To be worries? 0 on phonics screening.

[lollilou2]

My DS5, in year 1, got 0 on his phonics screening. They done 12 words with him, then decided not to carry on.

We read to him every night, he can’t read to us as he can’t read yet, but what else can be done to support him at home? He does small group work at school, is there anything else school can do to help him along? He is already on the SEN register but that’s due to speech and language.

Have you had his vision and hearing checked?

Well, speech and language is intrinsically linked with phonics, so if he’s getting extra support then it should link in to the reading curriculum too. What have school advised? What kind of plan does he have in place currently?

practice his letter sounds. Also use books that have rhymes. Identifying rhyming words and listening to the sounds in words is the first stage. "Phonics play" is great for games and resources. "Teach your monsters to read" also fantastic

Phonics is part of speech and language.
Yes you are right to be concerned.

I would be asking school at what point will an EHC Needs Assessment become appropriate.

Practise using the phonic cards that they use at school. Use lots of robot talk (m-u-m then mum) so that they can hear individual sounds being put together.

Some children can identify individual sounds but find the blending (putting them together to read words) tricky. So for example can say individual sounds in c- a-t but then to read you have to go back and remember the first sound. Often children get stuck on the last sound that they have just said or guess the word. Playing segmenting and blending games can help.

Where is he with phonics? Are there some letters he recognises and can make the sound? Can he blend any sounds together?

Phonics stage 1 is about listening to general sounds, not letter sounds. You could look at that if you think it is needed. You could also look at phonological awareness e.g. rhyme, clapping beats in a word and do some of these early bits e.g. reading rhyming books, making up silly rhymes.

Yes, you are right to be concerned. But it sounds like it shouldn’t be a surprise to you as you are already aware of SEN, specifically speech and language. Children with S&L problems are often behind in phonics - if they cannot hear or say the sounds of course they can’t sound out and blend.

The school has to put extra support in place for any y2s who don’t get the pass mark so your child will get this. But they will need more than just that, as they obviously missed by a long way. Are they getting s&l help? Have you had eyes and ears tested too? Have you asked school what additional help they’ll get?

Reading eggs is a really good app for early readers if you think your child would engage with that.

poor little soul. Children do develop at different rates.

No direct help to you now OP but I can't 'do' phonics. Yes I can sound out C A T but it's just parrot fashion, doesn't connect with anything in my head so to speak. I learnt to read by pattern recognition rather than sounding out the words.

I am however educated to Masters degree level and have held down responsible jobs all my working career. I am appalling at spelling but I'm an avid recreational reader, always have been.

What I'm trying to say is that phonics is not the only way to learn to read, although it does seem to be the only way it is taught. Keep reading to your boy, especially over the holidays, and not just simple books, but ones with lovely engaging stories.

School should be able to tell you what extra interventions they're putting in place.

Spend 5 minutes 2 or 3 times a day learning letter sounds. Pick 3 letters, focus on them until he's got them, then add some more and do one check of the ones he knows per day too so he doesn't forget them.

Once he knows all the letter sounds move onto blending them together by saying each letter sound eg "d - o - g" then telling him to try and say it quicker to see if he can tell what the word is.
It's a slow process but with short bursts of regular practice he should eventually begin to remember them at his own pace.

Make it fun with colouring or painting letter print outs, flashcards, a sticker book that he gets a sticker for after each practice.

Do lots of praise, even if he's not getting them right keep it very positive telling him how well he's doing. Our DD has SEN and it's so important to give lots of praise, tell him he's clever when he's doing things he does find easy (even something like pointing out eg a ladybird and naming it, find opportunities to tell him he's clever) as it does get hard for them as they're getting older and noticing others understand more than them at school. Building self esteem and a sense of pride in what they can achieve is more important than how quickly they learn things.

DD didn’t read properly until she was 8 nearly 9. It just didn’t click with her. The school were pulling her out of class for what they used to call remedial English. Then suddenly she seemed to “get it” and read voraciously. She’s doing English at uni now. Personally I think there is way too much pressure on primary school kids to hit certain targets by a certain age. Kids develop at different rates and in different ways. Honestly OP I would try and relax and just do lots of play and chatting. They pick up our stress straight away which can have the opposite effect and make them scared or nervous and then it’s a catch 22 and they’re too young to be getting into all that. Enjoy the summer - as I say lots and lots of play and chatting and books to look at. HTH

He has his eyes checked by ophthalmology every three months as he does wear glasses (+4.50) and has nystagmus. His hearing has recently been checked and is fine.

