WHY is my dd so far behind her peers in reading?

[Enid]

She is in year 1. She has just finished ort stage 4, but tbh, she doesnt seem to have any grasp of the words that she read in ORT. She is on a new set of books now (jelly and bean) and we have just plodded through it - she needs help with every second word. If I tell her that says 'swims' and then 'swims' appears on the next page, she won't get it. She doesnt sound out words either.

Of course I feel worse about it as she has a friend home who read her book beautifully and fluently. All five of the other girls in the class can read very well and fluently.

The school is notoriously bad at communicating with parents - I want to ask them WHY is she so far behind, but will they just say, because thats the way she is and stop being such a pushy mum??

poor dd1 is actually the oldest in her class (she'll be 6 in Dec).

Enid, your dd is not alone... my ds too has been classed as "being behind", he is also in year 1. I made an appointment to see the teacher. I am not a pushy mother at all, a little bit bossy maybe but I'm a great believer in that they come along at their own pace. However, after speaking to his teacher, we have both (at home and at school) concentrated on his reading and in two months he has progressed from stage 2 to stage 4 and he is interested in learning to read now. I think half the problem now is the ridiculous targets set for such young children and also the constant comparisons we and other parents make about each others children, you know the ones like "my sons on ORT stage 100 - what's yours on". Don't be frightened to approach the teacher with your concerns and (try and) ignore what levels other children are on. Hope everything works out ok

my dd(in yr 1 and the youngest being an august birthday)is on stage 2. we had parents eve a couple of weeks ago and i mentioned her reluctance to "read"the books and the tantrums that came when she was stuck on a word, anyway teacher said not to worry or force the issue(we hadn't at all but mentioned it as it was a good chance too)anyway this weekend i was crying with joy when she asked to read her book to me....and she read it really well and then another(and then the peter and jane book that we bought in june for her to read on her holiday)
something has finally clicked and she seems to be on the right road at last
take it easy for a few weeks and see how it goes.....

Enid - I thought DS1 (only in reception though) was really struggling and not remebering one word from one page to the next......until I went and spoke to his teacher who told me he was doing really well at school - by no means top of the class but progressing well.

I still wasn't totally convinced - until a friend of ours (DS2's godmother actually) looked after him one afternoon and she told me he'd been reading his book really well - again by no means "brilliant" but certianly remembering things from page to page.

serenity - the school year in Scotland starts in the middle of August and ends at the end of June/ beginning of July. They also start school when they are older - between 4.5 and 5.5. The cut off date is the end of Feb, so the oldest children in P2 will have turned 6 in March, and the youngest will turn 6 in February.

Also if your child hasn't turned 5 by the time the school year starts in August, you can choose not to start them in P1 that year, and they can start in P1 the following year instead. This option is mostly used by parents of the youngest kids - Dec/Jan/Feb birthdays.

Enid, it was mind blowing - I was utterly gobsmacked with DS1. It was literally as if all the pieces just clicked - all the work they'd done on phonics, letter blends and what seemed (to old-fahioned me) to be wishy washy literacy teaching came together. Part of it must have been because rather than teach the "50 words your child should read by reception" type of reading, they gave him the tools to allow him to read anything so once he'd worked them out and ordered them in his brain, that was it - he was off. More to the point, he enjoyed reading rather than viewing it as a chore. I had to mentally apologise to the school for ever doubting their methods

Having said all that, there seems little point in giving your DD books which are of the wrong level for her. Surely it just serves to demoralise her and make her disinterested. Can you get some more appropriate level books from the library or somewhere like the Bookpeople?

Enid, other things that have been sugested to me ( by the SENCO I work with) is to read with ds (ie he reads and I read at the same time out loud....this helps their confidence and their understanding that the blobs on the page mean the spoken word said. What you can then do is let them do the odd word that they can read on their own.

You read a line, they read a line.

Read a 'real' book and pick out odd words for them to read.

Get them to listen to book tapes in the car....this helps their attentian span for the spoken word.

I have tried these with ds and they do help to get over the negative feelings about reading

Enid,

I would be concerned if my child were unable to sound out words.

I have posted on this subject many times before as I passionately believe that the best way to teach a child to read is the phonetic way. If your daughter?s school is not doing this, you can do it yourself at home. I taught my ds1 last year when he was in Reception. I received a lot of help from ?Catflap?, another poster on this board who used to be a Year 1 teacher. I used Jolly Phonics, like she suggested, and got lots of help too on the following websites, all of which have message boards:

www.syntheticphonics.com (Debbie is very helpful and responds personally to emails from worried parents).
www.rrf.org.uk
www.jollylearning.co.uk
www.dyslexics.org.uk (not just for dyslexics).

Please have a look: the teaching of reading in our schools is a really big issue and I had no idea until last year!

I have used some of the Jelly and Bean books (and just ordered lots more as I am now teaching my friend?s dd and another friend?s ds to read). The ones I have seen are very good because they are phonetic and so you can teach children to sound out the sounds and blend them to hear the word. The series also incorporates the Reception words.

Please CAT me if you would like to know more about how I taught my ds1 to read. I am always happy to share what I did with others. I had no idea how to help him when I started but I learned quickly ? it?s really not difficult to do.

I would certainly express your concerns to your dd?s teacher. I don?t think she will think you?re a pushy mum. However, if the school is using ORT, I suspect they teach reading using the ?mix of methods? approach. This probably includes using picture and context clues to ?guess? the word and some phonics work - but not enough for your dd to learn to access words phonetically.

