When Does Reading Start

When Asked this Question by a Reading Tutor:  I though more about this Response  (10/2024:DP)! 

QUESTION–What to do for kids who cry when you want them to try to read in 1st grade? 

Children get anxious when they cannot do a task & before peers. So, the behavioral symptoms might suggest– I would stop pushing the child and use picture books, let them play with large letters to make a word – (from a paper with a list of words) and/or do mazes or throw bean bags in buckets at different distances with a pal — that kind of play. These would help reading skills strengthen also.

ASIDE: When I started this Reading Research work in 1991, There was no internet, no references from 4 libraries on the “Reading topic” either. About 4 years later I found the solution with the help of several professionals…We fixed the problem for 1 child.  I went back to being a mom & Laboratory Director for a large 3500 samples/day Medical Reference Lab. In 1996, I founded a Non-profit 501c3 & had 3 Subject Matter Expert SME doctors at my dining room table for 3 yrs. With their expertise & mine – we put the program together & ran it in Florida schools successfully. I have worked in this new unique field for 33 years & meanwhile went after a Behavioral master’s and a PhD in Public Service Leadership PSL (stopped by; University FSA fraud & with data now collected -unpublished).

So, you want to address this 1st grade issue, here is my opinion!    I am sure there is not much successful data out there yet 10/2024 as we have just started asking teachers to begin student reading now in Pre-K. They have always tried reading in 1 & 2nd grades with not much success (noted in 2010; then for that 17% of students below basic level). So now we start in Pre-K (2024; for our 40% failing to reach basic reading level today). What are we expecting!!!

I answered this below, with a bit more knowledge about reading skills & behavior -as Teachers do not have that answer, yet. Teachers teach reading well (when skills are working). Then they can use phonics, vocabulary and moving students toward the understanding of words in context- to improve fluency).

ANSWER : 1st Grade Readers

Genetics may be a factor for who reads early- Data, we expect will prove this. Kids should be reading by late 2nd -early 3rd grade (but for some who have reversals of letters).  That is about the age when the visual system-stabilizes & develops to function effectively with the reading skills working & the mechanical- functioning that are required to read. And…with Fluency and Comprehension soon to follow. (*Answer will be updated should reported data soon change this response, DP).