6 years old - READING - doesn't seem to 'click' at all

[joburg]

I'm a bit desperate. DD, 6 (knows the alphabet, every single letter of it) started reading lessons in school last october, but she still can't put a consonant next to a vowel and read them together! She reads M,A,M,I and the word turns out as market, or whatever else starts with M. SIT turns out as POT and so on. How shall i help her? It took her ages to figure it out that bed starts with B, dog with D, she never seemed to make real sense of this either. Should we look into a real problem or is it just us and the school?

Does she do phoncis?

Using the inital letter to give her a clue as to the word is good...encourage her to use the pictures as a clue too...

Practise blending simple CVC words - e.g. cuh, a, tuh as cat

play lots of games such as eye-spy, i am thinking of a word starting with suh etc..

dd2 loves it when I say to her...can you get out the fuh - or - kuh (fork) out please etc

talk to her teacher too...she maybe to offer more specific things to help and tell you what she/he is doing to help

Cazzybabs, the teacher says there is nothing to worry about, just wait until it 'clicks', but we do so for the last 6 months, and while the reading books should be re-newd every week for the kids who make it with words like cat and sit and pat (explaining here that we only practice phonetic words at this time), DD has the same book returned for a second week, pretty often. Sign that she didn't make it. We don't really have time for extra work at home except weekends, because she is not back until 3:30 from school every day. So i really don't know what to do. Stress her when she is already tired in the afternoons (she leaves home at 6:45 in the morning!!!!!) or just leave it and hope for the best in the long run????? And once more, i must insist: she does read every single sound in the word, but SHE CANNOT PUT THEM TOGETHER! That is my big problem!

What does her teacher say? Is she having extra help? Is she on an IEP for targeted help? You say she is 6 - just 6 or nearly 7?

Sorry for all the questions but I have had very similar problems with my 5 yo ds1. I contacted his teacher about my concerns and got him assessed (after 3 more meetings!) by the school SENCO and they have referred him for speech and language therapy as his articulation is not too good.

I have also found that if I spend 10/15 mins per night after tea with his words and reading books he is slowly gaining confidence and getting better.

Your 1st point of of call should be her teacher I think.

Good luck x

It is just practise....just play lots of word games in the mornings when you are going to school

Sorry - crossed posts!

If her teacher is not worried, then it may just be a case of giving her more time - children learn at vastly differing rates IME.

Perhaps give it til she is 7 then if you are still unhappy ask for a SENCO assessment?

Hi becaroo, when you say your son was reffered to speech and language therapy, was it only because his articulation was not too good? My daughter was already assesed for sensory integration issues and she didn't scored very well (teacher rejected the report as silly and unrealistic so i start to doubt her good judgment). Our OT therapist also mentioned speech and language assesment even if DD's articulation is not bad (not perfect either), but explaining that her brain's perception of information could affect her pronounciation too. Now that you mention this, i start to think if we should seriously look into other problems as well. Maybe i should move my question to special needs section... ?

I'm a salt and currently completing my MSc which focusses on reading. You will not get a better phonic programme thanHeadsprout which we are using.

I've also used it with my own dd with tremendous results. Vast amount of research has gone into it.

It's internet based (American,but this doesn't matter)and consists of 80 episodes, each about 20 mins. long.Idea is you do one a day,it's painless, as far as the child is concerned ,they are playing a computer game.

Costs about £120, which works out at over 20 hours of state of the art intervention.

(I don't work for Headsprout by the way.)

Hi Joburg.

I'll give you the whole story and it may make more sense!....

My ds1, who is 6 in June (hence one of the youngest in his year group), is basically at the bottom of his class re: literacy. (I know this from his parent evenings and because I am a parent literacy helper in his class once a week). He was starting to say he "hated school" - he doesnt, he just hated literacy because he found it so hard, which naturally worried myself and dh.

He was a late talker (nearly 3) and (although I understand him perfectly) I mentioned his articulation both in Nursery and Reception and was told on both occasions that his "speech immaturity" would get better and it was nothing to worry about.

Imagine my shock when (after 3 meetings with his teacher and acting head) I managed to convince them to assess him and the SENCO's report stated that his speech srticulation was "poor" and that he needed remedial help! Particularly as I really had to push for the assessment in the first place! Was very annoyed that ds1 could have been helped long before this point.

Although I like his teacher and TA's, I felt that they did not take my concerns seriously and therefore I went to the acting head - ds1 was assessed within a week of my seeing her.

Also, he was put on an IEP (individual education plan) without my knowledge 2 terms ago. Quite annoyed about that too, as you are supposed to have a copy and sign off on it!

I am going to ask next week re; progess on his S&L referral.

If you are worried about your dd - and you are the person who knows her best - then I think you are right to explore a SENCO assessments....has she been tested for dyslexia? My ds1 test came back at low risk but highlighted his speech issues, so it could be worthwhile to do that.

Am a bit at her teacher dismissing a report though - did the teacher give you any reasons she did not agree with the report?

....ooh, and I am also using "toe by toe" tecahing method at home with him every night for about 5/10 mins with good results so far (was recommended by someone on the SN threads).

It is a phonics based programme designed for children (or adults) with literacy problems and I am very impressed with it. It is good as it starts out with the sounds of the alphabet and moves on very slowly from there.

I got mine from Amazon - it cost about £20.

HTH x

i've used toe by toe before..it was good.

I guess ou just need to make sure its fun for dd rather than switiching her off because its hard

Joburg - my DS was a bit like this - he could sound out letters separately but had great difficulty in putting them together and reading. He did lose some time at school during Y1 because he was put into the top set for English, due to his verbal skills, and the teacher did not seem to take much interest in him, and pick up the problems he was having until I attended the parents evening half way though the year and saw the awful comments she had put in his books.

Anyway, his Y2 teacher was really helpful, she had the SENCO work with him as they were concerned he may be dyslexic. Then about half way thought last year (he's now Y3) something just clicked. I was advised to help him by reading with him which we do now every night, and he has moved on so well it is unbelievable.

Since he has been able to make sense of his reading he really enjoys it - writing is another matter .....

Joburg - My 12 year old didn't start reading until he was six. I remember talking to his year 1 teacher after he'd been in her class for a couple of months and saying that he just wasn't getting it. He must have been 6 then as he's a September birthday. Then, as other posters have said, something clicked. He did really well in junior school, passed the 11+ and is now at a grammar school - English is one of his best subjects.

With hindsight I think I may have passed on my anxiety to him and this may have turned reading into a big issue. It wasn't helped that his younger brother started reading at two and that must have made him feel a bit of a failure. In fact, of my three kids, the one who started reading the latest is by far and a way the best at English. Make of that what you will!

Catwalker, thank you for your reply, it just scares the hell out of me, this 'waiting for a click' thing. What if there is something else behind? Waiting won't do much good especially when i know my daughter has those sensory integration issues. Sitting and waiting just feels unfair to her especially when i read a million articles about how the brain starts to be less and less flexible after the age of 7 and it's more difficult to 'mould' it the longer one waits after this age.
Becaroo, you know then what i feel when i tell you i don't trust her teacher anymore (did i mention DD is attending a private school, outside UK, so i am also concerned about the fact that cutting costs might be a more important thing for them to consider ... well just a guess, but never the less making me feel unconfortable about the whole situation and not really able to take seriously what her teacher is telling us anymore).
Applepudding ... now that you mentioned it i start to worry more writing is another issue we have ... oh my god! is this gonna ever get better?!