Is she really to far behind ! What reading programmes do you use.

[Someonepassthegin1991]

Hi
My daughter is in year 2 ( 7 )
She has been off school now due to covid for a year.
She has really struggled with her reading and writing before covid hit. She also has speech delay.
Her maths I think is going well, she might still be slightly behind but she engages well with it and is progressing heaps.
We are still struggling with her reading and writing and getting very little support from school.
She hates writing which doesn’t help but my issue is because she won’t write / says her hands hurt etc she is also missing out on learning other things like sentence structure / spelling / things like that. I asked the school if we could use laptop for the written work for example write a letter to another student but they have said no has to be hand written. This causes hell she takes about 1 hour to write ( scripted ) sentences.
Her reading is behind she can not read any book by her self but has started being able to blend and read some words but basic phonics blended.
I feel like this hasn’t improved at all in the year and I’m starting to feel like I am failing her.
She loves me reading to her and is great at the comprehension side.
She is good at learning about something and remembering it and wandering questions allowed
But the reading and writing has become a real struggle.
Has anyone for any tips or advice as I’m at the end of my rope with it.
Has anyone else had a 7 year old who couldn’t really read or write and caught up ?
She also hasn’t had any speech input for a year etc.

Look into the Global Reading Method (a.k.a. The Glen Domann method).
www.ekidz.eu/the-global-reading-method
There is lots of stuff out there about it and online materials etc.
This has been used since the early 1960s.

By speech input do you mean she's seen a therapist in the past? Has she always struggled at school?

My Y2 struggles with reading and writing. His teacher suggest reading eggs which has been great and he has gone up a number of levels since March (maybe just age thing and finally ‘got’ it a bit more). He is still below average for reading and but the progress has been great and he enjoys it.

Writing still working in, but as his reading and speech/pronunciation is improving that will hopefully help. We were just about to have some assessment of him at school to try and work out the issues

Personally... I would ignore the school insisting it’s handwritten and let her type it at home (as a school we are not as anti this as some, I know handwriting is required to pass yr6 SATS but why let that hold them back in other areas?)

We have subtitles on the TV all the time. They will read whilst not even realising it.

I used a scheme called Toe by Toe with my eldest . It worked and within a couple of years she was reading above her chronological age .

My eldest DC struggled with reading and writing from the get go. Very bright in other respects but way behind. She was diagnosed as dyslexic in Y3 when she changed schools. I understand Y2 is too early for a diagnosis but it might be something to consider.

www.wordwasp.com
I use word hornet book with my dyslexic children. Just buy the book and work though it with them. You dont have to use pen and paper for writing. Try whiteboard or writing in sand or chalk board.

Word hornet is by the people who did toe by toe but it's much more friendly.for younger children as it includes writing as well as reading

Theres also a great fb group called helping kids read. They have some good free resources in their files

So I have an 11yr old - just started secondary. She had exactly this problem with writing (not the reading she flies at that). Her hands were /still are painful when writing. She is hypermobile which means her ligaments in her joints are lapse so the physical act of holding a pencil is tough on her. She then presses so hard to get control of the pencil her writing is very difficult to read. She uses 2h pencils as hb ones look like charcoal on the page! Hypermobility is not uncommon and often undiagnosed in a mild form - so worth looking into. However with or without that diagnosis look at things like hand exercises and stretching and remember writing comes from the shoulders so encourage good posture and look and strengthening shoulders/core muscles too.

I will add though- don't accept that typing is not an answer. It is. And she should be encouraged to learn to type if that is what works for her. And being at home if this is something you can teach her she will benefit. I am currently tackling the problem of an 11yr old who fears the sentence 'write a paragraph...' (which seems to crop up alot in online schooling!) to the point that it causes a meltdown each and everytime. If you can do anything to prevent that happening to your dd by helping her type now please do so. I wish I had fought harder at the time as it is causing all sorts of issues now.

There are really good phonics apps (e.g. teach your monster to read). Just keep reading to her (she's taking in vocabulary, and hopefully developing a love of stories) - you could always point to the easy words you know she can read (at, in, up, go) and ask for her 'help' to read them.

Does she like drawing? General arty things? If not could you work on building up hand strength with play dough (YouTube dough disco), or cutting up paper with scissors type activities. My DC like the rubber pencil grips that make their fingers go into a more comfortable position.

I discovered last lockdown that DS hates writing on paper but was happy to write all over the windows with special glass pens (I think it appealed because it's something unusual).

Remember to be kind to yourself, focus on having fun together. Plenty of counties don't start teaching their kids to read till 7 or 8 - some children will be free readers by the end of reception, but others will take significantly longer. Rather than spending hours a day break it up into teeny tiny chunks just getting her to write the odd word here and there (today I left the shopping list on the table and told D's he could add anything he wanted - came back in a bit later to find he'd written haribo on it 😂) . Build on it in tiny bits.

Let her watch alphablocks for screen time. You can find it on YouTube! It helped my kids learn to read! It makes letters sounds fun and explains how to read quite well :) hope that helps

It's great that she enjoys you reading to her! I would start by trying to make that more active on her part, e.g. asking her to help or to pick out a certain sound/word, or to guess how many words are on a page and then count them together, or to ask her if she can spot any of "her letters" (from her name) hiding in the text. Really anything that engages a child with a book is helpful.

