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Original poster

Has anyone else taught their child to read without phonics?

58 replies

Readingwithoutphonics · 19/04/2025 18:57

For whatever reason (I suspect due to ASD we are waiting for assessment) phonics has not worked for ds. We’ve started to teach him word recognition. After nearly a year of no progress with phonics we have seen huge progress in just one month with learning words by sight. He can now read ‘The’, ‘it’ , ‘is’ ,’in’ , ‘on’ ‘a’ , ‘he’ and ‘she’, plus ‘cat’ ‘car’ ‘dog’ ‘hat’ and ‘bag’ .

Has anyone else done this ? I’m wondering now we have these words do I teach more or do I start to get him to read short sentences using just these and then see if he can make up his own sentences with them?

OP posts:
BendingSpoons · 19/04/2025 19:17

I would be tempted to do a mixture. Some short sentences with these words in will help him achieve some real reading success and hopefully be motivating, as he sees the purpose, but I would also keep gradually adding words. You could also talk about other words he can probably read based on their design e.g. ASDA, Tesco, Cocopops etc.

EspanaPorfavor · 19/04/2025 19:23

Yes as we live abroad so nobody else was going to teach him to read in English and I’m not a primary teacher so haven’t a clue about phonics. We just did the big chip and kippers and lots of sight word games. DS is an avid reader now.

canthavethatonethen · 19/04/2025 19:27

Oh yes, just let him read words. Many words. Once it dawns on him that words have letters and those letters have sounds, and that combining certain letters in different ways makes different sounds, he is half way to grasping phonics.

Trying to teach phonics before kids can read anything is like trying to teach them multiplication before they can count.

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IthasYes · 19/04/2025 19:27

Oh yes absolutely!
DC wasn't getting phonics and falling behind so we did plain old sight reading and she started to fly through.
Phonics is not the be all and end all and it's strange schools can't teach both ways when it's clear a DC isn't getting phonics.

Oblahdeeoblahdoe · 19/04/2025 19:28

When I became a teacher in the olden days we always taught a mixture of sight reading and phonics. A knowledge of some phonics will help him to work out some unfamiliar words but keep going with what you're doing.

myplace · 19/04/2025 19:28

There are some lovely ways… read a great story book. Write the names of the characters and some key words on little cards. Reread it with your DC pointing every time he sees a word he has on the cards. Then saying the word when he sees it, then add more words.

Stick an envelope inside the book for the word cards. Then whenever you can get the book out he can join in with the cards.

It’s astonishing how fast the word banks build. Especially if you let him choose what word he wants on the cards.

Eventually they make sentences from the cards, and can then copy the sentences out.

Springadorable · 19/04/2025 19:29

A lot of those words are words that they would just learn anyway.

BillyBoe46 · 19/04/2025 19:31

Have you tried the reading eggs app? My kids love it. It is phonics but it's made like a game.

IthasYes · 19/04/2025 19:32

OP can you access reading chest or the library? Reading chest is an on line subscription and will have loads of different reading schemes like Oxford tree but will have loads of say level 1 book's so you can choose book's according to his interests which helps.

Take it into your own hands.
What you can also do is make some simple sentences yourself type it out for instance makes sentences from word's you know he knows m

ProfessorSillyStuff · 19/04/2025 19:33

Check out hyperlexia and Dr. Treffert, Treffert center etc.
What age is your son now? With the right approach, maybe he can be one of the strongest readers.

Original poster
Readingwithoutphonics · 19/04/2025 19:43

canthavethatonethen · 19/04/2025 19:27

Oh yes, just let him read words. Many words. Once it dawns on him that words have letters and those letters have sounds, and that combining certain letters in different ways makes different sounds, he is half way to grasping phonics.

Trying to teach phonics before kids can read anything is like trying to teach them multiplication before they can count.

Thankyou , I really feel that it is the wrong way round for him he just couldn’t understand it at all? Was causing huge amounts of frustration.

OP posts:
Original poster
Readingwithoutphonics · 19/04/2025 19:45

ProfessorSillyStuff · 19/04/2025 19:33

Check out hyperlexia and Dr. Treffert, Treffert center etc.
What age is your son now? With the right approach, maybe he can be one of the strongest readers.

