Can anyone recommend online reading programmes?

[Sops]

I'm looking for an online reading program for my 4yo ds as although he is a big book lover and loves to be read to he has become reluctant to read his school reading books saying they're too boring and too hard. I am sure that he has the skills needed to make more progress if we can just tap into some motivation so I was thinking maybe something we do online would help.
I've looked at headsprout and that looks OK but very expensive. Does anyone know of any good ones? We have an ipad too so any apps for that which could be useful?

never look a gift horse in the mouth spanieleyes

Are you getting a copy, then, mrz?

Noooooooooooo

Dr Black's tone is so sanctimonious and self-serving, I couldn't take it. Sorry!

A soupcon of phonics, a big slosh of Whole Language - syntax, semantics ...
= 'balanced' literacy which is practised all over the States. It is the reason why up to 40% of children in many States are semi-literate.

IndigoBell - I don't know how old your child is but if you can find a soundreadingsystem tutor to help your child that would be well worth while. It's a pretty much fool-proof programme for children who have not managed to master reading skills - as is BRI for little children.
She needs a very carefully structured approach and a great deal of practice. If the parameters are right, then she'll be tremendously relieved because the logic of the code is making sense to her at last.

AllChildrenReading - I've had hundreds of threads on this, but basically as 2 1/2 years of Read, Write, Inc hasn't worked ( as well as toe-by-toe and dancing-bears). I don't believe any other learn to read program will work either.

Read, Write, Inc teaches 'the code' as well as any other learn to read program. It's a daily, structured, small group, high quality, synthetic phonics intervention......

She is doing an hour a day of Read, Write, Inc.

There is no reason at all to think a tutor could teach her, seeing as everything else has failed.

(And I can't find one, and if I could when on earth would DD be able to see her? She is far too tired after school to go to a tutor.)

She knows how to read. She just can't do it.
She has been able to blend CVC words for a year and a half (thanks to RWI) - but still can't read CVC words fluently. It is not a problem with not understanding the code or not understanding how to blend or not understanding how to read.

Everyone keeps on telling me they can teach her - but no one can.

I'm not trying to promote any particular programme Indigobell, but not all synthetic phonics programmes are equal. To date there has been no comparison of programmes, and the only programmes with extensive research to back their claims are the DI programmes, and the original research done by the South West Regional laboratory in the USA whch developed the BRI books in the 70s. (as far as I know that is, maybe I'm wrong)
Different programmes vary in ways which may or may not be significant. And whilst most children can learn to read with any synthetic phonics - and some without explicit synthetic phonics at all - the differences in architecture of different programmes may be of great significance for children at the margins. We don't know.

Is the Brooks report not a comparison of learn to read programs?

Read, Write, Inc claims something like a 97% success rate - which is pretty much what they all claim.

Brooks Report??? I don't know this IndigoBell, got any more details please?

What works for pupils with literacy difficulties?

No, IB, it is not a comparison of 'learn to read' programmes.

It is a comparison of a collection of self reported studies on programmes used to remediate reading difficulties. There is no control over the quality of the research or the accuracy of the data. Inclusion of 'studies' is completely random, depending as it does, on the right people seeing the right 'evidence call' in the right publications, at the right moment.

Indigo - was she doing Read, Write Inc as a small group or one to one? Was she working with a TA, teacher or specialist teacher?

She's been doing RWI in a small group with a RWI trained TA.

The EP has observed her in her RWI group and has said both that RWI is being delivered effectively, and that DD is engaged.

She has been under the SpLD EP for a year, and he has not got a clue with what to do with her. His one and only recommendation has been that she continues with RWI.

Don't you have access to a specialist SPLD teacher who can devise (and deliver) a programme specifically around dd?

No, like I said she's been under the SpLD team for a year, and they believe that synthetic phonics is the magic answer to everything and that Read, Write, Inc is the best synthetic phonics program there is - and therefore they have no other suggestions. :(

Pretty much echoing what many of the synthetic phonics expert on this board seem to think. That if synthetic phonics isn't working - do more of it.

I think they only send the SpLD teacher into schools that aren't teaching synthetic phonics the way they like it to be taught.

Nobody (besides me) seems at all interested in trying to find out why she is having such significant troubles learning to read.