It is specifically the blending he is having trouble with, he can tell us the letters used, but when it comes to putting them together he can’t manage.

He has just finished a block of SALT, he has problems pronouncing words which have two consonants together, he has a follow up in Spring.

The school have reiterated that he will do small group work with a TA when he goes into Year 2, but that’s it really.

Yes I'm exactly the same regards the phonics

is it that he knows the sound the two letters make and he can’t say them? Because I’ve got a slightly younger one who has this problem with some sounds. I can lay out the set 2 and 3 sound cards and the say a sound and she will pick the correct card up. She can do the same for words but cant say every word.
If school support you and put pressure on SALT saying it’s affecting learning he should get some more sessions. Some areas have group sessions as well. SALT should have given you things to practice at home.

My own DS struggled so much with phonics. By Y6 they noted he was 5 whole years behind his peers and just could not for the life of him get his head around how to blend the sounds or how reading worked in general.

He was diagnosed ASD early on and they said the suspicion was dyslexia, although where I am they wouldn’t test for it until he was 13.

Now, at age 13, he has made huge strides to the point where English is his best subject in school and he has won an award for being the top reader.

My point here is simply not to lose hope, and not to worry too much. Kids find their way. Keep trying, keep helping, but don’t stress too much.

If he just can’t do phonics you’ll have to get a set of ladybird learn to read books and teach him that way.

If he can identify the sounds but not the word, then move away from getting him to sound things out and do more of the robot talk mentioned above. So don't point to letters and wait for him to sound them out, you do the sounds and then do the robot word talk. He's only 5, so with speech and language delays already identified, you are still on track to get there in a reasonable time frame.

Try not to show him your worry or put pressure on him. Make it fun and help him engage with it.

Can he see the words ok if he has nystagmus? Are the font sizes used big enough for him?

Mine struggled with sounding out words. He could sound out the individual letters but then just guess the word. E.g.
"C-a-t, C-a-t"
"Very good what does c-a-t sound like when its run together"
"Dog!"

I think we did lots of practicing but made into games so he didn't realise he was practicing and it just clicked eventually. I don't know what made the biggest difference. But as well as sounding out words I would sometimes when we were out and about say the full word and then break it into sounds/encourage him to do it. E.g "oh look a duck. D-uh-k". So it's doing it in a different direction which I think made it click. But you can be subtle about it so they don't feel harangued

Also lots of reading like you are doing. Singing and rhyming helps a lot as well.

I’d consider whether he might be better suited to learning to read by sight (I think a PP mentioned Ladybird books). My DD is dyslexic and struggled with phonics but years later she can spell some really difficult words but still struggles with some simpler ones.

Then practise 10/15 mins a day.

There are lists of the most common words at various ages, maybe look at these if you want to see how he’s getting on. I used to check every now and again through junior school.

Keep reading to him also,

We also tried audio books with a paperback alongside to give some independence when DD was about 10/11. I just didn’t want her to miss out on the stories at that point, not just helping her to read better.

When you say that he can recognise the letters used but is not able blend them do you mean he knows the letter names or their sounds? So for cat would he say “see” “ay” “tea” (letter names) or would he say “c” “a” “t” (letter sounds)? If he recognises the sounds then he needs some support with blending but if he is saying the letter names he needs to learn their sounds before starting to be able to blend words.

I’m an experienced Year 1 teacher so have got a couple of ideas that you could try at home over the summer but which I suggest depends on where he currently is.

Thank you all for your help. I will try the ladybird books and reading by sight - he can read some ‘red words’, like ‘no’ and ‘the’ which is reassuring. He is waiting to be assessed for Autism, and I have heard autistic people can tend to find phonics harder.

@aredcar In regards to his Nystagmus, the ophthalmologist has said as long as he has his glasses on then it shouldn’t trouble him, hopefully!

If he has a clinical diagnosis of nystagmus, ask for advice from the council's Qualified Teacher of Vision Impaired childre.

Don't start any other reading intervention until you have had a functional vision assessment. (It's different to what an ophthalmologist will do and they may suggest strategies that will help in a classroom).

@ChocolateCoveredStrawberries He would say it as ‘c-a-t’, it’s blending them together to make a word he struggles with. His teacher has suggested we practice stage 1 phonics and CVC words.