Reception - behind with reading

[Newtothis4921]

My daughter is a bit behind her peers with her reading. We’re on read write inc in reception and almost end of spring term, she is still on ditty sheets and rest of class seem to now be in red ditty books. She can blend sounds but finds it quite hard, I can see it’s hard for her brain and she often gets distracted and wants to look away. We practice lots and lots but she’s not getting much speedier. Occasionally can do ‘Fred in her head’ but I worry about her being behind. She’s also old for her year. I feel bad as she is my eldest and with no teaching knowledge myself I didn’t get her onto phonics before school, although she did a bit with pre-school.

Anyone else have this and found that it clicked and they caught up in summer term? She’s not SEN so not sure if I can get her extra support at school? I’m sure it’s fine but I just hadn’t really realised until parents evening and never struggled academically myself so didn’t think she’d be behind, probably now just over thinking it but any reassurance or advice much appreciated. Eg a teacher friend said to stick red words and door ways and get her to push the right one as a password which she is loving and definitely helping her learn her red words.

Advice and positive stories of improvement welcomed

Your friends advice is sound. Get her doing phonics in play. Treasure hunts for the correct sound. Snap. Go fish. Have the sight words/red words about the house. Talk with her and ask her what sound is at the start of words and at the end so she gains that understanding of how the phonics make words. Orchard toys do some good games you can get and play with her. Read easy books at bedtime to her and trace the words as you read.

most importantly keep it fun

Try not to focus too much on levels and where others are up to at this stage. She’s still young and needs to foster and embed a love of books and reading.
Does she enjoy repetitive and rhyming books, noisy books and lift up the flap books? Comics annuals and making your own photo books or albums are also good.
Anything multisensory will help to embed letter shapes and sounds
Playdough with letter cutters or roll and form letters
Make letter shapes or words with her finger in dry or wet textures in a tray
Make letters outdoors with a squeezy water bottle or chalk. Paint letters using water on bricks outdoors.
Writing Wizard is a great app for learning letters and key words
Those triangular prism shaped letter flip aids are good. Letters flip over individually so you can just move one e.g. cat mat sat bat etc
Magnetic letters or squishy letter shapes will help.
Make it fun and enjoy.

They all learn at different paces. Read books at home (eg phonics readers from usbourne) play “word snap” games, do the school prescribed reading and homework for do not stress. If by the end of year one they still are struggling I recommend looking into tutoring but not yet (my dd had two years of specialist dyslexia tutoring from 7-9 which did get her on track, she has a masters now!)

We had squashy letters for the bath. They stuck slightly to the bath when damp and I spent a lot of time having to read ‘alien words’ (set up by DC so they could laugh at me mangling them) or just generally playing ‘can you find me a W?’ Etc.

I say this as a mum of teens who got hung up on reading levels at primary - chill. Focus on reading with you dc, anything she enjoys, and keep it fun. They develop at different speeds. My dd3 was amazing socially at reading the room but reading books she saw as torture. She loves them now. Encourage but don’t stress.

My eldest was always behind, the books are boring and couldnt keep his attention. Hes now 9 and reads fairly well and reads most nights but now he can read things that interest him. Keep reading to her, making games ( i stuck sounds to toy cars and they had to go in the right garage ect) get creative with it.

My middle loves to please so he would create "homework" for himself and his reading has flourished so much faster! Kids are all different.

Reading eggs is alright as well!

The single biggest help you can give is to read read read to her, over and over again. Get some really funny poetry books, some exciting books, some cartoons, some recipe books - read everything all the time.
Don't compare to other kids, it will achieve nothing.

What did they say at parents evening? If they are telling you she is behind, they need to also be putting in place support to get her to where she needs to be.

I would definitely focus on making it fun at home. If she's turning away from wanting to do it, pushing it will only put her off. There is a good book called Read, Write, Play. I don't have it myself but have seen a copy at a friend's. It has lots of fun activities you can do at home to reinforce phonics and reading.

I totally understand what feels worrying when your DC is "behind" but don't forget that the schedule they're meant to be on is pretty arbitrary and that she will get there on her own timescale.

Children develop at different rates. My dd 1 could t read or write anything in reception. Nor for most of year 1. Then it clicked. I wanted her to enjoy reading so we played games mainly. Now she’s an adult in her first grad job. Don’t worry.

The main thing is that she stays positive and enjoys reading - that is the key to progress. Do you take her to the library? Having a constant supply of different books might help encourage her plus she might enjoy the experience of going tbere

You says she is not SEND. It is very hard to tell with intelligent girls (because they are so good at hiding everything). DD2 got a dyslexia diagnosis at 18, 3 months after sitting her A-Levels, and ADHD at 20. I’m not saying that your DD has any of this but I am saying be open-minded to the possibility.

Thank you everyone so many helpful replies! She loves being read to and quite happy there with advanced long books with chapters, no pictures etc so luckily a lover of books, but definitely struggling to pick it up herself. Got all the phonics down and first special friends but blending is slow going, she can do it but it just doesn’t come easily, sounds like games are a good way to go, thank you! She has also loved CGP 10 mins a day phonics activity book if anyone has other good ones to suggest. This sounds silly but with school I’m not sure how much you are allowed to ask of them eg having sit downs with teachers outside of parents meetings, asking for extra 121 time etc. I know teachers are so stretched I don’t want to take up too much of her time. Trying to just do lots at home but of course they are pretty tired after school so have to balance that.

Like others have said, just read loads together and practise writing: shopping lists etc. We pick up a couple of the supermarket free brochure/ inserts and the kids love going through them. Circling things they’d like, cutting and sticking pictures onto paper and making lists and ticking things they’d like to eat etc. Make it work with your daily routine. Writing birthday cards and if they aren’t confident writing independently the you can make dot tracing words for them to trace over. When talking about things, sound out more challenging words. Play word games when travelling, or walking for example rhyming games, eye spy, yes/no game. Anything that develops oracy and vocabulary. Practice writing cards or letters to people in the family for good/sad news. When going on a walk create a quick tick list of things they might see and encourage them to look and tick off as they go. My kids love an apology card for teachers or friends. They also love looking through recipe books and talking about the things they’d like to try ( or they’d dislike) and then creating lists of the ingredients they’d need for recipes.