Thando, 6, reads about it in the Sunday papers
ON a Sunday afternoon while her friends are playing outside, six-year-old Thando Dhlamini reads the Sunday papers with her parents. The news and sport sections are her favourites.
In a country where new research shows that 60% of children cannot read by the end of Grade 4, Thando is exceptional. She learned to read when she was just four years old.
“She reads any part of the paper,” says mom Sarah Dhlamini. “Sometimes she asks what the stories mean. But the Bible is her most-read book.”
Thando is so good at reading that she has been bumped up from Grade 1 to Grade 2.
Adele Jacobs, the principal at Feed My Lambs Primary School in Eldorado Park, said that when Thando enrolled at the school’s crèche, teachers had been “surprised” by her ability to read sight words — commonly used words that children are taught to memorise as a whole by sight.
Jacobs said Thando had completed the school’s reading programmes for Grades 1, 2 and 3 while she was in Grade R.
“I sometimes encourage the older pupils by showcasing Thando’s skills. I’ve taken her to the Grade 7 learners to show them what can be done if they practise.”
Jacobs said that after three months in Grade 1, Thando had been moved up to the Grade 2 class, where teachers had reported she was “on par” with the other pupils.
This week, when the Sunday Times met Thando, she read fluently from The Ring O’ Bells Mystery, a Grade 7 reader by Enid Blyton.
“I do reading and writing re“leads ally well,” she said. “I feel happy and excited because everyone is happy that I can read.”
Sarah Dhlamini, who helped teach her daughter, said Thando showed an interest in reading when she was three years old.
“We bought her those letter books and after a while she could recite them,” she said.
Educational psychologist Juliana Mendonça said it was not common for a four-year-old to be reading sight words “as they are still mastering their letter and number recognition”.
Mendonça said early reading NOT JUST PICTURES: Thando Dhlamini pages through the Sunday Times to better spelling and writing skills.
Children who battle to read will struggle to learn new concepts as they are constantly trying to decode the words and are unable to pay attention to the content.”
She said many studies had linked early reading to early academic success.
This week, a report by Stellenbosch University’s research on socioeconomic policy group said about 60% of children in South Africa cannot read at a basic level by the end of Grade 4.
“These children never fully engage with the curriculum and fall further and further behind the curriculum even as they are promoted into higher grades,” the report said.
A literacy study by the Zenex Foundation found that most primary school teachers had the English vocabulary expected of a Grade 3 pupil.
I feel happy and excited because everyone is happy that I can read