4 yo reading - getting snagged on a particular word

[Greensleeves]

I know there are loads of MNers who teach this age group - is it common for a child to get really snagged on one word? He simply cannot get the word "this". He reads it as "the is". However many times I do it with him, explain how the sounds fit together etc, he still just doesn't read it as "this". He can sound out and read more complicated words, like "umbrella", "next" and "mattress", and he can do "the", "there", "than" etc, but "this" gets him every time! I've decided to just treat each time as though we'd never seen it before, keep explaining gently and hope eventually it goes in.

Before people rush in to demand with righteous indignation why I am pushing my 4yo to read - I'm not, I couldn't care less, he doesn't start school till next September anyway, and I wouldn't know how to hothouse a tomato never mind a stroppy 4yo. HE likes reading, he is really into it at the moment. I have got some fuzzbuzz books from a charity shop (we have lods of books, but these are ones he can do virtually unaided, which is exciting for him) and he is racing through them and loving it, but he needs help with some bits.

Can you make flashcards with 'this' and 'the is' on them, to show him the difference?

He may just have a mental block on it for a bit, I think that's quite common.

And I speak as someone who once read that a mumsnetter had just thown her child over the hedge, when in fact she had put on the dvd of that name. So where misreading is concerned perhaps I'm not the best advisor!

Anyway, I think your approach is fine.

I think the general feeling is to just repeat it as "this" rather than correcting him IYSWIM. You just read it back correctly.

Nah! I wont critise you. You you and your four year old are having fun it doesnt matter. It will come and th is hard because it has two ways of being sounded out.

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off thread topic but are you avoiding my email today?

DD got stuck on THIS for a little while. I have been tahing her the different sounds some letters can make, and have explained that s can say sssss (like in this) but also zzzzz (like in is), and you have to try both to see which sounds right.

fennel!! No - will go read it now!

on topic, my 6yo gets hang ups about occasional words, lately Rook. She read a book "the rook king" and all the way through she called it Rock king.

my usual strategy is to harrumph "come on, you KNOW that word, I've TOLD you it ALREADY." but don't copy me am neither super-patient nor primary teacher.

With ds1 when he was doing reception key words (of which this is one!), if he got stuck on one, we would make sentences out of a few words he knew and include the tricky one. So you could do;

This is mum
This is dad
Is this mum?
Is this dad?
Who is this?
This is a dog
Is this a dog?

Etc. If he's like ds1, he would read the sentences and then when given the word out of context still get it wrong, but after 3 or 4 days would just 'get' it.

Don't think you're pushing at all - I'm doing reading with dd who is starting in September too, and she is only 3.5, but really wants to do it. We're doing a mixture of phonics, 'look and say' (Peter and Jane books) and reception keywords. She is just getting the hang of blending the sounds, which is something ds1 took ages to do, he was much better at the 'look and say' method.

my DS had trouble with this and they. He is 6 now and in Year 1 and it has just clicked into place.

Oh, so "this" is a common one to get stuck on then? That is interesting. I'll just pull right back and let him do it in his own time (although the natural urge to go "It's THIS, ffs, we've seen it a million times, can't you just READ it" is horrifying

Can you maybe make up a rhyming story with this, hiss and, er, Swiss in it?