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Join our Primary Education forum to discuss starting school and helping your child get the most out of it.

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Join our Primary Education forum to discuss starting school and helping your child get the most out of it.

Primary education

Reading Recovery- how effective?

35 replies

franincisco · 01/10/2016 10:01

DS is in Y3 and we just got a call to say an assessment has been done and he is way behind in literacy and quite behind in numeracy. His reading level was 4.11 (he is aged 7.10) and he has now been given an IEP and referred to Reading Recovery three times a week for 30 minutes. They think he may have literacy specific LD but until an Ed Psych assessment can be carried out we will not know this for sure.

My question is for those who have had a child in the RR programme, did you see a big difference at the end of it? Did they catch up, or at least make some improvement? Obviously we are doing what we can at home to support his reading.

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kesstrel · 01/10/2016 10:16

They've just stopped funding Reading Recovery in Australia because there is no evidence of its long-term effectiveness on average. It's never been scientifically compared to a one-on-one intervention using a good-quality systematic phonics programme. It was founded a long time ago, when the notion of using other "cues" besides phonics was invented (such as looking at the picture or the first letter in order to essentially guess the word), and Reading Recovery has always put this ahead of using phonics. There has never been any scientific evidence of the effectiveness of this approach, whereas psychologists who study reading concur on the importance of phonics. Reading remediation specialists find that they have to teach children to "unlearn" such strategies before they can make progress, and this is very difficult.

While some children may not be harmed by Reading Recovery, or may even make progress (because of the one-to-one nature of the intervention), I would be very wary of having my child subjected to it.

Handsupbabyhandsup · 01/10/2016 10:25

My child did reading recovery for over a year. I pointed out to the school that for a dyslexic child it was proven to not make a difference.

It didn't help.

My child was blamed as there was obviously something wrong with her. But apart from the one on one attention it was a waste of time.

franincisco · 01/10/2016 10:31

Oh dear, not great then!

I have seen a difference already in DS in the several weeks he has been going. As he is way behind in literacy he is not losing out by leaving the class for the 30 minutes anyway.

I've just realized that RR is a specific programme, so what do they actually do? For ds they are keen on getting the first 100 key words, so does that mean that they don't do any phonics work?

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elfonshelf · 01/10/2016 16:01

My DD's school used it for years as their only system and now use it alongside other systems for struggling readers - they have 2 specialist teachers on the staff for it. Their results are phenomenal. I wouldn't panic.

mrz · 01/10/2016 16:48

http://www.smh.com.au/nsw/reading-recovery-program-used-in-960-nsw-public-schools-does-not-work-20151218-glqplg.html

mrz · 01/10/2016 17:08

http://www.iferi.org/wp-content/uploads/2015/07/RR-James-W.-Chapman-and-William-E.-Tunmer.pdf

WhiteDraig · 01/10/2016 17:17

If you'd ask my DC last school then yes it was great - after all DS made hugh progress with it - end of year his reading age was normal.

But that ignores all the home support. We did dancing bear and sourced decodabale phonics books ( bought with book people and borrowed from Reading Chest)- aimed for ten minutes dancing bears in morning and 10 minutes decodable books after school. Started that about six months before the school admitted there was a reading problem and continued that entire school year.

Only time it got hard to do was during reading recovery when we has to read two book a night - that how that school ran the program - they often weren't at an appropriate level and they taught the looking at pictures, guesses stuff which then had to get him not to do and cause arguments.

Speaking to the other parents ones who apparently did well on the scheme were similar to us - they got extra parental support with reading in some form or another as it was big indication there was a problem. Most of the others who didn't get extra support seem to confuse the school as it worked so well for the other children.

franincisco · 01/10/2016 17:22

I'm aware that the actual research suggests that it is a waste of time not particularly useful, but reassured that others have benefited. I suppose my question should have been whether or not reading levels can be dramatically improved, and delighted to see that that was the case for your ds White. We will definitely be doing decodable readers at home too.

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mrz · 01/10/2016 17:24

So research that shows it has failed millions of children isn't useful but one recommendation is?

orangepudding · 01/10/2016 17:24

My son did RR for just over a school year end of year 1 to year 2. He started on Red level, moved up to orange by the end. Was reassessed by a specific learning difficulties teacher and was still actually on red level. Didn't help him at all , he just became good at learning the formats of the books so he could guess the words.

mrz · 01/10/2016 17:26

I'd suggest Whitedraigs son's success is down to efforts at home rather than RR discredited methods.

RamsayBoltonsConscience · 01/10/2016 17:27

If your child has a risk of being dyslexic, a programme I have seen fantastic results from is the Toe by Toe book. It's a very structured approach and you can do it at home www.toe-by-toe.co.uk/. I had a child come to me in year 5 who couldn't read, he got level 5 in reading at the end of year 6. Can't recommend it highly enough.

mrz · 01/10/2016 17:28

I'd also suggest that withdrawal comes with a price IMHE as a SENDCo

franincisco · 01/10/2016 17:36

mrz if you read my previous post it has less to do with RR per se and more if it is possible to improve reading levels quickly. As it is RR is the only additional support ds is getting until a peripatetic teacher can be organized so I welcome any 1-2-1 support. I can see a difference already, I have no idea if that is due to the RR scheme (don't even know if they are using that or not) as I don't even know what they are doing apart from key words.
I don't have any intention of withdrawing him at this stage, as I said he goes for his RR session when the class are doing something that is way beyond his level anyway.
Ds has been given ORT books, is there a specific RR book set?

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franincisco · 01/10/2016 17:38

Ramsay thanks for that recommendation, it has been suggested that ds may be dyslexic, but they need to get an EP assessment first. I used Hooked on Phonics for my other children and found that really useful too.

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mrz · 01/10/2016 17:40

Withdrawal is taking him out of his normal lessons to take part in RR

HumphreyCobblers · 01/10/2016 17:44

If this was my child and I could afford it I would get them assessed by an AMDA qualified practitioner (look on the BDA website). A detailed report will help target any intervention. I do realise this is not an option for everyone.

I would not be impressed with being offered Reading Recovery for the reasons mrz has already stated.

lostinlego · 01/10/2016 17:44

My son is dyslexic and did the reading recovery program alongside toe by toe, in less than a year his reading age went from 4 to 8(his actual age at the time). It gave him the confidence to read as well. Now age 10 he reads well and his comprehension is excellent.

mrz · 01/10/2016 17:47

RR use PM readers

mrz · 01/10/2016 17:49

RR use PM readers like older ORT based on Look and Say and multi cueing strategies.

mrz · 01/10/2016 17:50

Lostinlego do you think RR or Toe by Toe helped your son?

franincisco · 01/10/2016 17:53

What are PM readers? I am now starting to think that the school are calling the 1-2-1 Reading Recovery but it isn't the actual programme (don't know if that would be allowed?) I am looking online and it doesn't seem to be what ds is getting. His IEP is working towards ORT HFW and median vowel sounds. I will request another meeting with the teacher to see exactly what is going on.

I just had a look at the toe by toe website and it seems you can only order if you are in US or Australia? What is it exactly, a set of reading books?

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Doublejeopardy · 01/10/2016 17:54

My DS had RR for 12 weeks he 'caught' up to and passed his Age related reading and moved from 11 months behind his age to 2 months ahead.

I think it's good if caught early and for a short burst. We had 10-15 mins work to do with him and he was the RR teacher for 20 mins 5 times a week. So u think it has merits but is not the only answer

mrz · 01/10/2016 17:55

PM readers are a reading scheme

mrz · 01/10/2016 17:56

Reading Recovery is a carefully guarded trademark use only allowed under licence

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