Reception DD seems slow at picking up reading...

[NeoMaxiZoomDweebie]

She's 5...was 5 in March and about 3 months ago her teacher told me at parents evening that DD was slow to learn the sounds and only recognised about 8 of them!

I had never taught her any letters or anything in preschool...she could write her name...and knew the alphabet to sing and I have always read to her daily.

Anyway....teacher told me that DDs class was a particularly fast learning bunch and as a result, DD and some others weren't keeping up with the majority in terms of phonics. So she was in a focus group...teacher asked me to do more at home other than reading.

So I did and now DD recognises all the letters/sounds and is sounding out words...segmenting I believe it's called...and begining to blend.

She loves it...she's really keen but I keep worrying about her being behind. She can point to individual words in our books and segments/blends as she goes...is that ok in terms of progress?

I asked the teacher the other day in passing how DD was ding and she just said "Fine..well...she's much more interested so fingers crossed!"

And I thought after "Fingers crossed?" what does THAT mean??

Does it sound like DD is progressing ok now from not recognising the sounds 3 months ago? I will speak to teacher soon and make an appointment to do so.

On the plus side DD is very, very happy at school..very sociable and has excellent fine and gross motor skills....she's also very aticulate. Are some of them just a bit slower to pick up the whole reading thing? My other DD was in a prep at this age and I honestly never had to do anything other than read with her...she seemed to simple begin reading with no problems aged 5 and never did phonics.

[XBenedict]

Oh dear the teacher doesn't sound a very positive soul. Your DD is doing great IMO as are you! She will get there in HER time. Just keep going. It all sounds very positive to me, she's enthusiastic, you're enthusiastic it's just the teacher that's managing to dampen it all.

[NeoMaxiZoomDweebie]

Oh thanks XBenedict it's a pushy sort of school with very high results...

[fanoftheinvisibleman]

I can only give you my experience with ds.

Ds hated reading in reception, huge screaming fits and me constantly sounding out words that he still insisted he couldn't do. He was on ORT 1 all through reception and started on ORT 2 at the very end of the year. He ia october born too.

Now in year 2 he is among the better readers in his class and is confidently reading ort 12 (bronze) with expression and ability to discuss content. Once he was ready (as opposed to just being the right 'age') he just flew with it.

Keep doing what you are doing. I still think reception is very young for some and reading.

[givemeaclue]

It does sound like you work at home has paid off and that she has progressed from where she was. However if most of the class are reading fluently now then she is still behind. The focus group and work you are doing at home will really help, don't be disheartened, rid is making progress, keep goin you are doing a good job. Keep praising your dd, it is tough when they feel like they aren't doing as well as others.

[Periwinkle007]

it sounds like she is doing quite well now and it is just skewed by the fact the others seem to be doing particularly well.

there are plenty of children leave reception at her level and progress very well in Yr1, just potentially not from HER class which is why she seems behind. However if she is in a focus GROUP then she can't be the only one.

Keep up the work you have been doing with her as it will really help her confidence and read to her lots, encouraging her to sound out some of the easier words and read with you rather than just listen to you read to her.

[learnandsay]

Keeping up in terms of phonics isn't exactly the same thing as being good at reading. You could be really good at remembering what the teacher told you about the sound ee having lots of different spelling and still not be able to read the names Eton and Ely. Pleasing the teacher and being good at reading aren't necessarily the same thing.

[freetrait]

She sounds like she's doing well.

Do you listen to her read every day? That's about the only thing I would make sure you do if you don't already. Find a level of reading book that she can cope with fairly easily so that you can both enjoy it, and get into a routine of listening to her everyday.

[lottieandmia]

Teachers like this really make me cross

How quickly a child learns to read is not an indicator of future ability, necessarily. My dd, aged 4 or 5 really struggled with Oxford Reading Tree, so the teacher tried her on a different reading scheme called 'Jelly and Bean' which she found easier to read. She was one of the last in her class to learn to read, but is now NC level 4 in year 4. I suspect this is because her teacher did not put her down at a young age or judge her ability based on reading!

[NeoMaxiZoomDweebie]

They don't stick to one scheme...she brings home all kinds of books...I do feel the teacher isn't very positive...when we had the parents evening the only good thing she said was that DD was popular. NOTHING positive about her work....even though she's a very good artist and good at PE type things...not one thing apart from her popularity with peers. I know that's very nice...but I would have liked something positive abuot her progress...I mean they go to school to learn primarily...friendships come into that but they're secondary to academics surely.

[NeoMaxiZoomDweebie]

it's great to hear about other's children...

[lottieandmia]

I don't understand why people want to go into teaching when they are not interested in nurturing a child and are only positive about a child who is a fast learner for their age.

A good teacher brings out the best in all the kids - not just the ones who are easier to teach because they require less time and patience.

Neo - I hope your dd gets a better teacher next year. It sounds like she is doing fine to me. I would be very cross if I went to a parents evening and my child was compared with the others in the class. How she compares with peers is irrelevant, generally.

[givemeaclue]

To be honest I can't see what this poor teacher has done wrong!

[ClayDavis]

Lottieandmia, as far as I can tell from the OP the teacher hasn't made any prediction of future reading ability. She's identified a small number of children who are struggling a bit at the moment and has put a little bit extra in place to support them and help them to catch up. This is a good thing.

The other option is to identify the issue and do nothing about it. Some children, like yours will be OK with that. A lot won't be and will just get further and further behind.

