I get this! DS3 has been able to read for more than a year, but is only just starting to develop the maturity to focus on reading multiple words in sequence. (According to the link aeh provided, he has the phonological awareness sequence mastered.)
He is a subversive little guy. He will give me a knowing look and feign not being able to read a word--eyes roaming all over the page except toward the word, making obviously deliberate flubs (the words are invariably rhymes or puns), and leaking micro-expressions that scream, "I'm not going to cooperate and will make you regret trying to engage me" mixed with, "what can I get Mum to do if I do X?" This happens when I ask him to help me figure out 1 in 10,000 words we read in a no-pressure way. Then, at other times, he'll blurt out a title on an article in the newspaper while I'm preparing dinner and half paying attention.
I have no solution other than to turn everything reading related into a game, and to be seen as ambivalent over whether she reads during activities, but enthusiastic outside specific reading practice. We don't do any instructional activities other than reading books together and very occasionally spelling words out of magnetic letters. I recently bought a "We Both Read" book, which was met with interest. I explained that the book was designed to be read by two people, and DS seemed to like having his own dedicated pages to read. I've picked out a handful of high frequency words in new books from the library and prompt DS to read them by giving him a related puzzle (e.g. Find the opposite of this word; how would that word react in a silly situation...) , which he enjoys with one-off words or sentences, but he has said that breaks up the story. So my conclusion is that stories must not be fully engaging plot-wise, otherwise the prosody gets choppy and makes him impatient.
Is any of this helpful? I think it ultimately comes down to personality. DS is the sort who internally rehearses skills and then reveals them once he's achieved mastery, so I think his goofy/evasive front is his way of saying he isn't ready yet for independent reading on a maturity level. He's also very much a stubborn bull like his mother, and we see this "on my own schedule" autonomy echoed in everything he does.
