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??

Teach your moster how to read
Dancing bears program ten minutes every day. Did very basic level with DS - their tip of getting him to shout the sounds out helped him blend.

Then once the basics are there lots of phonic based books - school never seemed them for us reading chest is private library sending books though post and you can select phonics based programs.

Later on if spelling is an issue do the apple and pears bit as well - though that takes longer.

Later on if maths is still a worry mathsfactor

Writing - Write from the start and any fun thing that helps with fine muscle control - beads, play dough, trheading.

Best thing to do is little and often at home and build up with time.

As for school keep on at them asking for more support.

I would read lots to her at home, things that pique her interest.

My 7-year-old has just taken off with reading. We are not in an English speaking county so she was very behind with reading. I tried the reading eggs app with her for a month and she has been progressing so well we ended up getting a subscription. You can get a free trial month. We are working through fast phonics on it and it's fantastic.

Please don't worry about this too much, it is so so common especially with kids with speech delays. You have a good amount of time to get her caught up, kids transition from learning-to-read to reading-to-learn in 3rd grade.
If she is the youngest in her class it may not hurt to have her do first grade again? Especially with covid, though I think a lot of children will be in the same boat!! I would keep on the pressure with the school, if she needs more class support due to her speech delay etc but at home just make reading fun and easy. Can you go to the library once a week and let her pick out 7 books? One for each day, and you can read them to her, pointing at each word as you read it and picking maybe one very simple word per page to sound out together. Make sure she gets time every day to play alphabet games on the tablet or leapfrog etc. Super why is a good word based show for young kids and I think there's one called word world also. At home just focusing on making reading/words fun.

I found the school was always blaming them being summer borns and completely ignoring the strong family histroy of dyslexia and dyspraxia.

My speech issues with I got help for in early school years was probably related to my dyspraxia though could also have been glue ear - which they think DS may have had as he kept failing then just passing hearing tests for a few years.

I do wish I'd started home support earlier with DD1 as we ended up doing with DS - I think it would have been easier on her not to develop so many bad habits but she just did GCSE and did well and is now on to A-levels.

Later on in childhood found audio books, comics,graphic novels we also got dyslexia freindly books I think from barringtonstoke and Love reading were extremely helpful - DS turned into a book worm but DD1 never did but she would read odd thing for pleasure.

Just had a quick look at this.
Dyslexia jumps out at me.
You need to have someone find out why . Once properly assessed then can she get the proper help.
it is not your fault.
Parenting is not easy. Going wide off the mark, but has she ever had her eyes tested?
Hoping she gets the help she needs .
Demand a proper assessment and do not be fobbed off.
It seems help is as hard to get as it was over 25 years ago.

Kids vary, mine is only 18 months old and has finished reading war and peace, but his written review of the book was appalling

Hopefully in the vision test they check her Pursuits and saccades. This is the ability to track along the line and involves eye muscles that are often not developed at a young age. And children with other coordination and muscle issues often have issues with Pursuits and saccades. My DS had issues at a younger age with this but by the time he was seven was reading just fine. There are also exercises that can be done to improve the muscles involved. Some signs that this is what's happening might be your child saying that they are tired or have a headache after reading only a few lines and skipping small words like the and a.

Sounds near identical to my DD. She is 7 in November, autistic and severely speech delayed. Just gone into year 2 and can read on a similar level to yours. No advice but much solidarity

Does she want to read ? This may seem like a stupid question but I looked after a child of 3. We did all the usual playing, learning, (he had Aspergers). He did not want to read and said so. Becaise in the classroom he was very quiet and well behaved they left him and didn't bother with him. It wasnt until he reached 10yrs that the school started to take an interest.
He did like to play computer games on the television and would ask me to read the information to him. The games he picked up very quickly.
I told him that I would no longer read the instructions to him but would help him if that was what he wanted.
A couple of days later he came and asked me to teach him to read.
He now had an interest in it. He learned very quickly and has an engineering apprenticeship.

I hugely recommend Reading Eggs and Mathseeds they’re amazing programs and you can get a free trial.

There is also “teach your monster to read” which is free.

Incredible websites and all 3 of mine used them and flew.

Could also be apraxia which is less common than dyslexia but if she forgot how to make sounds that she had already learned when she was learning to speak it may be that.

I haven't read the full thread, so apologies if this has been suggested, but we did a book called toe by toe with our DC who struggled to read. It is aimed at dyslexia (turns our our DC is, but this book is great for children and adults who find reading challenging, with or without dyslexia apparently). You just do 10 mins a day. We found it very good. I'm sure your DC will get there, they all learn at different rates and have different learning styles. Try not to panic

@zingally

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".

It would concern me seriously in a child with an EHCP, because it demonstrates that either the EHCP is inadequate or the school isn't following it.

A lot of children with speech and language difficulties also have learning difficulties because understanding language is so central to learning. I'd suggest you ask for an up to date EP assessment now, OP, with a view to investigating whether your daughter has anything like dyslexia or dyspraxia and to see if the EP is prepared to recommend extra support. Also check out the EHCP and, if provision isn't adequately specified then use the annual review meeting to ask that it be tightened up.

The local authority is supposed to write to you within four weeks of the AR meeting to tell you whether they propose to amend the EHCP, and if they refuse you have a right to appeal when you can put forward your own independent reports to support amendments. To be honest, these are likely to be better than anything the LA produces anyway. If they agree to amend, they must produce a draft amended EHCP for consultation with you without delay, and they must finalise it within 8 weeks after sending the draft. Make sure you keep them strictly to the legal time limits.

