What is typical at each age, how far apart two perfectly ordinary children can be, and the handful of things worth mentioning to a teacher.
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Reading is not one skill arriving on a date. It is several skills growing at once: hearing the separate sounds inside a spoken word, knowing which letters stand for those sounds, working words out, reading smoothly enough to forget you are reading, knowing what the words mean, and making sense of the whole thing.
The order those arrive in is fairly dependable. The timetable is not, and it is not close. In the most widely used United States reading-rate figures, at the end of the first-grade year one child in four reads 34 words a minute correctly or fewer while one in ten reads 116 or morereference [1]. Same age. Often the same room.
So the useful question is almost never “is my child ahead or behind?”. It is “is my child moving?” and “is anything specific missing?”. This page is built to help you answer the second one.
Age by age
Ages are rough labels. A child a few months either side of these descriptions is not late, and school systems draw their year boundaries in different places anyway.
4
Sounds before letters
Usually
Most of the work at 4 happens in the ear, not on the page: rhyming, clapping the beats in a name, hearing that “sun” and “sock” start the same way. Letters arrive alongside it, often the ones in the child's own name first. Writing your own name and knowing letters are two of the six things measured before school that best predict later readingreference [2].
Varies a lot, and that is fine
Almost everything. One 4-year-old knows three letters, another knows twenty, and where they sit in that range says much more about what they have been shown than about how they will read at 9. Where you live matters too: a 4-year-old in England is in Reception with a short daily phonics session from the first weeks of termreference [5], while a 4-year-old in the United States usually has no formal reading expectation at allreference [4].
Worth mentioning to a teacher
If a child shows no pleasure at all in being read to, or if rhyme still does not land after months of nursery rhymes and silly-word games. Sound awareness at this age is the thing early teaching fixes most easilyreference [7].
5
Letters start doing a job
Usually
Letters stop being decoration and start standing for sounds. By the end of the Reception year in England, the goal is a sound for every letter of the alphabet plus at least ten two-letter spellings such as “sh” and “ee”, blending those sounds to read words, and reading simple books that match what has been taughtreference [3]. The United States Kindergarten standards ask for the main sound of each consonant, the long and short sounds of the five vowels, and a handful of common words known on sightreference [4].
Varies a lot, and that is fine
The gap between the child who is already blending three-sound words and the child who is still learning letter names is at its widest here, and it is the least informative gap of the whole range. The English and American goals above describe the same age but sit a school year apart in name.
Worth mentioning to a teacher
If letter names and letter sounds are still almost entirely absent at the end of the Reception or Kindergarten year, or a child cannot hear the first sound in a spoken word. Both of those are on the short list of pre-school measures that predict later readingreference [2], and both respond to teaching.
6
Sounding out becomes reading
Usually
Sounding out gets reliable, two-letter spellings such as sh, ch and th come in, and the same little book gets read three times to make it smooth. That rereading is written into the English curriculum on purposereference [6]. In England every child in Year 1 sits a statutory phonics check: 20 real words and 20 made-up ones, about five minutes with a teacherreference [5].
Varies a lot, and that is fine
By the end of the American first-grade year, one child in four reads 34 words a minute correctly or fewer, the middle child reads about 60, and one in ten reads 116 or morereference [1]. That is the same year, often the same classroom. Reading speed is one of the most spread-out things children do.
Worth mentioning to a teacher
If, after a year of phonics teaching, a child still cannot sound out any three-letter word such as “cat” or “pin”. Teaching children to sound words out is one of only two recommendations in the US government's reading guide that carries its top evidence ratingreference [7], so this is worth acting on rather than waiting out.
7
Longer words, smoother reading
Usually
Consonant clusters (“stop”, “bend”), vowel teams (“ai”, “ee”, “oa”) and two-syllable words arrive, and reading starts to sound like talking. The American second-grade standards add long and short vowels in one-syllable words, more vowel teams, and words with common beginnings and endingsreference [4].
Varies a lot, and that is fine
At the start of the American second-grade year the middle child reads about 50 words a minute correctly and one in four reads 36 or fewer; by the end of that year the middle figure is about 100reference [1]. A child can double their reading speed in nine months, which is worth remembering before reading much into a single measurement.
