My 6 year old can't read 😢😢

[Kales29]

Dd is just turned 6 (august) and just gone into year 2. She is the youngest in her class, she's also considerably speech delayed. Her speech wasn't good at all when she started shcool but had improved vastly but still young for her age. She has an EHCP due to her speech delay. My oldest is autistic, Dd isn't believed to be autistic though.

She enjoys school, teacher last year said she's below expectations but improving. She's a confident, popular member of the class etc. Very artistic but struggled with both maths and English. She seems to love school.

But she cannot read at all. She recognises odd words but she cannot read any sentences or anything. We are always reading to her etc.

Her writing is improving but again it's just writing odd words.

I feel like a complete failure.

It hasn't helped she's had her first 2 years of school affected by covid.

I'm worried about the lack of support at the school. There's a fair few in her clsss bedding extra support both with EHCP's and not with ehcps. Ranging from learning difficulties, behavioural issues etc.

Despite having an EHCP I don't think the school are providing enough support.

I'm worried sick.

My son goes to the same school and has been well supported because his EHCP states he needs 1:1. DD isn't entitled to 1:1 support. Her EHCP is mainly about her speech and language needs.

But I have spoken to other parents who's children are not being given any support and I feel Dd is going the same way. Some parents have even taken their children out the school due to lack of support.

How can I help her improve at home? She's always writing, drawing etc. It's the reading I am most concerned about. She struggles with maths but we always do maths things at home. Teaching her to read is hard!!

Advice??

Would she engage with other activities that aren't sitting down for her to read through a book? Ie Reading Eggs subscription or some of those Orchard Toys phonics games?

I got a private assessment for my DS because his school wasn't doing anything. Turns out he has visual stress (among other things) easily corrected with coloured lenses in his glasses. Has anyone suggested you try a coloured overlay when she's reading?

Aug borns are likely to.be slower learning.
However op how long do you spend listening to.dc.read every day.
Our school dont really listen to.them so all.progress is made at home.
Maybe aim for 2 books a day depending on book band.
My dc2 is CSA so 6 but in y1 instead. Cant eead very well. Still mostly sounding out but honestly weve hardly read the school books.
As they havent sent home the right sounds
And she is very resistant
Also her memory isnt good so isnt memorising words

I would consider how much you have been doing at home before trying to expand her echp.
Dc1 learnt very easily and we spent up to an hour a day reading in y1.

Aug borns are likely to.be slower learning.

This is rubbish. August borns often start from a lower point due to being younger and might be further through school before reading "clicks", but should be making some progress usually by 6. They aren't "slower" by virtue of being born in summer . Its not wholly true that children in scandi countries "don't start learning to read until 7", what they call "school" starts later than UK but most children attend preschool type settings from 4 or 5 where they will be learning letters and sounds and many will pick up reading before age 7.

OP I would definitely push the school to review that EHCP and get more support.

HSHorror is right that with early reading much of the progress is made at home through regular practice. The teacher has 30 children, you can achieve far more with mum or dad 1 to 1 for 20 or 30 mins each day.

Annual review meeting for the EHCP will be a good start. I’d start requesting particular things at this point though so the reports are ready ahead of the annual review meeting as they legally should be. This helps with the meeting ensuring everyone has everything in front of them for the discussion.

When was the last SALT assessment? Assuming it may have not been that long ago your DC received the EHCP due to age. Is there 1:1 SALT written into the EHCP being delivered by a therapist or is it interventions carried out by the TA? OT assessment may also be beneficial due to the gross motor difficulties you mentioned also. You should formally request these through the SENCO. I’d raise these points sooner rather than later before the annual review meeting so assessment reports are available.

Yes well obviously i dont mean less intelligent.
Just likely to seem behind the sept ones. (But not necessarily more statistically).
If we bear in mind youngest in year plus 8w of yr1 missed and maybe 50% of reception.
So maybe 21w reading yr 1 and 27 of reception. (Or only 21w after turning 5).

Read an article today that said reading age improved if kids watched TV with subtitles - so suggest turn it on anyway.
Definitely get eyes tested too

Another vote for Easyread. It isn’t cheap, but you get a free trial. DS is being assessed for dyspraxia and has vision issues and really struggled. In December he was 7 and could barely read, after 4 months of Easyread he made a massive improvement and he’s now reading at his actual age.

