Does Your Child’s Reading Measure Up?

Posted by SFleming on May 20, 2010

How is your child’s reading?  Are you sure that he or she is reading as well as needed for grade placement?  Too many parents assume that reading skills are developing normally, only to find out that skills are far below grade level when the grades start to drop.  Now is a great time to make sure your student is reading as expected.  Here are some warning signs that shouldn’t be ignored:

• Reluctance to Read: Reading is generally a fun activity for children and youth.  If your student protests picking up books on a regular basis, this should set off your warning bells.
• Slow Silent Reading Pace: Silent reading should be faster than oral reading.  If your child seems to be lagging when reading silently, it’s time to check reading skills.  Think about how long it takes your student to read a book for a book report, or the length of time required to complete content reading assignments.
• Avoidance Behaviors: Does your child complain of headaches whenever asked to read?  How about putting required reading off until the last possible moment?  These can be signs of a reading problem.
• Poor Test Scores: Children with reading problems often do well on homework scores but fail tests miserably.  This can be due to having ready help with reading directions and problems on homework assignments that is not available in test situations.  Some children even convince their parents to study with them orally and families become very confused when the test scores don’t seem to match the effort put into studying.
• Difficulty with Written Expression: Reading and writing are so closely tied together that if your student is having trouble putting ideas into words on paper, chances are good that there are reading problems, as well.

Do any of those warning signs sound familiar?  If so, there are some simple ways you can find out if your child is reading at the level expected for his or her grade placement.

• The Five-Finger Test: Choose a book that is labeled to be at your child’s grade level.  Many newer fiction books have grade level designations listed.  Open the book to a page in the middle with lots of words and few or no pictures.  Have your child read aloud from that page.  Keep track of the words that are misread, stumbled over, or hesitant.  If you count five or more words on the page that are difficult, that grade level of text is likely too difficult for your reader, and you should have a teacher or reading specialist investigate further.
• Oral Reading Fluency: Choose a book at your child’s reading level.  Choose a passage from the middle of the book and count the words.  You’ll want a passage of around 250 words.  Have your child read the passage and time his or her reading.  Note how far he or she read in one minute.  Use the chart below to judge if your child’s reading rate matches other students of similar age and experience.

Oral Reading Fluency (ORF) Target Rate Norms

Grade	Fall (WCPM)	Winter (WCPM)	Spring (WCPM)
1 2 3 4	30-60 50-90 70-110	10-30 50-80 70-100 80-120	30-60 70-100 80-110 100-140
5 6 7 8	80-120 100-140 110-150 120-160	100-140 110-150 120-160 130-170	110-15- 120-160 130-170 140-180

Source: Adapted from “AIMSweb: Charting the Path to Literacy,” 2003, Edformation, Inc. Available at www.aimsweb.com/norms/reading_fluency.htm. Data are also adapted from “Curriculum-Based Oral Reading Fluency Norms for Students in Grades 2 Through 5,” by J. E. Hasbrouck and G. Tindal, 1992, Teaching Exceptional Children, 24, pp. 41-44.

• Retelling Stories: Another sign of successful reading is the ability to retell and summarize the text.  Have your child read a story and tell you what happened.  See if he or she can get most of the main events in the retelling and in the right order.  There should be a beginning, middle and ending to the story.

If you see signs of trouble, try the quick assessments mentioned above.  If the quick assessments indicate problems, seek out a teacher, reading specialist or a tutor to do a more extensive and detailed evaluation.  Don’t let your child fall further and further behind!