There have been some other really good suggestions on here - I think it's key to remember that you're not failing your daughter. If you were telling us all this and then merrily not giving a crap, that would be failing! As it is, you're asking for help and looking for ways to improve things.

(Can I just ask - when you say that your daughter's been off for a year due to Covid, what do you mean?)

Thanks I am trying to be kind to my self but I have no idea when she can even return to school and it’s been a year now I just feel like I’m letting her down.
I am not the best with the whole phonics thing 🤣

When my son was younger he used to say his hand hurt when writing. I bought him a couple of the triangular shaped pencils to use and he loved them. They were quite a bit thicker than usual pencils. I also got him a couple of rubber grippers to put on the colouring pencils at school and he said this really helped. Even as an adult he prefers thicker barrelled pens as he says they are more comfortable to write with.

Frequency with reading realky helps. If she finds a word too hard sound it out for her. You read a page, she reads a page.

For handwriting I sympathise. My son really struggled. Doing things to help finger strength like play dough and lego. My sons teacher suggested that he take up an instrument like piano, harp.

Check pencil grip.

With my son he would tell me what he wanted to write. I would write it out for him and then he would copy it. It was too much for him to think what to write at the same time as writing.

Let her type
Get her assessed by OT and ,recommendation for laptop
But let her type at home
Maybe a journal type app

Try the dance mat typing game on bbc bitesize. Once she is confident typing she can try writing again.

I've come on as a primary teacher and parent of a dyslexic DC to recommend Nessy, a really great online phonics programme which is especially helpful for dyslexic learners. My DC gets a free subscription for Nessy's "Reading and Spelling" programme through her school, but you can pay a smallish annual subscription and get it (or any of the other programmes they offer) yourself. Both my kids use and love it; it's been life-changing for dyslexic DC1, and DC2 is also benefiting a lot despite being "where she should be". Also, please don't allow your DD's school to turn her off writing / expressing herself in writing by insisting she has to write by hand If she's already struggling to encode / spell, she absolutely doesn't need the added pressure of having to do it by hand. If you're currently in lockdown and your DD is not going to school, I would be tempted to just submit your DD's work typed (Nessy also do a touch-typing programme!). I have done this since my DD was the same age as yours; initially it was met with raised eyebrows, but I used to just point out that DD had met stated objectives of set piece (writing a non-chronological report / using embedded clauses / writing in present tense, whatevs), and if they wanted to set handwriting homework, she would complete that separately.
Good luck!

@Someonepassthegin1991 I didn’t learn to talk until I was 7/8 years old I couldn’t form phonics I just made weird noise. I’m now 32 I can read perfectly struggle with spelling but no more than most i would say.
I remember my mum and dad just read to me and it came in time I did have speech therapy but I hated it.
This probably isn’t much help.

I found reading eggs amazing. You can get free trial. I subscribed to it as found it great. My little girl went from not being able to read more than a few words at start of March lockdown to being able to read at end of it and has went from being really behind to now being age appropriate.

FWIW I am a home-educating mum and also work as a reading tutor.

The first thing I would say is that seven is still pretty young, and children at that age can be perfectly normal and at really different levels. This doesn't necessarily relate to how well they will read later on. Young kids just develop different areas at different times.

It is good to keep moving forward though.

As far as the handwriting - less is really more here to an extent. Small kids are often asked to write too much, and it is difficult for them. It's better to do very short periods writing, once or twice a day, but really doing best work with proper letter formation. Five minutes is fine, or up to ten. Watch to see if she seems to be getting messier or is gripping too hard, and stop her before she becomes uncomfortable or can no longer pay attention.

If you would like a workbook, Handwriting Without Tears is a good choice. It is worth watching to make sure she forms the letters correctly, it will become much easier for he to write that way. You can also just do copywork, where you write a sentence and she copies it. Choose sentences from books you read to her or which she has dictated to you.

As far as composition, until she is writing well, do it orally. Her abilities there will likely be better than her handwriting. Have her tell you the story or about the topic in good, full sentences, with a beginning, middle, and end to the story. You can write it down or use a program that will transcribe it for her. There is lots of time for dealing with writing mechanics beyond that once her muscles are better able to write large amounts of text.

For reading, I would recommend a phonics program. There are lots to choose from, you can see some reviews of programs here: cathyduffyreviews.com/homeschool-reviews-core-curricula/phonics-reading

I would go for something simple, maybe Phonics Pathways, but there are lots of choices.

The other important thing is to read to her - she will get to understand reading but being read to, and not from readers, but children's books with good stories.

Just curious as to why she didn't go back to school in August/September with the rest of her class?
Have you had much input from her school?

We’ve had similar issues and advice has been:
Keep reading to them
Try a pencil grip
Aim for just a few minutes of writing

On the reading front what do you struggle with when you say you don’t get on that well with phonics? Can we help you have a better understanding - kind of feels necessary if you’re the one doing most of the teaching. But if she is starting to blend then that’s brilliant.