@Cheeseplantboots

My eldest is severely autistic and my middle child was also very late to speak. No words at all until she was 3. She was behind with all her milestones. Her speech was very bad when she started school. She couldn’t read at 6. She just didn’t get it. Something clicked in year 3 and she just flew with her reading from there. Within the year she was on target. She is dyslexic which wasn’t picked up on until year 7. I was doing reading on why she was so clumsy and un co-ordinated and realised the late speech etc was all linked to dyslexia. She’s also terrible at maths.

sorry to butt in on someone elses thread, but did you have Dyspraxia looked into? lack of co-ordination and delayed speech are two of the huuuuuge red flags for it.

Hi op, I know you’re worried and I just wanted to offer you some reassurance if I can

I’ve a DD who started school a year late due to being out of the country, like your DC she was the youngest in the year, DD has an EHCP and due to additional needs was moved back a year and is now in year 13

When she started school I used to read with her and all her classmates through primary, there was such a huge difference between the best readers and those struggling to learn that like you I wondered when or even if it would all level out

Now at the end of their school years I see all those faces that struggled at the start, who’s mums worried in the playground like you still there and in 6th form preparing to start the next stage of their lives

Over the years some have rapidly caught up, some have found it challenging and had to work hard, others were diagnosed with dyslexia. Each child is unique and has made their own journey but they’ve got there in the end

With DD I actually got all the books and worked with her every day for an extra 10 minutes and she caught up pretty quickly, DS a year younger joined in and by the time he started school he was already a fluent reader which surprised his teacher on day one when he read the class poster to her

Please try not to worry to soon, Covid has really disrupted things but kids are resilient and soon bounce back

The first book I read cover to cover was Heidi, and then Jane Eyre. I was completely disinterested in learning to read until a story gripped me, and then suddenly I was off. I went from being unable to read to having a reading age double my own, and was asked not to take part in the school read-a-thon because it wasn't fair on other people. This extremely self aggrandising story is suppose to illustrate that it can very much still happen. I had (have) dyspraxia so it took me a while longer. I was taken to an educational psychologist who massively helped, and then bam, I was away.

With the annual review potentially over 3 months away don't wait, ask the LA for an early review or reassessment of needs now, from your posts I think a reassessment of needs is necessary.

Don't fall for all this 'Scandi children don't do school until they are 7' nonsense. I lived there and the children are in kindergarten from 2 or 3. It is a sort of highly engaged outdoor play (difficult to explain if you haven't lived there) but the children have a higher adult to child ratio and are already picking up English. TV is both in Norwegian/Swedish/Danish (Finland feels very different from the other Scandinavian countries) and English with subtitles. They are picking up reading and writing at home. It's very different culturally with far far better parental leave for both mothers and fathers. They are learning to read/write during this time. I used to have basic English chats with young children.

If your child needs more help then they should get it. Or try and have the ECHP updated.

I think it's reasonable to raise your concerns in a pleasant and non-confrontational way.

What I would say, though, is that you say your daughter enjoys school, is popular and does well in some of the activities. I would think that the most important thing at this stage. If she were anxious and reluctant to attend school I would be much more worried.

Speaking as an infant school teacher - a barely 6 year old, still effectively being a non-reader isn't massively concerning tbh. And that's in "normal" times. Think of how disrupted everything has been for your poor DD. She has never had a "normal school year".

You should ask for the review to be brought forward or you could ask for a statutory reassessment (same advices as when got EHCP first time) on basis her needs have changed as learning difficulties as well as S&L. That way an EP will see her and can do testing. Has SLT done formal testing as this would reveal comprehension issues. It could be something simple my son is autistic and learnt to read by memorising what the whole word looked like visually which meant he failed phonics test as he would guess a word that looked similar for the fake words. We insisted he also learn phonics (school was going to give up on this) and I taught him at home I realised he had not understood he needed to read the sounds from left to right and blend them - presumably as he had not processed what the teacher had said due to language difficulties and teachers hadn’t realised he was memorising the whole book so couldn’t understand why he could read but not pass the test! He passed the test a few weeks later and went on have age appropriate reading (although his language level is far behind). I would ask for urgent review, EP and SLT assessment to explore if additional issues. Plus argue for extra support. Be prepared to have to appeal. Given current shortage of EPs you may be better asking for reassessment as get right of appeal if that is refused. The outreach specialist teachers can also recommend resources and you can ask for these to be funded and for her to have access at school on iPad or laptop eg Clicker is worth a look. Schools can be reluctant to fund specialist programmes so you need to get the council involved. Not all kids learn using phonics some need different approach but often teachers just keep doing the same thing.

