Should My Five-Year-Old Be Learning to Read Already?

Maybe this isn’t a popular opinion amongst educators, but kindergarten shouldn’t be where kids learn how to read. I realize that some kids can learn and do learn to read in kindergarten and even earlier. There are always exceptions, but most typically developing kids should not be expected to learn how to read in kindergarten.

Learning to read used to be a grade one thing, but it dropped down into kindergarten because of what the writers of “The Crisis in the Kindergarten” call “a politically and commercially driven effort to make kindergarten a one-size smaller first grade”. That was a big mistake. Read the report here for the full story. KindergartenReport_finalforpdf.indd

Learning to read relies on a foundation that needs to develop first. Kindergarten used to a place where the foundation, which starts developing at birth, could develop through free play, exploration, socializing, colouring, and pretending, with a bit of structure added in when the kids gathered for a short time on the carpet for stories, sharing time, songs, and fingerplays. Not a worksheet to be seen, and there were no formal lessons in letters, printing, or reading practice. Why? Because play-based learning was recognized then(and still is) as the best way for kids to develop the foundation they needed for grade one, when formal learning would typically start.

But kindergarten changed. Over the last 30 years or so, kindergarten became the new grade one. Instead of recognizing that five-year-olds are in the emergent stage of literacy development, they are pushed into the early stage. Play-based learning has been replaced with formal lessons in letters, sounds, segmenting, and blending before a foundation has had a chance to fully develop. It’s no surprise that many kids will struggle with the expectations of becoming a reader too soon, leaving teachers and parents concerned that they’re falling behind. Often, interventions are put in place, but intervention is useless if it’s just more practice in what kids aren’t ready to learn. Pushing them leads to failure, and failure leads to frustration, which likely has contributed to the rise in emotional dysregulation we see in young kids now. And to top it off, we’ve taken away much of their play time, the very thing that helps them regulate and learn to manage anxiety. It seems obvious that making kindergarten the new grade one was a bad idea.

From my experience in the K-12 school system in B.C., Canada, as an Education Assistant for 15 years, there’s a little bit of good news. Many schools are remembering that play-based learning is the best way for kids to learn, so they’re protecting recess and incorporating more play into their daily schedules. That’s a good start, but it comes with a bit of bad news. A lot of schools don’t seem to remember what play is. As the writers of “The Crisis in the Kindergarten” state, “many activities that adults describe as play are in fact teacher-directed and involve little or no imagination or creativity on the part of the children”. I witnessed this firsthand in many of the classrooms I worked in. Center time was often limited to certain activities chosen by the teacher, and it usually lasted for no more than 20-30 minutes. Free, creative, open-ended play in kindergarten is rare.

Unfortunately, the bad news doesn’t end there. As I scroll Facebook and Instagram, I’m troubled by the number of popular early childhood literacy educators that seem oblivious to the importance of the emergent stage of literacy. They argue that kindergarten isn’t what it used to be, so we must start teaching these skills early, even in preschool! Coming from educators who should be familiar with the research on child development, this is disappointing. It perpetuates the mistaken idea that earlier is better. Of all people, early childhood educators and literacy advocates should all be spreading the message that reading depends on the skills kids develop over time though play and skipping this part for the sake of keeping up with curriculum has zero benefits and causes harm. There’s lots of educators that are advocating for play-based learning, but unfortunately, many seem to have adopted the “earlier is better” approach.

To make a simple analogy, imagine putting a one-year-old child on a bike. No one would expect them to be able to ride it. A one-year-old does not have the size, strength, balance, or coordination to be able to learn, so you wouldn’t even attempt to teach them. It’s not a hard concept to understand. We just need to apply it to reading as well. Most five-year-olds can’t learn how to read yet because they haven’t developed the abilities they need to be able to learn. So why would we teach them?

I want to be clear that I’m not advocating for no learning to take place in kindergarten. I’m suggesting that we stop expecting kindergarten kids to learn things they aren’t developmentally ready to learn, and that we drop the formal lessons. Years of research clearly shows that the best kind of learning for five-year-olds happens in a well-planned, play-based setting. When kids sing songs, clap rhythms, listen to stories, have access to crayons & paper, play with dolls, blocks, cars, and puzzles, immerse themselves in imaginary worlds with friends, and have conversations with teachers who understand the emergent stage of literacy, they are learning! They’re learning oral language, sentence structure, vocabulary, rhymes, letter names & sounds, plus they’re building muscle strength, coordination, balance, and more. We can add on emotional regulation too! These are all the things that get them ready for formal literacy lessons in grade one.

Let’s stop the rush. If our goal is for kids to be strong readers, let’s give them a kindergarten year that sets them up for success. Reading itself does not come naturally to humans, so explicit and structured lessons are necessary to learn how to read. But let’s recognize and protect the emergent stage that most kindergarten kids are in and leave the formal lessons for when they’re ready.