How To Assess Your Child's Reading

Wondering if your child is reading at the right level? Learn how to assess their reading fluency, comprehension, and engagement with practical tips.

One of the biggest concerns parents have when it comes to their child’s reading development is knowing whether their child is reading at the right level. Many parents have no idea if their child is reading at, above, or below grade level, and they often struggle to understand the feedback provided by schools, which is typically represented as a letter or number that makes little sense unless you were an educator.

What to Listen For To Assess Your Child’s Reading

1. Choosing The Right Reading Level For Your Child: Try to assess whether your child is reading appropriately challenging books. Instead of aiming for a single “perfect” reading level, encourage a variety of text difficulties to keep them engaged to offer growth opportunities.

2. Assessing Your Child’s Reading Fluency: Fluency is essential for comprehension. Try to keep these three items in mind to evaluate your child’s reading fluency.

1. Are They Keeping A Steady Reading Pace: Is your child reading too fast or too slow? A natural-speaking rhythm is ideal.
2. Do They Use Expression & Prosody: Does their voice reflect the meaning of the text? Expression improves comprehension.
3. Are They Using Self-Correction: Do they recognize and fix mistakes as they read, or are they just rushing through without engagement?

You can check out our FREE Reading Fluency Assessment here. This is the perfect reading assessment for beginner readers.

‍3: What Is Your Child’s Overall Reading Engagement: Try to assess whether your child is interacting with the text, thinking about what they’re reading, and making sense of the words on the page.

The Best Reading App for Children

At QuestRead, we’ve taken this need for clear, practical assessment and built it directly into our app. Our literacy specialists listen to multiple reading samples from your child and create a personalized report outlining their strengths, areas for improvement, and actionable recommendations.

After analyzing your child’s reading samples, we compile our findings into an easy-to-understand report.

Our Reading Report Includes: 

• A breakdown of their current reading abilities.
• Clear, practical recommendations for supporting their reading at home.
• Suggested book adjustments within the QuestRead app to ensure they have access to texts that match their needs.