Lessons to learn

My son has just started school and less than a week in he has been sent home with a reading book which the teachers and myself and wife are expected to fill in. Already there is a note about how he followed and read from memory some of a book called Look Out and it really struck me that what is going to help him read is that constant encouragement and praise that he will get from his teachers and parents.
The complete lack of encouragement older readers get, not just adult but also teenage, might explain why reading levels are so low. Parents seem to disengage from their children’s reading as they get older and from personal experience nobody ever talks to me about reading, despite knowing it is my main interest.
Part of the reason for doing this blog was to get some feedback and interaction and maybe there needs to be a way that people who read, but don’t join reading groups, can get some sort of encouragement. I don’t have the answer but there is a lot we could learn about the approach taken with four and five year olds and the differences further up the age range.