Stages of Reading Development
0 – Pre-reading and Pseudo-reading (up to 6)
‘Pretend’ reading, some letter and word recognition, predicting single
words or the next stage of a story.
1 – Initial Reading and Decoding (6-7)
Reading simple texts with high frequency lexis. Chall estimated
children understand 600 words.
2 – Confirmation and Fluency (7-8)
Reading texts quickly, fluently and accurately. Chall estimated children
understand 3000 words.
3 – Reading for Learning (9-14)
Reading for knowledge and information becomes motivation.
4 – Multiplicity and Complexity (14-17)
Responding critically and analysing texts.
5 – Construction and Reconstruction (18+)
Reading selectively and forming opinions.
o Visual – looking at pictures and use visual narrative for unfamiliar
words.
o Graphophonic – Shape of words.
o Semantic – Meanings of words and making connections.
o Syntactic – Word order and word classes.
o Contextual – Compared to own experience or pragmatic understanding
of social conventions.
o Miscue – Making errors when reading e.g. guessing words.
0 – Pre-reading and Pseudo-reading (up to 6)
‘Pretend’ reading, some letter and word recognition, predicting single
words or the next stage of a story.
1 – Initial Reading and Decoding (6-7)
Reading simple texts with high frequency lexis. Chall estimated
children understand 600 words.
2 – Confirmation and Fluency (7-8)
Reading texts quickly, fluently and accurately. Chall estimated children
understand 3000 words.
3 – Reading for Learning (9-14)
Reading for knowledge and information becomes motivation.
4 – Multiplicity and Complexity (14-17)
Responding critically and analysing texts.
5 – Construction and Reconstruction (18+)
Reading selectively and forming opinions.
o Visual – looking at pictures and use visual narrative for unfamiliar
words.
o Graphophonic – Shape of words.
o Semantic – Meanings of words and making connections.
o Syntactic – Word order and word classes.
o Contextual – Compared to own experience or pragmatic understanding
of social conventions.
o Miscue – Making errors when reading e.g. guessing words.
