Is my kindergartner behind in reading? What's typical and what to ask

Whether a kindergartner is behind depends on the month. The kindergarten standards describe end-of-year expectations, and children build toward them across the year, so October is early to judge. The goal by the end of the school year: knowing the main sounds for the letters, using those sounds to read short words, and reading a few common words on sight. Children need different amounts of practice to get there.

So the useful question is not "behind or not?" It is "what should I be seeing by now, and what would be worth asking about?" Here is the end-of-year picture, what a school screener checks along the way, and when to start a conversation with the teacher.

What kindergarten expects by the end of the year

Many U.S. states adopted the Common Core State Standards, and states may change or add to them, so check your state's own version. The standards describe end-of-year expectations for each grade, and their Reading: Foundational Skills section for kindergarten covers early reading. In plain words, here are three of its parts.

Hearing the sounds inside spoken words. The standards call this phonological awareness: understanding spoken words, syllables and sounds. (A phoneme is one sound in a spoken word, so "map" has three: /m/ /ă/ /p/. Slashes mark sounds, and /ă/ is the short a in map.) By the end of the year, a child should be able to say the first sound, the middle vowel sound and the last sound in a simple three-sound word like that one. Notice that this happens with no letters at all. A child can do it with their eyes closed.

Matching letters to sounds. The standards ask for the main sound of each consonant, and both the long and short sounds, with their common spellings, for the five major vowels. Phonics is the link between those sounds and the letters that spell them.

Reading a few common words by sight. The standards list examples such as the, of, to, you, she, my, is, are, do and does. These are called high-frequency words: words that appear often in what children read. Some of them can't be fully sounded out with kindergarten rules, so a child learns the regular parts and the tricky part of each one.

Put together, the standards point toward children who can use letter sounds to decode words, such as reading map, sit and hop by blending (saying each sound, then sliding the sounds together into the word), and who can read simple emergent-reader texts (very short books with a few words per page). They do not describe a child who reads chapter books by the end of kindergarten.

It depends on the month

Screeners give a sense of what is checked when. Acadience, one widely used screener, checks first sounds from the beginning of kindergarten, and adds splitting spoken words into sounds and reading made-up words from the middle of the year.

So in the fall, the focus is letter sounds and hearing sounds in words. Reading made-up words, which means putting sounds together, joins the checks at mid-year. If that hasn't started by mid-year, it is a good time to ask the teacher what they are seeing.

How schools check along the way

Many schools give every child a short reading screener. With DIBELS, a widely used one, that typically happens three times a year: fall, winter and spring. It looks at things like naming letters, saying the first sound of a word, splitting a spoken word into its sounds, and reading made-up words to show whether a child can use letter sounds. A screener flags who might need extra help. It is not a diagnosis. Our guide to reading screeners explains what the common ones measure and what the color bands mean, in case a printout has already come home.

When it is worth talking to the teacher

You do not need a checklist to ask a question. A good time to start the conversation:

• By mid-year, letter sounds are still slow to stick. Your child has had months of practice and most sounds still feel new.
• By mid-year, hearing the first sound in a spoken word is still hard. If you say "sun" and your child can't tell you it starts with /s/, mention it.
• Reading was hard for a parent or sibling. Mention it to the teacher early. It's useful background for what they are watching.
• Your gut keeps nudging you. Tell the teacher what you notice at home.

Letter names and letter sounds are different skills, and the kindergarten standards list them separately. "Em" is the name of the letter m. /m/, a hummed "mmm" with no "uh" on the end, is the sound it stands for, and the sound is what a child uses to read a word. So ask the teacher which one your child has.

Some questions that open the conversation:

1. What have you seen my child do with letter sounds so far?
2. Can they hear the first sound in a spoken word, and the last one?
3. What does the screener say, and what is the plan if it flags a concern?
4. What can we do at home that matches what you are teaching?

What helps at home

Keep reading together short and relaxed: a few minutes most days, ending while it is still fun. Rereading a page your child already knows, and spelling a couple of words from it, are good practice too. If your child gets stuck on a word, the routine is simple: wait a few seconds, point to the part they missed and say those sounds together, blend the whole word, then reread the sentence so it sounds smooth. For a tricky word, say it and point to the tricky part. Our post on what to do when your child gets stuck on a word walks through exactly what to say.

It also helps to know why children guess. Sometimes the book has words built from patterns your child hasn't been taught yet, so sounding out can't work. Sometimes guessing from the picture or the first letter has become a habit, and it skips sounding the word out. Why your child guesses at words covers both, and what to do.

Decodable books fit this stage well. They are written mostly with words a child can sound out using the letter sounds they have been taught, plus a few tricky words. A child who knows the sounds for m, a, p and a few more letters can read words built from them, and feel what it is like to be the reader.

A calm next step

If you are reading this in the fall, it is early to judge, and it is never too early to ask. Keep reading together, keep an ear out for letter sounds, and ask the teacher what they are seeing. If it is mid-year and the worries are still there, ask sooner rather than later. Asking is not an alarm.

You can see what a kindergarten-level decodable story looks like, free, in Pam and the Pot.

Sources

• Common Core State Standards, Reading: Foundational Skills, Kindergarten (RF.K.1, RF.K.2, RF.K.3, RF.K.4), and Key design considerations ("The K-12 grade-specific standards define end-of-year expectations")
• Common Core State Standards, Standards in your state
• University of Oregon, About DIBELS and DIBELS tips for families
• Acadience Learning, Acadience Reading K-6 Fact Sheet
• Colorado Department of Education, Dyslexia Handbook: assessment