8 year old doesn't know his phonics

[Janeones7851]

Can anybody help me get suggest books or reading scheme suitable for an 8 year old boy with a reading age of about 6, he is very behind everybody else in his class and school aren't helping. He seems to have missed part of the phonics understanding. He knows his letters but not I think they are called gramphenes when 2 letters make a sound e.g. oa in boat make o. The books I have looked at seem too babyish for him. He us falling further behind and is very reluctant now to read.

You can teach them fairly easily but yes the stuff might be a bit babyish. We used jolly phonics, we also had the jolly phobia poster for his bedroom wall and a cd for the car. If he finds it babyish or boring tell him it’s just for a few weeks until he knows them.
Read him other books too and point out the sounds he is learning.
Let him choose new books and just read loads to him over the school holidays.

Ruth Mishkin’s (sp?) Read Write Inc is available on Amazon, our DD found these more helpful than Jolly Phonics - although every child is different.

Does he like how to train your dragon? There's some Easy Readers based on the film characters (and Riders/Defenders of Berk) that are accessible and inspired by dragon obsessed child to actually read a book occasionally - she prefers physical stuff to actual reading...

For reinforcing phonics I'd look at Reading Eggs (21 day free trial IIRC) which I'm doing to fill in gaps between what my 6 yo knows and what she wants to read. My own phonics knowledge is very limited (pre my time!!!) so reliant on external resources.

I would recommend phonics family on Facebook /website. Make your own activities based on her suggestions.

From what you've said it sounds like he does not understand digraphs and trigraphs. Apps like teach your monster to read can be useful.

You could also try the Dancing Bears phonic workbooks

I would follow a reading scheme like Jolly Phonics as a guide but use flash cards/games to teach the sounds, rather than books because they will be babyish.

At the same time, get books more suited to his age that you can read together and let him read the words/sentences that he can read (and you read the rest to him). Slowly, you should be able to hand over so he is reading more and more, and you're needing to do less and less.

@Pinkflipflop85

From what you've said it sounds like he does not understand digraphs and trigraphs. Apps like teach your monster to read can be useful.

My 4yo loves this game but I can't imagine an 8yo playing it, I expect he'll think its too babyish unfortunately. My 7yo does occasionally still play it but I think for nostalgia.

Have you considered dyslexia could be a cause? My 8 year old was recently diagnosed as dyslexic and one of the pointers was his low phonological awareness. Barrington Stoke are a good dyslexia publisher so it's worth looking at their website, even if you don't feel he is dyslexic, as they publish age appropriate books but at lower reading ages. Collins Big Cat also do this, so it's worth looking at their website, they do the usual Ruby/Band 14 level etc but also have a smaller number of mixed band books - so a Ruby/Band 14 themed story (so age appropriate) but written in the lower Band 9 reading age, for example. You can find Barrington Stoke and Collins Big Cat books on ebay too

Orchard Toys also have a few board/card games that aim to teach phonics sounds at different levels. You may be able to make a game like this feel less babyish than if he were to be reading a book e.g. by creating silly sentences

I'd agree with the barrington Stoke suggestion above. I think you can even put actual age and reading age and it will come up with suggestions on their website.

For non-reading scheme books how about something like Dog man?

I’ve found reading eggs really good for catching up at home. My school also uses Nessie as a classroom resource for dyslexic children also quite good. We used the project x reading books. By Oxford reading tree they follow similar paths to Biff, chip and kipper but a much more interesting read; space/ alien adventures type stuff.

During lockdown last year, my youngest charge used Oak Academy online lessons. Would they be any help?

@Woeismethischristmas

I’ve found reading eggs really good for catching up at home. My school also uses Nessie as a classroom resource for dyslexic children also quite good. We used the project x reading books. By Oxford reading tree they follow similar paths to Biff, chip and kipper but a much more interesting read; space/ alien adventures type stuff.

Yes, I was going to recommend Nessy too. Designed for children with dyslexia but suitable for all. One of my supported groups uses this in addition to other interventions (P4, so 8yo). Plus they have a 40% sale on (think it ends today)

Project X

Mine enjoyed Letterland. I got a kit of it cheap from somewhere years ago. Not sure if still in print, but try ebay if not. There are videos, story books, workbooks etc. It's a bit simple but not as simple as Jolly Phonics.

The other thing you could do it to just choose books that aren't in a phonics scheme that an 8 year old boy might like, such as Horrid Henry, and read them to/with him and work phonics into that. You could make worksheets around the stories with the phonics you want to focus on that week. Or get a tutor or friend who has the right experience if you don't feel you can do that bit yourself.

I think just reading A LOT with parent(s) and carer(s) is underrated. Some children don't really get on that well with the phonics reading schemes and learn to read more by recognising the shapes of words. Or they don't get on with a particular scheme (some of those schemes are really boring) even when they are age appropriate.

If this and/or all the other good advice here doesn't start to work over the next few months then perhaps a professional evaluation is in order. And/or perhaps a new school that is actually bothered.

Don't feel bad about this or worry. Is is a concern but he's at the stage he's at, because he's an individual who for whatever reasons hasn't picked them up yet. No more, no less. I hope they aren't being arsey about it and blaming you?

PS Try buying Junior Scrabble or Scrabble and starting with only two and three letter words, build up from what words he is familiar with. Multiple his score by 4 then 2 then 1, then move on to harder words. Evolve a family version that works for him, Family names, pets, friends, Marvel characters he's interested in, etc. can all figure in your "family rules" later. Whatever floats his boat.

My DS is 7 and I don't feel he is reading as well as his peers. We've been reading things like 'Diary of a Minecraft zombie' because he is Minecraft obsessed. The series isnt advertised as an easy reader but he's doing really well with it - surprisingly when I started downloading onto my kindle (because it was cheaper) he seemed to find it easier. Worth a look?

There is a great iPhone game called 'Teach your monster to read' which was a brilliant help to my daughter.

My 8 year old has never gotten phonics either, and has recently been diagnosed as mildly dyslexic. But he's a very keen reader.

Books he enjoys and enjoyed when he was a bit younger are things that have lots of comics / pictures - much less intimidating than pages of text. Captain Underpants, Dogman, 13 Story Treehouse, Jedi Academy (if you DS is a Star Wars fan), then moving on to Diary of a Wimpy kid, Tom Gates.

Thank you for all the ideas I'm going to work through some of them. He already uses Teach you monster, and I've found on Amazon Roald Dahl ladybird easy readers

My 8yo had this issue and we have just completed Toe by Toe- immensely boring but very structured reading programme. 20 minutes a day (we generally only managed 15 and have had to bribe). But can now read very complicated words. I suspect there is something else going on but we have conquered phonics and basic literacy at least.