Help please with phonics letters and sounds.

[Harleyisme]

Any helpful advice would be great.
I am currently temporarily homeschooling sen ds till ehcp sorted and a suitable school found.

So in school they learn the students phonics so its done on sounds rather than letters. We are having to relearn year one spellings with ds as we had a 3 week break for summer holidays and in this time he has forgotten. A lot of year one spelling words are none decordeable. He is trying to spell by using phonics sounds which is all good apart from he doesn't seen to be registering the letters that make the sounds for example spelling were he will say or w then ere i then ask him to either find the letters or make them out of playdough he looks at me blankly. So he gets that phonic sounds make up words but seems to not associate the sounds with letters. Hopefully that will make sense and someone will have a idea on best steps forward. I am wondering of i need to go back to basics on the alphabet.

If you look for the newell programme it uses lessons that say:
a says "a" as in apple
b says "b" as in boy
All the way up along the alphabet - it's a nice way to introduce that sounds associated with letters.

Is alphablocks on YouTube or anywhere they could help where you are struggling, possibly.

How about those magnetic fridge letters - pick a letter and make the sound of the letter, then put it back and choose another one? Great way for him to have an interactive lesson, where he gets to choose what he does

In your example of 'were', a child who struggles with phonics may spell it as 'wur' as that is how it sounds. I suggest you go back a step and start with regular cvc words, cat, hot etc as it is easier to hear the individual sounds. Then build up to ccvc words, such as spot, flag. Tricky words are exactly that and if he is struggling, he needs to be confident in all the earlier steps first.

Going back to the basics on the alphabet won’t do him any harm and you might find you can move a bit faster through it since he isn’t a complete beginner. if you find it suddenly clicks into place once he starts practicing you can always just give a quick review to find the point where he’s struggling.

www.udemy.com/course/help-your-child-to-read-and-write/

This might be worth signing up to and watching. There’s a part 2 as well but I don’t think that’s free.

Thank you all for the advice.
Yes going back isn't going to harm him at all. I think he needs to re look at the letters with there individual sounds again. He never made any progress last year in school till we started homeschooling i think his ability to seem knowledgeable on the surface means teacheras have overlooked the depth of his knowledge.
We do reading eggs, alphablocks and we play games like phonics bingo, snakes and ladder phonopoly. There just seems to be a gap in his ability to use the skills hes learn't.
He has ASD with a PDA profile with memory issues, executive functioning issues, concentration issues, sensory issues just to name afew of the things we are trying to support him with.

There is some good advice here. But it's worth trying another scheme too. Some children just don't get phonics. I know that children who are dyslexic often use a different learning scheme as phonics doesn't make sense to them. I'm not sure on details, but it's worth looking into.

Dancing Bears books by Sound Foundations might be helpful.

Sorry forgot link
www.soundfoundations.co.uk/

I think making games around spotting graphemes in words could help, check out ideas on 'phonics family' Facebook page / website.

If he’s got memory issues, he’ll probably need a lot of overlearning and I’m not surprised a 3 week break has caused him to go backwards.

I’d try the udemy course and see how far you get with the resources on there. If he’s still struggling, then the sound foundations stuff is a good shout. It was designed for children with dyslexia & who may have memory issues. Depending on which course you go for there is a lot of repetition and over learning to help combat that.

Thank you again all.

Yes overlearning does need to be done. The EP stated that he needs to over learn. We are just waiting for ehcp and hopefully a suitable placement but in the meantime i will look at all suggestions and do what i can with him.

Try this

It helped my dyslexic DC.

There are two separate issues there-
non decode able words that they need very often, which are listed by year group in the literacy scheme. You learn those by playing snap with them, pelmanism games, just looking and saying.

Phonics, which need to go backward and forward. The sounds that the letter c can make, as well as which letter to use to make a 'c' sound in writing. Do you see what I mean?

Use sand trays/sand paper/shaving foam for tracing letters, sensory stuff makes it easier to learn. And yes, blocks, magnet letters, jigsaws etc.

@picklemewalnuts yes that all does make sense. I try with sensory but he hates messy so we have to be creative with sensory activities.

We have also been told to go back to basics on pre handwriting by the OT due to hypermobility and wrists issues shes spotted. We use playdough to make letters for spelling or i have printed and laminated the alphabet 4 times to use so hes not having to write.

That's good. A non messy sensory he might like- Ikea drawer lining plastic. It's dimpled soft plastic. There's a right side and a wrong side, which is helpful. I cut the whole alphabet out of that for my DS to draw around, run his fingers/crayon over etc.

For pre handwriting try to use big movements too, like drawing in the air or with chalk or on a big easel. Maybe look up Montessori ideas, they use a lot of gross and fine motor activities with phonics.

DS2 used to trace out the letters as large as he could with his finger on the wall.

Scrunching up paper can help strengthen his fingers. Simple tapping games eg first finger to thumb, second finger to thumb help with fine motor control.

Thank you again for all the support.
We have the easel out for bigger movements. We are bead threading, posting money into a postbox, we also have a aquadraw stuck to the wall as they want him doing it upright and also using a paintbrush using his gripod grip.
The draw liners sounds a great idea i think he finds the laminate hard and rough.

I'm an English lit and language grad and I struggled with phonics.

Bbc alphablocks really helped.

For writing/motor issues, don’t forget things that will strengthen his core muscles and shoulders too.

Monkey bars, climbing, wheelbarrow races, obstacle courses etc. Also things like sweeping with large brooms, kneading dough.

Also using vertical surfaces rather than horizontal.

In terms of writing, there is benefit in terms of memory in as risky editing the letter and saying the sound at the same time, so I wouldn’t avoid it completely. I would at least do a little bit daily in a short burst or maybe two but also spend time doing lots of the other stuff too.

Toe by toe is recommended.

You all had such great advice yesterday inwas wondering if anyone had any advice on this one.

We have been working on spelling cvc words today and we were doing on the vertical chalk board. Today he didn't stick to using one hand he was alternating each hand per letter like cat was roght hand c left and a right hand t. I have attached a picture of the chalk board with his writing on incase it helps anyone advise us.
Thanks

Have a look at crossing the midline
childhood101.com/brain-breaks-10-crossing-the-midline-activities-for-kids/

DS1 struggled with this and it can lead them to use the left hand for left sided things and the right hand for right sided.
So C on the LHS = left hand T on RHS= right hand

This is a informative
theautismhelper.com/why-crossing-the-midline-matters/