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Catflap, are you there?

6 replies

ChocolateGirl · 17/02/2005 21:19

Catflap, I read an old thread about how children learn to read (which I seem to have lost again now! I'm not as IT literate as I thought!) and I just wanted to say how helpful I found your posts. I will read the book you recommended. I was going to bump the thread, but then I lost it, so I tried to CAT you (didn't work), so I thought I'd start a new thread. Hope that's ok with everyone.

My son is four, he has some speech and language difficulties but luckily his school and his speech therapist use Jolly Phonics. He has a mixture of reading schemes in school. I don't really want to teach him to read, just to help and support him at home, and I was wondering if you could recommend a reading scheme that we coud enjoy together at home? Preferably something that complements Jolly Phonics. I don't want to overload him. Thank you.

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Catflap · 17/02/2005 21:43

Hi there - I'll have to have a search!

Jolly Phonics do readers and books that complements the scheme perfectly - it starts with 'Read and See' books where the child blends the wrod adn then lifts the flap to see if the picture matches the word they think they have read. There are then readers in a graded level to work through, as long as the 40+ sounds and first spellings have been learnt. Have a look at the Jolly Learning website for more details on resources.

Hope this helps for now - much shorter than my other posts on the subject...!

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ChocolateGirl · 18/02/2005 20:40

Thank you Catflap, that does help. I somehow managed to miss the Readers range of Jolly Phonics - I'd only seen the Phonics books and the workbooks - so I'll look into those.

We've been told by his SALT that he has problems with blends (among other things) and it could take years to overcome this problem. I'm not too worried about it though because at least it is something that we can overcome.

I just want to work with him to ensure he knows the 40+ sounds - because sometimes he will say a sound and it will come out wrong - "g" for "c", for example, and I'm not sure whether this will affect his progress in school. I might know that he means "c" but I don't know if his teacher will.

Thanks again for your help. I am really glad you are on mumsnet!

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roisin · 18/02/2005 20:48

Chocolategirl - my ds1 had serious articulation problems, and we were told by SALT and his nursery teacher that he would probably be a late reader, and would not be able to "do" phonics. I knew this was incorrect. Although he could not even approximate the sound 'c', and would say 'dat' for 'cat', if you asked him to point out which letter 'cat' started with he would always find the 'c'. So although he couldn't produce the differences himself, he could hear them and identify them.

Learning to read actually helped him with his SALT too.

Reading was not a problem to him at all, and he's always been well above average. (He's 7.5 now).

Hope that's an encouragement to you!

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Catflap · 18/02/2005 21:57

Hi chocolategirl - could you just clarify for me what you mean by the 'blends' you say DS has problems with? - however, can assure you, that whatever it is, with the proper teaching, it can be easily rectified and won't take ages.

Muddling 'c' and 'g' isn't too hard to rectify - he's using all the right parts of his mouth and those back of the throat sounds are hard to do. But he can, 'g' just has a vocal sound with it adn 'c' is a quiet, non voiced whisper sound. I explore all this with my class so they really understand the difference in pronunciation - we use mirrors and get our hands in our mouths also!

Feeling thick here - what's SALT? I can guess but not sure - maybe it's a term local to your LEA??!

Thank you for your kind words!

Good for you roisin - there is all the evidence out there that all kids can do phonics - if they are taught properly. That, however, is the problem!

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roisin · 18/02/2005 22:14

Catflap: SALT = Speech And Language Therapy

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ChocolateGirl · 19/02/2005 22:13

Roisin and Catflap, thank you for your help.

Catflap, what I mean by blends in this post is adding a vowel to an initial consonant, eg. he can produce "c" in isolation but has difficulty with "ca", "co", etc.

Roison, that is encouraging because as you say he has difficulty physically speaking the phonic sounds but I know he can hear and identify them correctly.

I will let you know how he is getting on.