Phonics advice

[Cookiemonster13]

Looking for advice

My 6 year old boy in Year 2 is struggling with phonics and reading. He has struggled consistently since reception. He seems to get the individual sounds but blending is the challenge for him. I've consistently raised concerns with the school and they have done group interventions. At the end of year 1 we scored 9 on the phonics screening test and at my wits end I hired a tutor who we saw a few times a week in summer and now weekly. We have saw improvements he is reading level 3 books with more fluency (however, still perhaps a way behind where he should be).

The school suggested in July he should repeat year 1 phonics which I accepted, however, after the summer they said they had heard him read and had allowed him to progress. At parents evening his teacher wasn't sure of his progress as phonics is taught as a year group and as it's a village school classes are mixed ages. I made an appointment with the phonics teacher who told me he has too many gaps and should be with the year 1's for phonics. A bit annoying as if I hadn't raised the issue would they have raised it with me.I spoke to headteacher and she has said she agrees he should be with year 1. She will refer for Sen support (feels like this just gives school advice). Her main reasoning is suspected dyslexia. Rather worryingly she said he may never catch up.

Couple of notable points. He seems like a bright boy, his vocabulary is excellent and he is really interested in the world and science but for whatever reason phonics is not something that is clicking. The other thing is in a short time he has made great progress with the tutor so he is capable of learning when supported. The school are generally unaware of his progress haven't heard him read since September(!) and when I ask what gaps he has they just say he isn't at level 5! I've asked them to reassess him properly.

Apologies for long post has anyone got any advice of what I can do to support him. We do daily reading. Also I'm frustrated with the school as it feels like they have basically said he will always be behind.

What phonic scheme do they follow?

Reading Stars

Should also add he has hearing issues. So last few years around Easter he has had a burst eardrum. GP referred him to audiology in May and he was reassessed in September. Next appointment in December. He has hearing loss in 1 ear. Doesn't really notable manifest on a day to day basis but I think it could be causing challenges with his phonics/reading. He is also really sensitive to loud noises (hand dryers, motorbikes etc he gets really upset).

It sounds like the school need to putting him into intervention groups for phonics. I’m a phonics lead. I’d be concerned that he was being put back with y1 but not supporting him to blend and therefore catch up. With my phonics scheme the children are heard read three times a week so to not hear him read since September is a massive red flag.

I would be asking the school for a detailed assessment of where his gaps are. They should have this, assessment should be regular and rigorous.
I would be asking for support to be in place at school and for you to be able to support at home with his blending and the gaps he has.
I would be asked what support he receives in phonics lessons.
I would be asking for information about the curriculum he is following each week and using a skilled phonics tutor to help him catch up.

I had a child join my class in year 2 a few years ago who had come from a small school and was lost in phonics, couldn’t blend and had massive gaps. By the end of year 2 he had pretty much caught up. He has since been diagnosed with dyslexia.
What worked for him…
1- instant and ongoing assessment
2- daily lessons with the year 1 curriculum. He was supported in lessons by a TA.
2- daily reading with a TA using a book carefully targeted to his level. This included targeted catch up of specific and identified gaps.
4- ongoing discussion with parents so they could support at home.

Heating issues can cause problems with phonological awareness. Does he sit at the front in phonics lessons?

Thank you this is helpful advice.

I think the school are being unhelpful to be honest. So they are adamant they can't do anything 1-2-1. They said they are doing interventions quick 5-10 minutes in line with the programme and have been for some time. I think these are group and TA led. They haven't assessed him since July. They get volunteers (grandmothers and parents to hear the children read). They say this happens twice a week but I only see it noted weekly in diary. Teacher hasn't heard him read since September.

i have asked them to reassess him and give a comprehensive list of his gaps. I think you are right if I could also reinforce the curriculum that would help. I've asked them to sit him at the front and explained why but would double check that is still happening.

They have asked me to consider whether he moves back to year 1s for phonics or stays with year 2s. They don't see any point in staying put as they think he is too far behind. I've countered if you move him back but do nothing to catch him up he will be forever behind they just said yeah and some children are.

If it’s a small school they will be more limited with staffing, logistically it may be tough for them to fit in more than they are doing. Not ideal but that is often the case.
im not familiar with that phonics scheme but if he were on little wandle which my school use he would be doing daily rapid catch up sessions as normal practice, we reassess every 4 weeks and send home focus sounds.
i would suggest focusing on high frequency words at home if school can’t give you sounds to focus on, you can google top 100 most high frequency ones eg the. Make flashcards and repeat every day. This will help him sight learn them which will speed up reading fluency and confidence.

I’m sorry but that doesn’t sound good enough. I realise 1-2-1 support is rare. I have very few children in my class that receive it but those who are behind in phonics are priority. I can only assume that being such a small school they have minimal staff, which is why they are using relatives to hear readers.

I think your next step is to make an appointment with the SENDCo. Explain your concerns and ask for what I stated above. In my school we can screen for dyslexia from the age of 6 in year 2 and after screening I think advise parents to go for a private diagnosis. Many places do it from 6 although many will only assess from 7. I think however that if he’s struggling to blend after two full years of phonics then there are clear barriers to him learning.

