50 % of children in dd1's reception class...

[emkana]

... can write phonetically, said her teacher at the parents' evening last night ( not to me, to a friend, our appointment is next week).

Dd1 is not one of them, she is only just starting to blend sounds to words when reading, but verrrrrrrrrry slowly, and she takes great delight in practising to write single letters as beautifully as possible, but she can't write any words at all.

I don't want to, but it makes me feel bad. This is stupid, isn't it? The thing is I'm sure she could do it now if I had spent time teaching her, but I always felt that reading and writing would come soon enough. I still have that pov now, but still want her to be up there as a shining star IYSWIM

Well that means 50% cant write phonetically, so I would take that as average. Far to soon to be worrying, she will get there

I'm not sure I understnad what you mean? Do you mean if you said 'write 'Cat'' they could sound it out and write it down?

Fwiw, your dd sounds completely normal. Apparently blending is very difficult.

I think she means that they'd write "hed" for head

Well my ds is in reception and he can't write anything apart from his name. The only other words he can write are words he has copied. Don't worry about it, they've only been there 5 minutes, I think they need to read first to know what it is they are writing?

Writing phonetically is basically having a go at a word by the sound. So Cat could be CAT or could be CT. It basically doesn't worry about spellings.

Don't worry, they are all at different stages in reception. You also have to bear in mind the age ranges within the class. DD1 was way behind most of the girls in her reception class last year, but then her birthday in 21 Aug - you can't compare a child that has just turned four with a five year old. She is now in year 1 and catching up fast, bet that your DD does too.

Yes I mean writing eg. sosig for sausage

emkana, being first to start doesn't mean you end up the best. I was freaked out that some children were starting to read by the end of nursery and my dd1 was nowhere near. But a year later she'd overtaken them all.

And there are lots of kids in ds1's Y2 class who can write much better than him. But he's happy enough with his squiggles, so that's okay.

Reading and writing are not high-order skills, and yes, it is a waste of time teaching them at 3 or 4 when there are other things to be done. Besides, lots of kids who learn too early then have to unlearn the bad letter-formation habits they acquired when they were still too little to make the shapes properly.

Don't worry. In German kindergarten she'd be digging in the sand all day anyway. Sounds as if she's progressing at the right speed for her.

Don't worry - DS1 couldn't do it at this stage in reception, DS2 can (they're the same "age" in their class IYSWIM). Every child has different talents.

it also means 50% cant so dont worry!
If 99% could then worry!
Remembr children all have different abilities and there is a year age difference between youngest and oldest. some have older siblings etc etc. It will come in time encourage..dont push!

Well how bloody useful is it to be able to write sosig?!?!? And anyway, wouldn't it be sosij phonetically?

I'm surprised a teacher would talk about the class as a whole anyway, the conversation should really just focus on your child and how they are doing compared to what is expected, not compared to what everyone else is doing.

Well my friend's daughter will be put into a social development group because she's so shy she won't talk to the teacher most of the time, she talks through my dd1. So I'll take pride in my daughter's social skills, there!

Another friend pointed out to me that dd1 is the only one in the class who is bilingual. That's something I always forget about because it seems so normal to us.

And what is the point of learning sosig for sausage? They will then have to unlearn what they think is sausage and learn how to actually spell sausage. The only benefits will be that they might have an advantage with the lingo when it comes to texting on their moble phones!!

Because, furball, they are only 4 and are learning what sound the letters make!

So does that mean my son who is also in reception wil be learning sosig?

At dd1's school they said they encouraged them to first do "pretend" writing, then to progress to phonetic writing and then to worry about spelling later. Apparently it leads to more fluency and creativity or something.

Depends which school of teaching they use. By learning how to do things phoenetically, they learn "how" to read (rather than just recognising certain words) At DSs school, they move in in Y1 to having "word banks" and learning that things have correct spellings and ho to check these. I was sceptical when DS1 went through this but having seen how it has worked, I get it now and am far more relaxed with DS2.

DD1's year 1 teacher is very keen on encouraging their self expression, it's is hindered if they worry too much about spelling.

Really don't worry! My ds1 is now 12. His writing was fairly awful at age 4 or so (summer birthday). Also when he was in nursery/reception he was the last child to be given a real book to read in his folder; he just wasn't ready whereas even in the nursery class there were some 3.9/3.10 yo reading a little. I didn't worry because he loved being read to, loved carrying around his favourite books, etc.
At the end of y1 the Head told me he had the highest reading age of the whole year - about 70 children. Some of the early readers and writers levelled off, to put it like that. Ds1 is now doing really well.
When they're tiny, the academic "groundwork" gets laid down at a huge variety of times for different children.

Emkana - I'm not sure if you read the articles earlier in the year about learning to read. They were saying that the part of the brain that governs our first ability to read, is not connected with intelligence per se. They found that there is no link between speed of learning to read and write and overall intellek.

Very intelligent children who are slow to read/have enduring difficulty reading are likely to be labelled dyslexic, unintelligent children who have the same problems were labelled 'thick' in the main

So think of this purely as the mechanics - it is no great predictor of their educational outcomes

Intellect

Learning to write phonetically is not the same as learning to read phonetically.

Learning to read phonetically is a vital tool which will enable children to tackle reading with confidence.

Learning to write phoneticaly is a practice adopted by some schools as a confidence booster. It is not necessary and there are many studies which show how it can actually hinder learning.

Reception year should not IMO be about learning to write. It should be about learning how to socially adapt to school and being exposed to numbers, letters, words and sounds in an attempt to foster a keen love of learning.

Soapbox, where were those articles? They sound interesting.
Frogs, what do you mean by "high-order skills"? That sounds interesting, as well.
And, emkana, I wouldn't worry about it (well, I would, but only because I'm an over anxious parent). DS1 couldn't read or write at all at the start of Reception and was in the top group for both by the start of Y1.
DS2 can read but not write - hasn't got the motor skills.

High-order skills simply means particularly complex or demanding tasks. (That's what I was using it to mean, anyway!). Despite all the guff to the contrary and the large no. of people who can't read very well, it is actually not particularly difficult IF you are taught properly. Ditto writing. It's just that the UK practice of starting children off at an age where many aren't ready for the abstractness of reading or have the fine motor skills needed for writing makes it seem much more protracted and complex than it needs to be, and puts some children off completely. Agreed, English is more phonetically complex than some other languages, but the mishmash of teaching methods used in many areas complicates matters further.

Don't want to turn this into a phonics debate, but if you're interested, read 'Why Children can't Read' by Diane McGuinness (Penguin, i think).