Its not wholly true that children in scandi countries "don't start learning to read until 7", what they call "school" starts later than UK but most children attend preschool type settings from 4 or 5 where they will be learning letters and sounds and many will pick up reading before age 7.

Sure, there are kids that can read by the time they are 7 and go to school. However, it is not expected and therefore there no need to worry if they don't know how to read by the time they start formal school.

Based on my 'scandi' background I'd say ther eis nothing to worry if your kid doesn't know how to read at 6. I didn't either. I however since he has had a speech delay I think it is worth to flag it just so they can observe it.

I'd suggest Alphablocks on DVD/BBC iPlayer and the Teach Your Monster To Read app

With phonics particularly I think the point of competence for reading is actually around 7. I had a bright none delayed but v young child Aug 15th, and I despaired until she was 7 or 8 when it started clicking and the transition from phonics to reading happened. Read read read to her and with her, follow the words with your fingers and occasionally get her to sound out and read herself - doesn't matter if odd words - I think there is an element of whole word recognition/memory in everyones reading so focus on common words. With delays to speech she may also be a bit behind with the connections of letter to word to brain to mouth/sound so just practice practice practice. After worrying about mine when they did a reading age test on going to secondary school at 11 (just) she had a reading and comprehension age of 17.

Get her to love words and the sound of words - do daft things like rhyming words in your speech - we had names for surrounding towns that we created rhymes - so e.g. Dorridge Porridge and we made them sing songy - so if on the train would recite like poetry. For unkeen readers buy "naughty" books that are about bums and wees and poos - sounds disgusting but they find hilarious and want to read them or really bad jokes etc

@DeepaBeesKit

Aug borns are likely to.be slower learning.

This is rubbish. August borns often start from a lower point due to being younger and might be further through school before reading "clicks", but should be making some progress usually by 6. They aren't "slower" by virtue of being born in summer . Its not wholly true that children in scandi countries "don't start learning to read until 7", what they call "school" starts later than UK but most children attend preschool type settings from 4 or 5 where they will be learning letters and sounds and many will pick up reading before age 7.

OP I would definitely push the school to review that EHCP and get more support.

Well it's not rubbish actually - it's statistically more likely that they will struggle. Wind your neck in if you have nothing constructive to add.

Learning to read isn't just about recognising words it's about recognising sounds and blending them to form the words. Does she know her phonics/letter sounds - ah, buh, cuh etc? If not that's where you need to start. Then she can sound out simple CVC words like cat, mat, dog - but she needs to be able to blend the sounds and she might need you to run the letter sounds into each other at first so she can hear how they go together ie cuh, ah, tuh said quickly.

My dd is 5, 6 in January and isn't interested that much. She can identify her flash cards but putting them together in a sentence not so good. I'm really not worried as in the grand scheme it's still so young! Obviously i know it's important to encourage her and keep up with the class to an extent, but I also don't want to push it and risk putting her off completely.

Thanks all. I will have a good read through all replies later on! A pp mentioned an eye test - she's actually having one today for an eye issue. She passed her vision screening at school a few months ago but be interested to know if her vision is good which may rule that out! She's never had a proper eye test due to covid and just not thinking about it! 💕

I'm a tutor who has helped many youngsters with reading. The two main things I think will help are:
Keep fostering a love of books by reading to her without any pressure/expectation that she reads.
Then get the first of the dancing bears books and work through this with her for about 10 mins each day for at least 5 days a week. Progress might be slow but she will get there.
www.soundfoundations.co.uk/product/dancing-bears-book-set/