Worth mentioning to a teacher
If reading is still word by word and visibly effortful on books matched to what the child has been taught. Daily reading of connected text is the recommendation with moderate evidence behind it for exactly thisreference [7].
8
Reading to learn starts
Usually
Long words get broken into chunks, and beginnings and endings such as “un-”, “-ful” and “-tion” start carrying meaningreference [4]. Reading turns into the tool a child uses for everything else at school, rather than the thing being taught.
Varies a lot, and that is fine
At the start of the American third-grade year the middle child reads about 83 words a minute correctly and one in four reads 59 or fewer; by the end the middle figure is about 112reference [1].
Worth mentioning to a teacher
If a child reads accurately but so slowly that the sense of the sentence is gone by the time they reach the end of it. That pattern is about fluency, not about effort or interest.
9
Meaning does the heavy lifting
Usually
Unfamiliar long words get worked out from letter patterns, syllables and word parts such as roots and endingsreference [4]. Most of what holds a 9-year-old back now is vocabulary and background knowledge rather than decoding.
Varies a lot, and that is fine
At the start of the American fourth-grade year the middle child reads about 94 words a minute correctly and one in four reads 75 or fewer; by the end the middle figure is about 133reference [1].
Worth mentioning to a teacher
If a child can read a page aloud accurately and then cannot tell you what it was about. Word reading and understanding are separate skills, and a child can be fine at one and stuck on the other.
What the reading-speed numbers say
Words read correctly in one minute of reading aloud, from the compiled United States normsreference [1]. Read the caveats underneath before you read the table.
Words read correctly per minute at the 25th, 50th and 90th percentile, by United States school grade and approximate age
When
Age
Slower quarter
Middle
Fastest tenth
End of grade 1
6 to 7
34
60
116
Start of grade 2
7
36
50
111
End of grade 2
7 to 8
72
100
148
Start of grade 3
8
59
83
134
End of grade 3
8 to 9
91
112
166
End of grade 4
9 to 10
105
133
184
Four things you should know before using that table for anything. First, it is a technical report from a university research group, not a peer-reviewed study, and the authors say so themselvesreference [1]. It earns its place by being enormous: 6,886,582 scores, pulled from three commercial reading assessments used across United States schools.
Second, it is American, and it is sorted by school grade. An English child in Year 2 and an American child in first grade are usually the same age, so match on the age column rather than the grade label.
Third, a percentile is not a pass mark. The report's own framing is that children below the benchmark are “at possible risk of reading difficulties” and are good candidates for a closer look by a teacherreference [1]. That is a prompt for a conversation, not a finding about a child.
Fourth, speed measures one narrow thing. A child who reads slowly and understands every word is in a completely different position from one who rattles through a page and remembers none of it, and the number cannot tell those two apart.
If something is worrying you
Talk to the class teacher, and do it early. A teacher sees your child next to thirty others of the same age every day, which is exactly the comparison you cannot make at home, and they can arrange a proper look at the specific skills. Nothing on this page identifies a condition, and nothing here should be used that way.
It helps to arrive with something concrete. “He knows about six letter sounds and cannot blend them yet” is a far more useful sentence than “I think he is behind”.
Sounds and letters together
Teaching children to hear the sounds in speech and link them to letters is one of the two recommendations rated top-strength evidence in the US government's reading guide.
Working words out
Teaching children to decode words, break down word parts, and write and read words is the other one. This is the core of what phonics teaching does.
Real text, every day
Reading connected text daily to build accuracy, fluency and understanding is rated moderate evidence. Story time counts.
All three ratings are the Institute of Education Sciences panel's own, from its practice guide for kindergarten through third gradereference [7]. Its fourth recommendation, teaching spoken-language and vocabulary skills, was rated minimal evidence at the time, which the panel notes reflects the state of the research rather than the importance of the skill.
Where an app fits, honestly
We make a reading app, so here is the number that does not flatter us. A 2025 review pooled 119 studies of technology-based literacy teaching with children in kindergarten through fifth grade. It found an average effect of 0.33 on word reading, and 0.23 when the outcome was a standardized testreference [9]. The peer-reviewed write-up of the National Reading Panel's phonics meta-analysis puts teacher-delivered systematic phonics at 0.41 overall, and 0.55 when it starts earlyreference [8].