OP, if she now knows the letter/sound correspondences she needs to and can use those to blend and segment then she is doing really well. Sounds like she's made very good progress in the last 3 months.

[NeoMaxiZoomDweebie]

Clay do you think so? She can see the seperate words and can make up rhymes etc. I suppose I got a bit nervous about Dyslexia when she hadn't got all the sounds....now she can look at a sentence like "I see the Tiger, can you see the tiger?" and read it very slowly...she'll pause on the word "you" but sounds out the letters fine...then usually guesses the word...I need to help her more on things like the EE EA combos...like "Feet" and "Leaf" having the same sound as it were...

[Periwinkle007]

it is actually quite common at reception parents evenings for them to focus more on commenting how the child has settled in, made friends, deals with being at school generally and their emotional maturity development rather than focusing so much on their academic side. the EYFS doesn't include an enormous amount of academic stuff, it is about preparing them for that in Yr1 so to hear she is popular and has made lots of friends is good. My daughter is an exceptional artist and at her preschool (attached to a school) she won a headteachers award for her art, has won 3 drawing competitions etc but her current teacher hasn't mentioned it once. I know her drawings are great as is her 3D modelling but it obviously isn't something they are assessing as such, she is however very settled, mature, has gained in confidence and so on which is much more how they measure things in reception.

I wouldn't say the teacher is being negative, she can't say to you your daughter is doing extremely well if she isn't, she is hopeful that she will catch up a bit and she is making progress. it might not seem glowingly positive but it isn't negative as such. She has put methods in place to help the children who aren't keeping up with the others. I am not sure in my daughter's class where the majority of the children are but from what I can work out most are reading at level 3 confidently and many are higher than that which makes the majority of the class quite confident with their phonics and blending them to read words.

Mixed reading schemes is unfortunately very common but in some ways it could be helpful as you may discover she finds some easier than others. if you do then perhaps ask if she could have more of those ones as they suit her reading better

[Periwinkle007]

ah but YOU is a strange one to be fair, there are some words that children traditionally mix up or miss read, even if spelling them out. I know children who will spell out saw and then read it as was!

if she can read I see the tiger, can you see the tiger then she is doing fine. I was imagining from what you said she was more at c a t stage.

it just comes down to practice.

[lottieandmia]

But this is a reception aged child, not a child about to take their SATs so to compare with other children is not appropriate or necessary at this point! And I expect my daughter maybe would not have been fine if she'd been made to feel like she was worth less than some of the children who could read faster than she could.

I think the teacher does sound negative and there is no excuse. Maybe my view is coloured by my experience of working in a school where the teacher clearly had no time for the children who needed a bit more help and was open about the fact that this was the case. But whichever way you look at it, negative comments about a 5 year old are only going to knock their confidence.

[fluffywhitekittens]

Dd wasn't at all interested in phonics or learning to read for herself at preschool and was fairly slow in reception, she would also sound out the word and then guess or makeup something completely random.
I was a little concerned as she's fairly bright and I love reading. However my Mum said I wasn't an early reader as was stubborn - like Dd- and I had a very high reading age by the end of primary.
She is in year 1 and everything seems to have come together all at once and she skipped various colour bands and is now on the school's free choice accelerated reading scheme and much more positive and confident now.

[Periwinkle007]

I don't think the teacher has said it to the child though Lottieandmia so the child shouldn't be aware. I would see it that the teacher has explained why the child is in a focus group but to the parent not the child.

this term in my daughter's reception class they have been separated out so that those who need to practice the more basic phonics still are in one or two groups, those who need to practice the next lot are in different groups and the few who are confident on all of them are in another group. The children always know which ones are the good readers and which aren't because it is fairly obvious with things on the walls or whatever but that doesn't mean they are aware of the teacher's opinions of their progress.

[lottieandmia]

The children will be aware of the teacher's approach and if that is at all negative they will pick up on that. I think that's a shame. I also don't see that the teacher needs to say to a parent that their child is behind others in a reception class.

[Periwinkle007]

but we don't know that her approach IS negative. All teachers have a group who are struggling, it is normal, and to be fair only recognising 8 phonics in the spring term is probably below where they would HOPE a child would be in any reception class not just in relation to the other children in that class. I read it more as a 'as some of the children are picking things up very quickly this year, those who aren't quite keeping up with them are in a special focus group so we can encourage them rather than demoralise them and get them to work at their own level and your child is in this group'

[lottieandmia]

The OP has said she feels the teacher isn't positive. Some teachers are better than others unfortunately.

[XBenedict]

I read it the same as Lottie, all a bit negative and while the teacher may well not be giving this impression to the child she is to the OP. She's only in reception. DS (now in Y3) has been put in a focus group, at the moment he is struggling with maths, it was reading in reception and year 1, but the school has always been very positive about it.

"when we had the parents evening the only good thing she said was that DD was popular. NOTHING positive about her work....even though she's a very good artist and good at PE type things...not one thing apart from her popularity with peers. I know that's very nice...but I would have liked something positive abuot her progress"

[NeoMaxiZoomDweebie]

Yes X it just feels like she only focuses on the negative...I KNOW every parent thinks their child is spectacular...but that's the point...they all are aren't they? All DC have something wonderful about them. Teachers who don't acknowledge any one of your child's particular spectacular points are disappointing. I could mention something positive about all the children I know...

[givemeaclue]

Why not ask for some time with her to discuss your dds strengths he that would be helpful