He’s 5, in reception. He will actually be repeating reception due to his difficulties so I’m hoping that will be a huge benefit to him and we have put in the EHCP application as well so hoping that also gets sorted out.

OP posts:
Simonjt · 19/04/2025 20:03

Did you do baby sign, and was he any good? In that case you could do what often happens with hearing impaired children who also do essentially sign phonics, so each sound has a gesture.

PoodlesRUs · 19/04/2025 20:12

He'll pick out the patterns himself and learn through exposure. I was reading before school and my mum sure as eggs didn't know phonics. Keep doing what you're doing.

christmascalypso · 19/04/2025 20:18

English is not a phonetic language so teaching children to read only using phonics has never made sense to me. Whole word recognition is often easier for neurodiverse children as they can have very good visual memories. I’d go for it and don’t worry!

junebirthdaygirl · 19/04/2025 20:27

I have found when teaching child with Autism they find it easier to read if it's relevant to them so l do the following for example in a special copy book which becomes their own story..l would be working one on one..
My dog
I have a dog
I like my dog
My dog can run..etc
Whatever is their interest. I just introduce about 2 new words on flash cards and then add to story. We stick in pictures so it becomes their story.
I have a lot of success with this as their is no stress and they can decide what they want to add, keeping it simple. As they relax with this method they can be ready for phonics but only as it relates to them. In my experience they struggle with stuff that is not directly related to them and this method allows for success without the constant battle that sometimes comes with phonics. It is definitely worth pursuing..stick to making little books on his favourite topics.

amicisimma · 19/04/2025 20:35

One of my learnt through phonics and one through 'look, say'. There used to be a set of Ladybird books for each so we used whichever worked.

They would make different types of mistakes, eg one would read 'little' as 'litter'; the second would read 'little' as 'small'.

And I've noticed that good phonics readers can fall apart when they run into a word such as 'the', so they need 'look,say' for that.

LuckysDadsHat · 19/04/2025 20:40

We gave up on phonics in the summer last year for our dyslexic child. She is now in Y3 and her reading has come on really quickly with just sight reading. She is now probably about 9 months behind where as she was 18-20 months behind before.

I am now on the lookout for a different way to teach spellings as they are a real struggle.

ReightYorkshire · 19/04/2025 20:49

Me Mam and me Pa did.
And they was wearing clogs.

We all was, until us went to France on day trip. Actualment.

SueSuddio · 19/04/2025 20:51

I've seen my child use phonics to decode every word in a book and observed the high miss rate as our language just isn't phonetic is it?!

I think it's better for them to use it loosely but instead to work more on word recognition, i.e. learn or become familiar with words.

The simple way to do this is by just reading different books every day together. We have about 20 that we reread again and again and he is getting so much better by just recognising words now.

User37482 · 19/04/2025 20:53

I was taught by sight and I taught mine by phonics (both NT). Both of us were quite early readers, honestly I would just go with whatever works for him. It doesn’t really matter, the main thing imo is to get them reading reasonably and they improve through exposure.

edwinbear · 19/04/2025 20:53

DS struggled with phonics, school thought he was probably dyslexic so we had an assessment with a private EP. He isn’t dyslexic but did have a very specific issue with blending - he was one of the children phonics doesn’t work for. School took him off phonics and he learnt by sight reading. He’s now in Y11 and reads perfectly well. Phonics does work for most children, but not all. If it’s not working for your DC it seems worth trying another method.

user1471538275 · 19/04/2025 20:55

My child with ASD read before attending school

They learnt by asking constantly 'what's that word, what's that words' - and then they knew that word.

They liked books being read over and over again so that they could remember the words and story.

When they went to school and were taught phonics it went badly because could not understand why they should not just say what the word was instead of blending sounds. They also had a tendency to shout out the words loudly.

mammaaudhd · 19/04/2025 20:55

My DS is 6 now diagnosed ASD and ADHD, reading taught him to speak he was non-verbal until 3, he has hyperlexia, he can read any book now, but had absolutely no knowledge of phonics, he just learns and recognises words. What ever works for you!

Original poster
Readingwithoutphonics · 19/04/2025 21:00

Thankyou this is all so helpful. I’ve been so stressed for so long about it it’s good to know I’m not the only one whose child has struggled and thankyou for all the great tips .

OP posts: