to consider getting a tutor for a six year old?

[BeamMeUpSooty]

Or am I just being ridiculous?

He had lots of speech and language issues at the start of school (basically didn't talk at all until 3.5 so had a lot of catching up to do). These have mostly resolved and he's doing brilliantly from where he started from, but am worried he's starting to slip through the net at his school.

His teacher doesn't seem worried because he has made some progress, but I am. He's been on a green book band since Y1. He still guesses really wildly based on the first letter and can't seem to blend.

I just want someone who can give him a bit of a boost, perhaps go right back to the basics of phonics without making him feel stupid in front of his class.

DH thinks I'm being ridiculous and he'll catch up - but don't want him to feel like he's struggling yet is too embarrassed at school to ask for help.

I've tried teaching him myself but he hates it, and we both end up frustrated and unhappy.

Just to say if he failed the year 1 phonics task last year the school have to put support in place this year as he will take it again in the summer. ..However you need to do what works best for your family

I think that the right tutor can improve the confidence of a child. Sometimes it does a child a world of good to have a difference face from school or parents.

I think you are right to be concerned. If a child enters year 3 unable to read then they can't access the curriculum.

If you can easily afford it then why not?

But my DS2 was a late reader. He just wasn't interested. Then all of a sudden, practically overnight, he seemed to 'get' it and he started reading. You may well be writing him off too soon. Nonetheless, I don't see how a tutor could hinder.

icklekid - he DID fail the Y1 phonics test, which was no surprise to me at all. I would have been amazed if he had passed it.

Great suggestions, guys. Thanks so much for all your opinions.

Chandon - chipping away at it bit by bit seems quite good too. He does sound similar to your son. He's just really interested in playing and lego and not interested in reading at all, so half of me does wonder that if I got the WRONG tutor, who wasn't light and breezy and fun, it may do more harm than good.

I may do the five mins on a timer thing first, and try that up until Christmas. If that doesn't work, I think I will defo go down the tutor route.

I would try it. I find my dc doesn't work very well with me - I rub her up the wrong way a bit somehow. But she works really well with dh. Often it can work better with a different person.

The problem we had at school was that dd's writing/maths wasn't bad enough for them to do anything extra to help her.

Some of the computer based learning things can be good for a reluctant one.

He's so young and its so early in his learning career that I wouldn't go straight in with a tutor. I'd go back to basics with all the pre-reading activities, (sand play, sorting and organising, shapes and colours etc) capitalising on things he's interested in so that he's interested and wants to take part.

Not being familiar with current primary education, I downloaded a past paper of the phonics test. What a load of tat. To prep a child of mine for this test, I'd set up games where we made up our own 'silly words'.

You know they have lego story books for the 'beginning to read' age group?

Like this. There are loads of others as well.

That might make it fun for him!

I can empathise absolutely with you, OP.

2 things: my DM is a teacher, and whenever one of her DC needed extra help, she would arrange a swap with a friend / colleague, as she found it impossible to teach us herself, especially one to one, so I can see the argument for having an outsider.

Also, a PP mentioned the value of early intervention. My DC's reception teacher was a big believer in this - she recommended to a few parents that they get tutoring / OT / other support. Most people would say YR was way too young to worry about such things, but is saw in several cases that a DC who was struggling managed to catch up with their peer group with some extra support, where they would otherwise have fallen further and further behind.

..so I don't think you are being ridiculous at all. It's more a question of whether you can find the right tutor to make it worthwhile.

How about a computer-based learn to read programme? I did Reading Eggs with my DS when he started showing an interest in reading and it worked really well. It was particularly good at explaining blending, I thought.

I think it does free trials so you could see how your DS gets on with it before committing to the (not very expensive) subscription?

It's pretty obvious it's a teaching aid but it is all done with games nonetheless which makes it more interesting. And frankly, just being on a screen rather than in a book made it desirable to my DS!

DD couldn't blend for years and years. She had enormous numbers of sight words (by which I mean she'd read the first couple of Harry Potter novels by herself). Her guesses rarely even started with the right letter.

Pretty sure she's dyslexic, though she was never diagnosed. If I'd known then what I know now, I'd have been leaping up and down and yelling from about age 6.

What I'm getting at is that phonics isn't the only way to learn to read. His confidence might be massively helped by learning words so he doesn't have to guess as often and has more context to do it from.

If it's any help my friend has identical twins and when they were 6 one was reading much better than the other as she was more interested in it. My friend asked a TA she liked to tutor the one DD at home and it actually did the trick and now they are up to the same level. It was only necessary for a few weeks but she did a lot of interactive stuff to help with the reading.
My DS has always read from a young age, whereas my DD is a nightmare just walks away not interested at all. She has however improved in time at school which has snowballed her reading ability. Her spelling is dreadful compared to DS though as she won't read unless she has to. Last year at school she was given extra homework to catch up on it all as she was underachieving and now she is as expected for her age. I'm happy with that for now as she's only 7 although DS is yr4 and level of a yr7.

My dd is 9 and has struggled with school from the start, we got her a tutor when she was in year 1 and it has worked well for her. Her reading and comprehension has come on in leaps and bounds and she is now much more confident. I still read with her every day but having 1 to 1 time with someone that wasn't a parent really worked for dd.

If you do decide to look for a tutor be clear about what you want from them. I live in an area with super selective schools and lots of the tutors are employed to get children to pass tests - I made sure that the tutor knows this is not what I was looking for - I wanted someone that could be encouraging and build confidence with reading whilst making it as fun as possible, i'm not interested in entrance exams

My DS has had problems with reading. I have done some work with him using a book called Dancing Bears available from Sound Foundations. It has flash cards for the phonics and teaches them to read rather than guess. The lessons are short - 10 mins max. They are really easy for anyone to do. DS has really come on in his reading. I would recommend it as a programme either for you to do (I know its hard when its your own child) or for a tutor to use or another adult or even a teenager.

As a skill reading is really important for so many reasons - in an ideal world we would let them develop at their own rate. The problem is they can see what the others are doing so start to feel 'stupid' and if they don't progress reasonably quickly I think the teachers start to lower their expectations. Sadly that's my experience with my DS.

Hey

I've been in the tutoring industry for a number of years. There's a few options you have here. I know a really good agency called Sharpe Tutoring based in the South East of England (London), but they do Skype lessons... www.sharpetutoring.com who cover both Special Needs Education if there is any, and will be able to provide tutors for his age group. Those guys are brilliant.

Not many tutoring agencies cover that! They have SEN teachers available I think.

I hope this helps.