Is internal reading a milestone?

[ThoughtfulMama]

With all the conversations about reading going on here, I have been reflecting on my DS and his reading abilities. I'm not up on "edu-speak" even though I am interested in brain development and theory, so teach me! :)

 

I noticed a couple months before DS turned 5 that he started to transition to reading in his head instead of speaking. He still reads aloud when he is reading his picture books or anything that rhymes, but in more complex books like chapter books he reads silently and quickly. Does this typically happen at a certain age of development? Or at a certain reading level?

 

FWIW he is a self-taught reader from the age of 2. He was reading Magic Treehouse books when I noticed this. I don't think that has any bearing on my question, but I really don't remember when I started reading internally or when other kids do!

[theYoungerMrsWarde]

I've been wondering about this myself! I don't remember when *I* switched over. With my kids, at times it seems like they're doing some short periods of "silent"/in their head reading, but that's just a sentence or two.

[quark]

I remember DS (who also started reading early) reading out loud till he was about 3.5yo, maybe 4? I distinctly remember that by the age of 4.5, he was reading "in his head" without verbalizing out loud. I know that he was reading because he would often narrate the story (on and on and on...sigh, but that's for another thread). These were stories we hadn't read aloud before.

[mathnerd]

My DS  started reading silently when he was close to 5. But, I was not comfortable with the way he pronounced some words and the way he would not pause at punctuation marks - so I enforced reading aloud at home. Then he started Kindergarten and they enforced "silent reading" there - so I let him read silently ever since. I think that when they start reading a lot and the volume of words go up, they can get tired reading so much aloud. That is when the transition happens to reading silently.

 

PS: I confess that when I read aloud to DS, I get tired after a while.

[quark]

Wait...there's a distinction between "silent" and "internal" in this case, right? Silent should logically mean without sound but I think what it has come to mean when discussing reading in young kids is reading at a low volume as opposed to reading loudly (out loud). I could be wrong. What I understand from the OP's question is not reading to himself in a low volume (silently in this case) but reading in his head (internally) like how I read threads in this forum (have to read it in my head or my DS will be privy to all the stuff we discuss about our kids because he has very good hearing lol).

 

ETA: Ah, I see that OP has used the words interchangeably. Do clarify if you can, OP. Personally, I think reading from louder volume to lower volume to in their heads all indicate different milestones. DS started reading young and could not control his out loud volume, then he started lowering his volume for a brief period of time (just weeks) then switched to in-his-head very quickly.

 

Interesting stuff, milestones, eh?

[musicianmom]

I always assumed it was something a child would transition into after reading for awhile, no matter the age. For dd8 who learned to read at 3, it happened earlier.

 

My mom tells a funny story of me crying because my throat hurt but I didn't want to stop reading. She had difficulty convincing me at first, but I finally realized that I could read silently. Bliss!

[ThoughtfulMama]

As I said, I don't think I'm up on the terminology. He reads without making any sounds or moving his lips, the same way that I read as an adult. To me, it seems to be a huge leap developmentally, though it is possible I am over analyzing.

 

For example, I can read in French and Spanish, though when I first start reading novels in those languages I speak the words in my head. It is much slower. Then after I get comfortable I just understand the words without actually hearing them, if that makes sense. It seems to me that he has just recently made a similar leap, though in English, and I wasn't sure if this is a recognized stage.

 

Though, like Shakespeare, Green Eggs and Ham is best read out loud :)

[TracyP]

I've never thought about it, but my kids (that can read) have read internally from the very beginning. I have never seen a transition. If they can read the first Bob Book, they can read it internally, and so on with more challenging books.

[Tanikit]

I have read somewhere that this transition usually occurs at a 2nd to 3rd grade reading level. My own DD can read at a 4th grade reading level, but does not read to herself very much - she is capable of silent reading, but is not choosing it yet - I think for her the cuddle time associated with reading to each other is more important right now.

[kiwik]

I have read somewhere that this transition usually occurs at a 2nd to 3rd grade reading level. My own DD can read at a 4th grade reading level, but does not read to herself very much - she is capable of silent reading, but is not choosing it yet - I think for her the cuddle time associated with reading to each other is more important right now.

I haven't heard this but my son made the transition while reading magic treehouse too which is about that level. I know I read under my breath when I am reading something difficult intellectually.

[boscopup]

I can't remember when my oldest made the transition, but I think it was around the 2nd grade level of reading.

 

My other two kids are reading around K-1 range, and they don't read silently yet.

[chicagoshannon]

My dd started reading silently when she was a couple months shy of 6. It was right around the time she started reading at a 4th grade level.

[TracyP]

I've never thought about it, but my kids (that can read) have read internally from the very beginning. I have never seen a transition. If they can read the first Bob Book, they can read it internally, and so on with more challenging books.

 

Once I read the post about 2nd-3rd grade level, I wanted to edit for clarity, but of course it might not be seen. So here I am quoting myself.

 

I wrote the first Bob Book without really thinking to illustrate a point. I will be more specific here. My oldest went through (75% of) 100EZL and went straight from there to books like Danny and the Dinosaur, A Kiss for Little Bear, Frog and Toad, etc. She read those internally from the start. Those books are at a 2nd grade level.

 

Child #2 went through (50% of) 100EZL and did start with the Bob Books (and read them internally). I don't know if that is a fair comparison though because 100EZL was always fairly pointless. It became clear that he already knew how to read so I finally dropped 100EZL. He went from Bob Books to Little Bear to Little House in the Big Woods in a matter of weeks. Looking back, it is likely that he was reading at a 2nd grade+ level already, but I just wasn't aware of it.

 

#3 is just learning to read and is on the 4th Bob Book. He will read the first 3 for quiet time, but I honestly don't know if he is actually reading. I have been assuming he is reading, but it is possible that he is just thumbing through them. I never thought about internal reading being an actual reading milestone cuz I've never seen it. He is not an accelerated reader so now I'm thinking that he is not reading them.

[bakpak]

I've noticed my DD reading internally a lot more lately and also felt it was a developmental milestone. It's hard to tell how long she's been doing it, as she's had her nose buried in a book since before she was 1 :)

[lizbusby]

A few tangentially connected thoughts about this:

 

Reading silently was actually considered very odd in the middle ages. Apparently, most people read out loud all the time. If internal reading is a developmental stage, it's a fairly recent thing.

 

As far as being a developmental stage of reading (rather than of the mind in general), reading silently is a step to reading faster. I taught a speed reading seminar in college at a part of my job as a writing tutor. I didn't have a ton of training, but picked up a few things about reading. Basically, learning to read faster involves several steps:

• sounding out words (phonics)
• reading out loud fluently
• reading silently but still "saying" each word in your mind
• reading whole phrases & sentences silently, comprehending the sense of the whole without thinking each individual word

So basically, I don't think reading silently is a sign of any particular developmental stage, but it is a developmental step of being able to read and comprehend more quickly. Does that make sense?

[SKL]

I didn't take note of the "first time," but both of my girls (age 6.5) read "ahead" silently even if they are reading "aloud."  Miss A is not "advanced," but during reading (I make her read aloud to me most days), she will silently read one or two sentences ahead and will sometimes play around by "editing" the words before speaking them, or after memorizing them (silently), pretends to read them off some other surface.  (Yes, we are weird over here.)  I assume she reads silently during "fun" reading, though I don't really remember observing this.  She isn't big on reading for fun.  For Miss E, who is an advanced reader, it's been the norm for her to read silently for quite some time.  She's always liked having her nose quietly in a book since she was a baby, so it's hard to say when she first read silently.

[Lecka]

My son just finished public school 2nd grade and towards the end of the year he was starting to have expectations of silent reading. He is in the average group. So I would say late 2nd grade.

 

There is a large range of levels in his class, the upper 2 reading groups are 2 and 2+ years ahead. I suspect they started a while ago.

 

I think it has to do with fluency. Children who are not fluent at a level can do better to read out loud. After kids are fluent there is not a benefit to comprehension, but I think there is before kids are fluent.

 

Overall my impression is that kids transition to it as they reach fluency.

[mom2bee]

I doubt it. It just seems so common in the kids that I work with, even early on that I can't imagine this being a 'milestone'.

[boscopup]

I doubt it. It just seems so common in the kids that I work with, even early on that I can't imagine this being a 'milestone'.

 

Huh? A milestone *is* something that is expected of all kids. Otherwise, it wouldn't be a milestone.

 

For example, "walking" is a milestone for young children in the 9 month-18 month old range (roughly - I could be off on that). If a kid isn't walking by 2 years old, peds get concerned because that "milestone" wasn't hit.

 

[JumpyTheFrog]

Tigger was five when he started reading silently. He was probably at about a 2nd grade reading level at the time. This seems in line with what others have observed in this thread.