Also look at Amazon and just buy your own sets of flashcards, see which he knows and doesn’t and create two piles then work on the ones he doesn’t.

in terms of blending, can he hear the sounds in a word? Focus on oral blending first with daily games eg put on your sh-ooo-s, he says shoes. Point to your c-oa-t etc then get him to lead the game once he understands. this is very easy to include in day to day life.

once you have worked out if he can do this orally you can then blend using his school reading books.

We have some high frequency word flashcards so will dig those out. I have a girl in reception so we can do some joint daily practice.

i think it is a staffing issue they have combined a few year groups and don't have anyone to go around. Less than ideal though

I agree with this. We also follow Little Wandle and they have a great parents section on their website you can look at for free. Their use at home flash cards are available on Amazon too. These are the sets my school buy and send home for children who need them.

The school have made a referral for SEN support today but I didn't get the impression much would change. They said they would receive advice on what to try etc and if we were lucky they may come and see him. They felt he was too young so would be low priority.

Dyslexia screening was really weird as they said one of their volunteers can borrow a screening test in December but it wouldn't be official.

I agree it’s not ideal. Does he also reverse his written letters and numbers? Does he ever mirror write or write sounds in the wrong order eg When writing would he ever write god instead of dog?

I'm a teacher of the deaf. A good proportion of our children with hearing issues really struggle with blending and so much better with an alternative to phonics. So I agree with @wafflesmgee about looking for flashcards and working on those. We also use a sight reading scheme called ERT. I don't know if that's available online. I've seen many children who struggled to blend really take off with their reading when they are given the opportunity to learn through sight reading.

I'll check that out. Honestly feel at my wits end.

He always reverses letters and numbers including ones in his name. Hard to say with writing as he is a reluctant writer I do get him to do daily spelling practice though on a whiteboard which is helping writing (confusing phonics as he spells everything phonetically and the spellings they are practicing are not phonetic words so he is getting those wrong).

see how he does with high frequency words and flashcards and if he does well move on to more sight words.

Has anyone mentioned Toe by Toe ? It helps with blending as it goes back to the basics of phonics by reinforcing skills step by step. Letters and nonsense words are converted into sounds correctly and efficiently, which is the foundation of blending. Developed with dyslexia in mind, it is extremely useful for anyone who finds reading difficult.

Morning all,

I tested him on the phonics flashcards this morning. He is secure in all phase 2 sounds and most phase 3 sounds the only sounds he wasn't sure of was air, ear and er. He knew them but was a bit hesitant so will practice those.

i have some phonics screening test flashcards so of the blue section I pulled out 20 at random (10 real and 10 made up). He got 15. The words he got wrong snuck, ring, lut, pib & thusk. I'll test him on the orange harder section tomorrow didn't want to overload him.

i know from the tutor she thinks it's blending Cvcc, ccvc words he needs help with.

Hes definitely behind but I'm not sure blanket repeating year 1 as the school have suggested is the answer for him.

That sounds like a good start.

I still think working with him on some sight reading cards would help.

That’s great! Very useful assessment. Keep practicing the sounds he doesn’t know and reinforcing the ones he does.

It sounds like he’s pretty secure with the majority of Phase 3 but spotting those sounds in longer words is trickier. This is Phase 4 which happens at the end of Reception and is revised in Year 1.

I agree with your tutor. My advice would be to present him with longer words such as CCVCC words and ask him to spot the digraphs/trigraphs in those words. Have the flash cards laid out to help him to begin with. He can write the sound buttons underneath with a pencil and then use his finger to point to each sound before blending.

Out of interest, what did he say instead of the correct words when you did the screening practice? For example, what did he say instead of pib? It might help us recognise his gaps. Thanks

Could you try teaching him to read at home using old fashioned methods? Phonics isn’t the only way to learn to read and isn’t for everyone.

This, but expect to be jumped on by people who are fanatical about phonics.

Don't underestimate his hearing loss and the effect it can have.
Ds had glue ear badly. After his third set of grommets he came home really excited to tell me that "did I know that sh and ch make different sounds?" He could not hear the difference before grommets.

I taught him/he taught himself before he went to school whole word recognition. He used to have the subtitles on so that really helped him learn, because between the words and the half-heard words he could work out what was going on. The first word he could spell was "Concorde!"
But he was reading quite advanced books (mostly about planes) before he went to school.

But that meant that when he was doing phonics he could use his knowledge of words and the half sounds he could hear, to work out phonics even when he couldn't hear himself or the teacher (his hearing was about 10% during the winter without grommets in). So he'd look at the phonic (eg th) and think "oh that's at the start of the words "the" "this" "there" and realise the sound - even when he couldn't hear the teacher.

I also taught DD to read (well) before she started school. So much so that she was bored with all the “easy” books the school made her read and therefore took a long time to work her way up the colour codes, even though she was reading much more advanced books at home.
We also used whole word recognition: stuff like “can you see the difference between these two words (eg cat and bat), and can you find another word that has a c sound at the beginning?”

I used the Cat in a Hat Dr Zeus book a lot to start with.