Best of luck, whatever you decide to do.

Wow, I think only about 5 (of a total 27) children in DS's Yr-1 class can almost read "fluently".

DS is just starting to sound out words, and he can read most of the Reception key words, plus a few more, and he can spell quite a few... but his writing is atrocious; barely legible. They haven't taught him how to write the letters at all, so he just forms them however he likes. I'd die for him to have "lovely neat handwriting".

DS seems about average at literacy things in his class (in a school with average test results). But his class/ability always seem much worse than the MN average; I never know what to think about that!

My DS is in Year 1 and is on ORT 3 but he has a friend on ORT 1 still. Apparently it is not until children get to 7 or 8 that they find their natural level. Some that race ahead at 5 do fall back as they get older.

Just endorsing everything ChocolateGirl said! Follow her advice and go right back to basics with phonics - those recommendations and links she's given are brilliant and well worth following up.

Hi Enid- just wanted to say one of my sons was just like soupy's. I was astounded when it all clicked for him. I hope your dd will find that happening for her soon too.

DD was/is a v fluent reader but many of the children in her class didn't find it clicked until Y2/Y3. It wasn't until this stage that the school started looking into the children who were still having problems and started recommending strategies to deal with their ?problems.

Enid - are you sure you're not raising my dd - I could have posted the exact same thing myself although dd was only five at the end of July so is at the youngest end of the class. I did voice the concern to her teacher at a recent parent's evening and told her I felt she was struggling and like your dd, numeracy means nothing to her atm. She has been discreetly moved to a lower group and I think this will make a difference to her.

I've also started her on fish oil capsules - will try anything that might help her to concentrate as I know she's bright enough, but her concentration span is short and her mind wanders very easily. I do believe, however, that it will just click for her, in her own time. I was more worried about the emotional toll of being behind some of her peers. She seems happy enough though in her new reading group, and tonight, she read beautifully, despite a large part of it being memory and guesswork (looking to me for confirmation of her guess rather than looking at the word and sounding it out).

I do remember the same thing with ds1, but he was quicker to pick it up than dd is. IIRC, he read a lot from memory too though and is now a very confident and capable reader reading books above his years. I'm happy enough for now to work hard at the literacy and I feel her grasp of the numeracy will come when she's ready and has a more confident approach to reading. Hopefully things will improve soon for both our dd's in the reading department.

I'd say, talk to the school, but don't panic. You are so clearly clever and interested and kind and supportive I cannot imagine that she will not get there in the end with your help.

thanks everyone

this morning after breakfast dd1 asked if she could read her reading book to me - I said she could do the last few pages, she read them really really well (still a few mistakes but I just left it). I really hope they move her back a bit, she's such a trier but it is obviously a bit beyond her just at the minute.

She still enjoys having books read to her though and now we have our new woodburner () our new routine is to sit in front of it and read stories instead of watching telly - ah its like the Waltons in our house

What a cozy picture. I want a wood burning stove! .

tbh, I'm sure the memory of curling up by a wood burning stove with her lovely mum will remain with dd long after any memories of learning to read have faded.

Enid,

My dd1 struggled with her reading in reception and year 1. I went to a parents evening at the beginning of year 2 where the teacher said that she was bordering on having to be taken out of the class for extra tuition. All of a sudden, after the october half term everything seemed to 'click'.

She started high school in september and is in the top group for english, and has been top ever since that half term holiday.

god I am getting wet over this

the idea of dd1 reading lion witch and wardrobe or being in the top group for English just makes me want to cry.

I LOVE all these inspiring stories though!

Thanks.

will be interested to see/hear what the teacher has to say about the comment when I go to school this arvo.

Kids are all so different, it's hard not to compare them with others but try not to.
I sometimes help listento readers in ds1's class (yr2)and the range of abilities it so wide you wouldn't believe it. Some are fluent readers ort 11 others are on ort 2or3. If our school tends to send home slightly easier books than they read in school to make them more confident, as if they have to work out every other word it can discourage them. I would talk to her teacher, you might find that as she gets more confident something will just click, it did with my son, once he realised he could do it there was no stopping him

Good luck this afternoon, enid. About four children in ds' class were still very much waiting for their reading "click" midway through year one. They had all had it by Easter, apparently. Not long to wait hopefully.
at your woodburning stove, how lovely!

Enid - have you had a positive response from the teacher?

yes quite positive.

She does have an annoying tendency not to listen to a word I say and just reels off a pre-prepared speech...but I digress

she said dd1 'attacked'her reading and writing with gusto and certainly didn't lack confidence. She said that she had problems with 'blends and digraphs' (cue a blank looking Enid) and would spend some extra time with her until the end of term working on this. She gave me some worksheets to take home that we could work on with dd1.

She said she would assess her properly at the end of next term (ie before Easter) and reiterated the point that others have made about some children being later to 'click' than other children.

She also reminded me that she did come to school with very little reading knowledge and therefore had progressed a lot since then. She said teachers only really begin to worry if children make no progress at all.

She thinks she is on an appropriate level for her and doesn't want to move her back a level.

dd1 is begging to do the worksheets but I have said not until the weekend. She read her book really nicely tonight.

Sounds great!

I agree completely with others here that yr1 is often the year when it clicks. I loved listening to readers at school of this age, and watching them over the year change from struggling to really understand the concept to being confident, fluent readers. It's so exciting!