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

I wouldn’t worry one bit (as a nursery/reception teacher). Sounds like he’s doing great and there will be lots and lots of blending going on in reception. If you wish to practice, make a game of it e.g Simon says touch your l-e-g etc, get your c-oa-t, my pen is r-e-d etc.

Every single part of this post goes against the reams of evidence available.

When learning to read, all different aspects of complex skills can develop independently. Then they all join up. I was slow learning to read, and then one day I could read. To me, it seemed like I learned to read in a day, but of course that is nonsense.

What you describe is learning words to automaticity - recognising them ON sight, which is the ultimate aim of reading, regardless of the teaching method used.

Learning words by sight is a teaching method that was popular but had no evidence base whatsoever. It is now outdated because of the wealth of evidence available to the contrary.

You’re hothousing him! If you’re not careful he’s going to be bored to death in phonics lessons at school.

Rubbish. If he is ready, let him learn.

He’s four! FFS relax, there’s plenty of time.

He's 4 years old, hasn't even started school yet and you are worried about his reading?!

At 4 I read to my kids daily and I think they could probably recognise their own names but that was about it. I did try flash cards with my eldest but she wasn't interested so I left it. They didn't start school until age 5.5 and they started learning to read from scratch in class at that age. At 11 and 8 they both read fluently now.

Well the evidence is shit then .
It's a well known fact that phonics is a barrier to many DC who try to learn to read made worse by pushing them for the phonics test.
It's also pretty obvious that humans are all differnt and learn in different ways and the sooner schools and the education system gets with the program the sooner we can crack rubbish reading stats

He hasn't even started reception! Maybe come back this time next year...

You’ll look back at this and think wth was I thinking, they’re four. Having spent time helping in a reception class every week you really don’t need to worry.

I know that I was saying thats what's expected this time next year.

Most phonic schemes would not have the sounds for p, i and g as puh ih guh though. Because when you blend those you don’t get pig. You get puhiguh.

The phonic sounds are much more subtle than that and there is no “uh” sound added. Eg there is no “uh” sound in lion; hence “l” is said as “ullllllll” not “luh”.

Are you teaching the same phonics scheme that the school is?

He’s 4. Chill.

Well the evidence is shit then

Yes. Pesky evidence based methods that are scientifically proven, bollocks to it!

Thank goodness you didn’t go into medicine .😆

It's a well known fact that phonics is a barrier to many DC who try to learn to read made worse by pushing them for the phonics test.

Find one shred of evidence to back up your ‘fact’ please. Yes, I am doing bunny ears around that.

Just seen that you’ve said the school is using Read Write Inc. That’s what our school uses and it’s definitely not “puh” or “guh”. I suggest you hold fire, attend whatever session school puts on for parents about supporting RWI at home and make sure you’re using the right sounds, otherwise he’s just going to get confused.

One of mine sight read and didn't really do phonics until school (and said it wasn't helpful because English isn't as easy to learn through phonics, and it caused spelling problems). The other liked the blending and stuff, and did well at that. But phonics is meant to be more helpful if he's dyslexic (some dyslexia group was pro phonics as they say it helps chlidren with this).

All phonics schemes use pure sounds, every single one. So no ‘uh’ on the end of anything, vitally important for reasons other posters have explained.

https://www.oxfordowl.co.uk/for-home/reading-owl/find-a-book/read-write-inc-phonics--1/phonics-pure-sounds-video

Not using them could explain the blending issue.

I've used Toe by Toe reading scheme/workbook with dramatic success with dyslexic foster children and my youngest son. It requires short spells of time every day. I thought they'd find it mind blowing dull but they all seemed to enjoy it! It has detailed instructions for use

Some people, me included, read whole words, my dc does too and school was challenging because they wanted to do the phonics thing but both my dc are high achieving adults

It’s more likely that you worked out phonics for yourselves - if you only used sight reading, you wouldn’t have any strategy to read unfamiliar words, and obviously you can.

Yes, I think we are doing the sounds right. I just don’t know how to type that.

So it’s not luh it’s l, like l.l.l.llama but I don’t know how to type that sorry.

I have watched all the videos and attended the parent training at the school.

He's fine. Instead of the phonics work read him lots of stories which he will enjoy and will help expand his vocabulary and encourage him to want to read. Much more fun, too.