My Son's Reading Level

Updated on October 08, 2011
B.D. asks from Augusta, GA
12 answers

So my son age 6 is in the first grade. He loves to read. In fact he wants books for christmas. Cant get any better than that..well actually it can he loves to learn he will sit down for long periods of time reading or working on match or spelling just for fun.. One day in walmart i was gonna let him get a book because of good behavior..I go straight to the little kids section where his reading level is..he said no mama those books are for babies.. Im a big boy and I want a chapter book. He picked Hop. I didnt know what to do so I let him get it and he read the words that he could. I didnt want to discourage him from reading but i was amazed at how grown up my little boy had become! Anyway...He has adhd which doesnt seem to cause problems accademically as long as he has his meds and can concentrate.. He is a very smart child and i was wondering if his reading level is a little more advanced. He is reading on a 1.4 reading level.. I was just wondering if that was normal for the beginning of his first grade year or above average. Just wondering.

Thanks

proud mom!!!!!! <3

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G.T.

answers from Redding on

The fact that he can read and is loving it is just awesome, dont worry about the statistics, just be proud! You've done a great job so far.
I'm a grandma so I have bragging rights; my 3 yr old granddaughter was reading an email that my mom sent her this morning and one of the words in the email was "flabbergasted", my granddaughter read it without a hitch, but then said "Mommy, what IS flabbergasted?" It's a great thing when they can pronounce, but it's a really great thing once they learn comprehension.

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D.B.

answers from Charlotte on

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S.H.

answers from Honolulu on

He sounds normal.
A 1.4 reading level, is 1st grade.
The "1" means 1st grade.
Many kids, their reading level is a 'range' on a scale.
My daughter's reading range, has always been her grade level and above. A range.
But SHE and I, know, what she can read or likes to read.

Just let him read what he likes and can read.
His teacher should be able to answer your question.

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M.W.

answers from San Francisco on

That means first grade 4th month. He is right on target. The hardest problem with reading is getting a child to WANT to read. Your boy already has a love of reading. That is awesome!!! His score will continue to soar as he keeps up the reading. Let him read anything and everything he wants. Find subjects he is interested in and go check out books in that area. Sharks..dinosaurs..volcanoes etc His spelling and Language Arts scores will also be really high if he reads often. Reading is soooo fundamental to many areas of life.

Way to go mama for caring so much about your boy's interests. I too have kids that ask for books for Christmas. They get hard copy series and you'd think Santa brought them a million dollars with all the whoops and hollers come Christmas morning.

Good luck and best wishes for a great school journey together!!

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V.M.

answers from Cleveland on

In first grade, you'll get a whole range of kids that are still working on their abcs and kids reading the encylopedia. It's all fine and the teachers work really hard to get everyone reading on grade level. sounds like your guy is above, his teacher will discuss that at confrences. Be sure you have him read aloud to practice his fluency, and be sure to check his comprehension of what he has read.
You should be proud! oh and see if you can get him to write, his own stories or a science journal of the facts he has learned.

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L.L.

answers from Rochester on

I don't know what a "1.4" reading level is...or what scale that belongs to...but my child is the same age as yours, and she's reading the Magic Tree House series. She's the only child I know that age (we homeschool) so I don't know how that compares to other children, etc.

What is expected at this stage in her phonics/language arts curriculum is to have about 200 sight words memorized (and they've moved from easier ones like the, want, see, look to mother, father, anything, could, would, should) and to be able to phonetically sound out most words. We are working on various spelling rules (long vowels with an e at the end, two vowels together, etc) and we've also recently started contractions.

For grammar, we are working on subject/predicate, past/present tense, proper nouns, etc...

(I should say that she's in her second semester of first grade curriculum.)

Hope that helps!

I think it's so great that he wants to read...it seems to be becoming a more rare way to entertain oneself, and I really like to see children reading. Yay! Good for you, mom, for taking an interest in it and nourishing it.

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D.S.

answers from Houston on

keep buying him the harder books and help him with them. I don't buy the reading level. it will vary up and down the important thing is he can read. lots of chapter books for christmas mom. :)

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C.T.

answers from Santa Fe on

My son is good at reading too. In 1st grade he was reading at a 6th grade level. Now he is in 2nd grade - we will see what they say after they do the testing. He loves non fiction books. He loves writing stories and letters on the computer. His spelling tests at school are way too easy for him - he does not ever need to study. One day that will catch up to him for sure! I volunteered in his class last year at reading time and I noticed there were about 4 kids reading really well like this out of a class of 20. Some kids were really struggling to sound out words. There was a huge range of reading abilities.

S.L.

answers from New York on

Dont forget that -as important as reading is -it's just as important that he can understand and talk about the books he reads, ask him about the characters and setting in the book, what was his favorite part and why? what was the most important part and why? what did the book make him think of? (something in his life or another book or movie?) Some kids can decode books that are very difficult but have very little comprehension so have some fun conversations about his books!

R.R.

answers from Los Angeles on

Hey Proud Mom, good going! Half of teaching a child to read is getting them to like reading and he does, that's awesome!!

Buy the chapter books, even if he can't read everything in them. The challenge will spur his reading even more. I speak from experience, i read things "over my head" and it made me an excellent reader, the same with my daughter, and we both grew to absolutely love, love, LOVE reading. So much so I'm getting myself a Kindle Fire for Christmas : )

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B.

answers from Augusta on

1.4 is slightly ahead.
because we are at something like 1.2 in the year.
He should have a reading range something like .4-1.4 , it's usually one whole point in span.

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R.J.

answers from Seattle on

If you've got an ADHD kid who hyperfocuses on reading... be prepared to have a LIBRARY when he graduates (I had over 4,000 books when I left home. Fortunately, not all bought. But by middleschool I could sock away about 100-200 pages an hour, and often read 2-3 books a day. Ha. Speed reading coursed make me collapse in laughter/horror. I read too fast already! And books are expensive!!! I keep running out! Fortunately people often gave me whole boxes of books. And luckily for my mom's sense of well being, she didn't find the box of romance books in middle school before I moved them over to my friend Jenny's house! We'd have sleepovers once a week where we just read 2-3 romances a night. LOL.).

Chapter books for his reading level would include things like:

- Magic Treehouse (there are 60 or so in the series)
- Geronimo Stilton
- Encyclopedia Brown (these are GREAT for 'transitional readers' because they're short stories).

ALSO be prepared for "rereading". We ADHD readers are notorious for it. I have one series that I've read 12 times at this point, and MANY series that I reread every other year.

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