really needs to know going into kindergarten. While I’m proud of my daughter for being a precocious reader, I know that it doesn’t make her inherently superior to her peers. All you’d need to do is compare her gross motor development to that of another child her age to see that she’s simply focused a lot on learning one thing while focusing very little on another (and that’s just fine!).
All kids are unique and there’s nothing remotely wrong or abnormal about a child who is unable to read before kindergarten. However, if you are concerned about your child’s development, mention it to her pediatrician or preschool teacher for some reassurance. If your child is coping with a delay in the development of his pre-literacy skills, your teacher or doctor can put you in touch with helpful resources to give him the kick-start he might need before starting school.