Following this with interest as my youngest is the same op. Although he does have an autism diagnosis.

School appear to be happy to let him coast & I can’t get him to do anything resembling school work at home 🤦‍♀️ It’s a no go (home schooling went well).

He loved the “teach your monster to read” app, but now it’s for a bit harder he won’t use it. He also sneakily stopped reading the words & guessing which one was right 🤦‍♀️🤦‍♀️ So we need new ideas

@Rewis

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.

In France, they don't really start teaching children to read until 6 either. They do letters etc in maternelle (pre-school), but don't start formally teaching reading until they go into CP, which Google tells me is the equivalent of Year 2 in the UK. Meh. They'll pick it up.

It might be nothing to worry about. Reading didn't click for my summer born until part way through Y2. By the end of the year she was a complete bookworm. This was at a decent indie and the teachers didn't seem concerned, and she was towards the later end of readers in her class but not an outlier.

Given her speech and language issues you obviously want to be reassured that there are no other underlying issues behind not reading yet.

But beyond that, many educationalists and child development people think that the optimum age for learning to read is from 6 onwards as children are busy learning and absorbing other important skills before that. Also there is no difference at 10 or 11 (if all other factors are equal) between the reading ability of early and late readers.

In many N European countries they don’t start to read until 7.

So I would say do push for checking for issues, but beyond that don’t worry too much yet.

My child with severe s&l also turned out to have dyslexia. After some research Iv found it's very common that the two conditions exist together.

Check out word hornet. It's a workbook you can go through at home yourself with dd. They have website but you can buy book in loads of places

Also check out Nessy

I just want to say it again because I think people who haven't lived/grown up in Scandinavia think that we could just import there school system here and everything would better. The UK and Norway/Sweden/Finland have completely different cultures, wealth, leave and systems for supporting children. Most children in these countries are being taught to read and write before they go to school at 6 or 7. It's just simply not true that these kids start their education at 7, when you see the daycare they get in the Nordics.

Here's a good comment from a Brit who moved to Finland from a BBC schools article:

"Both my kids attend Finnish schools. It is true that kids in Finland start school at 7 but they also attend pre-school at 6 which is usually organised through daycare. Many children can read and do simple arithmetic before they attend school at 7. The norm in Finland is that both parents work and so kids are normally in daycare from the age of 3 and during this time there are professionals over-seeing the children and ensuring that they learn in a play environment. It should also be noted that Finland has a very high proportion of parents that have attended higher education which likely plays a part in their own childrens' development. These parents spend hours with their children in the evenings and at weekends working through huge amounts of homework. Finnish children might start formal schooling 2 years later than their UK peers and spend less hours in the class but it's worth remembering that there is a lot of learning/teaching done outside of classrooms here in Finland! The Finnish system would be very difficult to model in the UK which anyway does not have the childcare model in place to cope"

I'm just saying that to parents who have kids with extra needs, starting later isn't a magic bullet. Getting the right support and assessments is worth doing and I hope that you are getting the support you need.

Sorry everyone, late reply. Thank you all for your suggestions! It is not from lack of interest, she loves book being read to her but struggling with reading them herself.

I am intending on talking to school this week regarding EHCP review etc. It's a bit of a nightmare speaking to them as pick you and drop off is so busy. I've emailed the school receptionist asking my email is forwarded to teacher but no reply yet! I may just email the senco but I thought my first point of call would be the teacher! The senco is already well aware of DD's need.

I just have this sense of guilt and sadness about it all.

The only professional she is now under us salt who I don't think she's even seen for a while (normally seen in school)!

I'm just feeling a little lost. Year 1 teacher (also senco) said she is making good progress but I am not seeing it myself 😢

My eldest son and my daughter couldn't grasp phonics. I had a word wall at home. Each week, I'd stick 8 words on the wall and they'd be read each time the child went past. I'd repeat words and mix them up with others. Ds1 is autistic and learned really quickly. Dd took a bit longer, and took off when she was 7.

It’s possible she is dyslexic. 2 if my sons are dyslexic and trying to get them to read and write was a living hell ! So very frustrating . Maybe in her review ask if they could test her . With the right support dyslexics can flourish at school . Although getting assessed and getting help is difficult . My son both started with a book called toe by toe ( it was a long time ago ) but it did help . Both are in the work force now and one went to uni so don’t despair

Please don’t worry.

1. You are not a failure. Children. Develop at different times in different ways.
2. You have a summer baby so she is up to 12 months younger than her peers and it takes a lot of catching up.

I have no experience of children who may have additional needs but I do have a summer baby and I was shocked how little she knew during the first lockdown in terms of numbers and reading. She started in year 2 well behind and something clicked. She is now flying. We did change her school though and her teacher really concentrated on her phonetics.
We also did reading eggs. You can get good deals so don’t pay full price.
I always comfort myself by thinking that when other children were using their brain to learn to read etc, my DD was developing an amazing funny personality.

www.spelfabet.com.au/2021/09/top-10-online-pa-phonics-resources-activities/

Some of these may be worth looking at got sent to my e-mail box as did try spelfabet with DD1 and DS.

PP mention www.nessy.com/uk/ - we used them for spelling as did DC second primary school and it was good.

I'd still suggest starting with reading and ten minutes a day with Dancing bears:

www.soundfoundations.co.uk/learning-to-read/
Possibly with Bear Necessities Book A1

The sweaty sounding-out stage builds reading muscle - you're not alone many children need extra support with reading.

There's pleanty of time to catch up - but extra support preferable at school and home will ensure that it does happen.