Actually, I have read the same titled book by IAHP. Unfortunately, it doesn’t help. My son can read almost anything but only when prompted. When can I expect him to read for himself cover-to-cover. Am I over-ambitious at this point?
How did you teach your child to read independently? and when did they start to read by themselves.
How old is your son? My son is 3 (was in Nov) and he just started to play teacher. He goes to preschool three times a week. lately he started this game that he is the teacher, I’m the baby who can’t read. This way he reads totally alone and I’m happy with that. Other that he doesn’t read alone.
I would be interested in others opinion too.
My daughter turned two in December. For some strange reason she is wildly into hens…she has a large stuffed animal puppet hen that must go everywhere with us! We get no small number of strange looks…
Anyway, unfortunately, A’s best friend doesn’t know how to read 
A spends a good deal of time reading to her hen, patiently pointing at each word so hen can learn!
And now hen apparently loves math and wants to watch both LM and LR with A! I am inserting a slide with random hen, worm and bug slides into the LM/LR lessons and both A and hen watch the lessons together with anticipation for the hen pic…always at the end by some lucky coincidence!
This might not work as well for an older kid…I have explained to A that we are pretending since we really try to keep things accurate, but so far she is willing. She signs pretends maybe she just thinks mommy doesn’t know that hen is just a friend and is humoring me lol
I read an article somewhere (it was a while back so not sure where it came from) that said that children usually start reading independently when they reach the level that an average 8 year old can read at (about the grade 3 level I suppose?) This is also usually the time when they start chapter books.
My daughter is almost 4.5 years old and is also not reading independently - I usually read a short piece and then she reads some to me. There are some days when she will pick up a book and read some by herself, but I am still doing shared reading with her every day. She is reading grade 2 and 3 readers but does not have the stamina to read long sections yet. I suspect it will be a little more time til she reads independently.
There are children though who do read independently early - my sister was taught to read at age 2 and picked up a book by herself at less than 3 to read independently. She just had that drive. I am not sure what the normal is because of this as she was reading independently at a very beginning level of reading. The first book I remember reading independently was a chapter book with no pictures that I read at age 5 - who knows what I had been reading before that or if there was shared reading going on as neither my mother nor I remember.
The only thing I have heard of to encourage independent reading is to force a time when only reading is allowed - as in a rest time when they can sleep, look at books or read books and those are the only choices. Many children do start reading independently when this is done - still others may actually choose to sleep but then I guess they are not ready.
I was trying to remember when A actually started sitting down and trying to read books for herself…I realized that a couple of months ago I bought her this little popup tent, sort of like a circus tent but only about 36 inches in diameter (~92 cm for those of you with more consistent units of measurement :nowink: ) I bought it as a method of teaching A to calm down if she gets upset. Not a time out spot, but a place where she can go to be by herself and chill…it has flaps to close, we filled it with blankets and pillows she picked out, and a handful of new books she also picked out…Mommy and Daddy have to be invited in…
We started calling it her reading tent, and I even sewed a little ‘reading tent’ flag or the top with her name…so she disappears inside and reads…I think that without anyone noticing her or interfering, she discovered that she WANTED to do it…
We also gave her a small head torch (because I didn’t want her looking directly into a flashlight!) that we allow her to take with her to bed. She is ‘allowed’ to choose a ‘super-special’ book to take to bed with her each night, and she always insists that it should be two (I pretend to pout, give her an exaggerated sigh like she is pulling one over on me, and give in lol )
I look at these as ‘stuffed animals for her brain’ which I once read but don’t remember where!
I worried that she would stay up late and not go to sleep, but it has not happened yet… 10-15 minutes and she puts them aside and turns out her light…
Anyway, I think that because she has been given the illusion that she is in charge :yes: She has been more excited about it…who knows what will happen when she figures me out!