Four-year-old can spell any 3 letter word but cannot blend any when reading

[Balalabab]

Not 100% sure where to post this.

Basically practicing 4 and a half year old phonics, words and blending to keep up over summer holidays.

He started at a school nursery last year so has already been taught this in school.

Please can someone tell me what they think about this…

• He can read every single letter phonic sounds individually

• When I put the cards down next to each other in simple CVC and he has to read and blend them he cannot do it. He can only do cat and that’s because I think he has sight learned it.

• If I reverse it and give him 3 cards of any 3 letter word and say make ‘dog’, make ‘hip’, make ‘fig’ he can instantly spell out all the sounds and place the, down in the correct order. Ie. ‘F…I…g… FIG’

Is this normal. It’s like he can do it backwards in all circumstances but not forwards for the simplest words. So he does know how words and sounds are working.

Does this mean he could be dyslexic? His dad is severely dyslexic and it something I have been worried about hence working on the reading so early for him.

If so what does that mean? Do we have to teach in a different way?

He starts reception next week and they are brilliant, but he’s in a state school and he’s quiet so I do want to support in anyway I can so he doesn’t slip between the cracks.

Thank you

Huh.

I am not saying it is the end of the world. My partner is successful, his dad too (also very dyslexic).

But it did make my partners school experience miserable (DS has a very similar avoidant personality) and his dad’s (DSs grandad) couldn’t actually read properly until secondary school. He was so good at masking, he knew a lot of words and would make up the rest so confidently it didn’t get picked up until his grammar school interview when he was asked to read a passage.

So if he has it I do want to know about it so we can try to make things easier in anyway we can.

I would help-because I can. But not after “but he’s in a state school”. Sorry.

It’s a state nursery literally in a school. They have the same playground. Same lunch time. Same uniform. Same structure. The same assistants. He starts next week officially but 90% of his class have already been there a year so in my eyes he’s already started school. Our reception is play based and we have been told it’s not going to be different to nursery.

I really disagree with this. English is not a phonetic language so you cannot learn to read purely through phonics. You need sight words too, in school I think they are called 'high frequency words' and they practise them as whole words. You can't read any new words if you only have sight words though. You need phonics and sight words.

Blending is one of those things that just clicks, sometimes it clicks at 4, sometimes not til 6 or 7. For most kids id say its around age 5. Dont overthink it. Its a listening based skill, do games like I spy and listening games to hear the sounds at the start & end of words, rhyming games.

B U M with magnets on the fridge helped. Don't mention it. Listen out for a random giggle.

If it’s playing letters as your child calls it then it doesn’t matter does it? I work in a school and in September the children range from reading Harry Potter at 4 yrs old to not even being able to put their coat on or use a toilet properly.Its more important that they’re confident and happy rather than being the best at reading because it’s what Mummy wants.

My daughter was the same at 4. Tbh she’s just about to start year 1 and only really started bleeding sounds at end of reception. All our brains work differently. Don’t stress it

Alls normall.... Some children don't learn to read phonically so don't worry

This is normal at this age. Obviously with the family history of dyslexia it’s a good thing to keep in mind but he’s still very young. I’d work on blending and segmenting using oral sound games, such as playing a game of ISpy using the sounds (eg I spy something that sounds like f-i-g). I’d keep it playful and keep the pressure off as you don’t want to turn him off the reading, especially as he starts school so soon!

My daughter could recognise all of the sounds but couldn’t blend. It turned out that she had glue ear. Might be worth checking out. I wouldn’t worry though. I’m a teacher and he sounds very advanced for me if he hasn’t even started reception yet.

English is largely a phonetic language its just that our we dont have a simple 1 to 1 grapheme to phoneme writing code. We have extra spelling rules and instances where multiple digraphs have the same sound eg "ee" and "ea". A lot of this is due to history so the great vowel shift, with spellings sometimes reflecting old pronunciations.

Lots of the "high frequency words" follow phonetic rules but some require split digraph sounds that are learned later on and it suited a lot of teachers to rote learn these in order to get children able to read worksheets/instructions on the board & work independently, as well as accessing more reading books before they had acquired enough automaticity in phonics.

Yes there are words where you just need to learn the spellings, but the vast majority of children learn to read most effectively and fluently by starting with phonics.

I know a lot of 4 year olds that don’t know any letters at all. That’s what school is for. He’s fine

Also just to say, some skills are developmental. Even if you tried to teach a 6 month old to walk and gave them really good lessons, they wouldn’t be able to because their body and system just isn’t ready to do that yet. Reading is the same. Obviously if children reach a certain age and they are still struggling it could point to a specific difficulty like dyslexia, but struggling at a younger age despite teaching might just mean they aren’t ready yet.

Any flash cards but we had 100 high frequency words and DC loved the speed of them

Why are you doing the reading with him? Why do you think he should be able to do that at 4,5? Pushing reading and writing on children in reception is bad enough. He hasnt even started reception yet.
Most European children dont start reading and writing until 6-7 years old.

He is really young and boys tend to read and write later than girls initially but then catch up. One of my sons only spoke in single syllables at four but he never shuts up now. It is far too early to start worrying, give him a chance.

He’s four. Please stop this ridiculous behaviour and let him be.

Children very often learn to word build before they acquire the skill of ‘reading’

Don't worry.
Stick with building three letter phonetic words, then building four letter and longer phonetic words.

If he can do that, sooner or later the skill to read the words back will kick in.
Often it involves a mix of blending sounds out loud and of memorising word shapes and also guessing.

Take lots of books out of the library and change them often so he doesn’t get bored. Read to him as often as you possibly can. This is so very important.

Move your finger along the words as you read to him.
When you have read a page to him, talk about the picture and make a game of casually asking …which word on this page says ‘giraffe’. Or….oh look there’s a rabbit…which word do you think says rabbit.

All very low key. No pressure on him.
He will get there in his own time.

All nurseries are private as we all pay for them ( unless social services involved etc )

just because its located In a school doesn’t make it school - its still a nursery

lots of nurseries have uniform

chill out

Regardless of anything, dyslexia is genetic (but it can also be caused by various things like premature birth). As his dad is dyslexic you should be getting him tested regardless just in case.

In our case DS was dyslexic and it took a long time to work it out. I have since realised DH and his father are both dyslexic to varying degrees.

DS2 was then tested and turned out to also be dyslexic, even though we didn't see it in him as he is differently dyslexic (different traits) to his brother.

Flipping heck he’s only in reception give him chance. Learning words by sight is how we read is it not? You see the word and instantly know what it says. You don’t have to think what letters are in that word you just know.

Maybe it's a sign of dyslexia. In reception they are taught through a range of different things like Little Waddle (my childrens school uses this amazing tool) but maybe put programmes like alphablocks (bbc iplayer has them all) but also maybe mention it to his reception teacher. Has nursery flagged it up?

Its expected that children can read simple books by the end of reception. Some struggle but do get there unless something else is at play like dyslexia.

I used to occasionally write from right to left, top to bottom, reverse writing, mirror writing and reverse letters just for entertainment value - or because I'd heard about them on TV/something about other languages) when I was five. Eventually, the teacher asked me why (as I'd got bored after proving to myself I could do it and gone back to writing normally) and I told her I'd deliberately done it and she gave a big sigh of relief, told me 'We were getting a bit worried about you!' and then presumably went off to tell the other teacher I was just being an awkward little sod as usual.

I wonder sometimes whether they'd said anything to my mother about it. Can't imagine it would have concerned her, but I suppose anything is possible.