Silent/internal reading

[ReadingMama1214]

DD is 5 and reading at around a 2nd grade level. She reads aloud to me and is pretty fluent and reads with decent expression. Only stops to sound out words occasionally and it's usually trickier multisyllable words.

 

When do kids start reading silently in their heads? I remember reading silently in preschool, but I know its usually older. Is this something you teach?

Edited January 13, 2017 by ReadingMama1214

[KristaJ]

My 7yo 2^nd grader just recently began to read silently, and still sounds out challenging words verbally.  I never “taught†her to read silently, but her older sisters certainly begged her to read in her head so she wasn’t a distraction. 

[MistyMountain]

It took my ds quite a long time to do this. He was actually decoding at a pretty high level and still could only read aloud. He did finally learn.

[Rachel]

My kids started reading in their heads when they got more confidence reading. My daughter just turned 7 and made the transition within the last couple months, shortly after she started reading longer books on her own. I would guess she read out loud to herself for 6 months or less. I didn't really notice she had stopped until reading this post and realized it had been quite awhile since hearing her read out loud.

[HomeAgain]

It was after about two years of reading.  Even now he reads books at one level in his head, but beyond that he wants to read aloud to me so I can correct the tricky words/phrases.  That was the other thing.  It wasn't just learning how to read sounds but also the pauses, breaks, clauses..he needed time to practice those out loud before he was comfortable reading them in his head.