Those are different reviews with different measures, so it is not a head-to-head race. But the direction is not ambiguous, and you should not let anyone tell you otherwise: a good app helps, and it helps less than good teaching. Plimmery is built as extra practice next to a teacher and a grown-up at home. It is not a substitute for either, and we do not sell it as one.
My child is 6 and still sounding out every word. Is that a problem?
Usually not. Sounding out is what a 6-year-old is supposed to be doing, and it turns into smooth reading through practice on books that match what they have been taught. What is worth raising with a teacher is a child who cannot sound out a three-letter word at all after a year of phonics teaching.
How many words a minute should my child read?
There is no single right number, only a wide range. In the most-used United States figures, at the end of the first-grade year the middle child reads about 60 words a minute correctly, one child in four reads 34 or fewer, and one in ten reads 116 or more. Those are American figures, sorted by school grade rather than by age.reference [1]
My child seems behind their friends. What should I actually do?
Talk to the class teacher first. They see your child next to thirty others the same age every day, which is the comparison you cannot make at home, and they can arrange a proper look at reading skills. Nothing on this page is a diagnosis, and none of it should be treated as one.
Does reading to my child still help once they can read themselves?
Yes. Being read to builds vocabulary and knowledge of how stories and sentences work, which is what limits understanding from about age 8 onward, long after decoding stops being the hard part.
Can a reading app teach my child to read on its own?
No, and we do not claim it can. Across 119 studies, technology-based literacy programs moved word reading by a smaller amount than good teacher-led phonics does, and by less again when measured on standardized tests. An app is useful practice alongside a teacher and a grown-up at home, not a replacement for either.reference [9]reference [8]
References
Every number on this page comes from one of these, and each one was opened and read rather than taken from a summary. Where a source is weaker than it looks, it says so.
[1] Hasbrouck, J., and Tindal, G. (2017). An update to compiled ORF norms (Technical Report No. 1702). Behavioral Research and Teaching, University of Oregon, Eugene, OR. https://files.eric.ed.gov/fulltext/ED594994.pdfWorth knowing: A technical report, not a peer-reviewed paper. Compiled from 6,886,582 scores taken on three commercial US assessments (DIBELS 6th Edition, DIBELS Next and easyCBM), so the numbers describe children in United States schools, sorted by grade rather than by age.
[3] Department for Education (2025). Early years foundation stage statutory framework: for group and school-based providers. Department for Education, England, Dated 14 July 2025, effective 1 September 2025. https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/early-years-foundation-stage-framework--2Worth knowing: This is the edition in force to 31 August 2026. A revised framework applies from 1 September 2026, so check the goals against the current version if you are reading this later.
[4] National Governors Association Center for Best Practices and Council of Chief State School Officers (2010). Common Core State Standards for English Language Arts: Reading Standards, Foundational Skills (K to 5). NGA Center and CCSSO, Washington, DC. https://corestandards.org/Worth knowing: Adopted state by state, not nationally. Several states have since revised or renamed their standards, so what applies to a given child depends on the state.
[7] Foorman, B., Beyler, N., Borradaile, K., Coyne, M., Denton, C. A., Dimino, J., Furgeson, J., Hayes, L., Henke, J., Justice, L., Keating, B., Lewis, W., Sattar, S., Streke, A., Wagner, R., and Wissel, S. (2016). Foundational skills to support reading for understanding in kindergarten through 3rd grade (NCEE 2016-4008). National Center for Education Evaluation and Regional Assistance, Institute of Education Sciences, US Department of Education, Washington, DC, July 2016. https://ies.ed.gov/ncee/wwc/PracticeGuide/21
[8] Ehri, L. C., Nunes, S. R., Stahl, S. A., and Willows, D. M. (2001). Systematic phonics instruction helps students learn to read: evidence from the National Reading Panel's meta-analysis. Review of Educational Research, 71(3), 393 to 447. doi.org/10.3102/00346543071003393
[9] Silverman, R. D., Keane, K., Darling-Hammond, E., and Khanna, S. (2025). The effects of educational technology interventions on literacy in elementary school: a meta-analysis. Review of Educational Research, 95(5), 972 to 1012. doi.org/10.3102/00346543241261073
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