It feels to me that synthetic phonics is such a political battle ground which the experts are fighting, that they refuse to look past it and really work out why a very few kids really really struggle with learning to read.

Well there must be specialist SPLD teachers on the team. If the TA support isn't working (and it clearly isn't) then they need to try another programme and she deserves one to one support from a specilaist teacher. Perhaps the pace of the group is too fast for her. I doubt it's the phonics that is failing her. A specialist teacher should be able to devise a programme specifically to meet dd's needs using whatever programme is most suitable.

Ruth Miskin specifically says that children falling behind should get one-to-one help, from day one if necessary.

She says: 'I think there will always be a small group of children who will need one-to-one tutoring - even with the best synthetic programmes, best training and best implementation; there are some children who have particular needs that cannot be met in a group - and not just SEN children. We tutored some children with SEN at my old school forever until they could read well. We also tutored children with behaviour problems, long term absentees, new arrivals just to mention a few. These children were always given more of the same and not something different. No amount of group teaching helps a child once they fall behind their peers - though you can sometimes teach in pairs if they are at the same level. If we want to be truly inclusive schools must plan for these children as a matter of course and not just hope for the best.
Synthetic phonics is not a simple panacea - it takes determination to get every child reading. As soon as a child fails to learn the first letter on the first day - quick tutoring should take place''.

She does get 1:1 support every day.

She is now in a group that is going sufficiently slowly that she is keeping up with it. She is predicted to finish the RWI program half way through Y4.

However learning to read halfway through Y4 may well be too late. By then her self confidence will probably be in tatters, and the chance of her ever enjoying or thriving in school is very slim.

Obviously no one here has ever met DD, and so can have no idea at all why she is failing. You can't possibly know whether phonics is failing her, or her eyesight, or her hearing, or bad teaching, or her cognitive abilities, or emotional problems, or behavioural problems, or undiagnosed SN, or what. Phonics and Read, Write, Inc is failing her.

Assuming Synthetic Phonics works 100% of the time is failing her.

In my experience one to one support delivered regularly by a specialist teacher will help the majority of pupils who have been identified as having SPLD but one programme will not. Each child will present differently due to the nature of their SEN/SN - one programme cannot fully meet the needs of each child with SPLD. It sounds like your school or LEA have invested in this particular programme so are really pushing it, despite it clearly not being the best programme for your dd.
From my personal experience one to one support from a specialist teacher was the only thing that helped my ds learn to read - he'd also had years of unsuccessful TA/teacher interventions. His needs were far too complex to be met by following any single programme. He didn't get that particular support until the end of year 4, but then reached level 4 by the end of year 6. (Then regressed to level 3 when support wasn't continued in Y7 but that's another story.)

IB says:

"However learning to read halfway through Y4 may well be too late. By then her self confidence will probably be in tatters, and the chance of her ever enjoying or thriving in school is very slim."

I think you are possibly taking an uduly pessimistic view here. As you know, I work with Y7+ children. Among them there are one or two who I have had to teach to read almost from scratch (i.e they knew simple correspondences, but that is all). I agree that their self confidence wasn't exactly at an all time high, but then, no-one had been telling them that they would learn to read - in fact, quite the contrary. (I'm sure that your dd is getting a far more positive attitude from her teachers.) However, once they can read their confidence levels do increase and they do enjoy achieving at levels far higher than they had ever thought possible.

I think that as long as there is a positive and empathetic feeling from those around her (i.e teachers & support staff) and she is given opportunities to display ability in other areas she will come through OK. Better than those poor people who have childhood memories of being called 'thick' and 'stupid' by teachers who did not understand their difficulties.

You said in an earlier post that you felt that the political battle over SP was preventing anyone taking real interest in the children for whom it isn't successful. I, for one, am most interested in those children as being the ones I can't easily 'sort out'. But until the poorly taught children can be eliminated these children will not cause sufficient concern so as to become the focus of research. Money and resources are too thinly spread at present (and it isn't going to get any better)

I don't know if I'm being unduly pessimestic. But I do know I haven't lowered my expectations for her. I still expect her to achieve the 2 sublevels of progress she is targeted for. Wheras everyone at school seems to think it acceptable that she doesn't.

There is a legal defn of adequate progress and she has never made it. The schools have definately lowered their expectations of her.

Are you sure you haven't lowered your expectations? You get kids come in on a level 2. You teach them to read and write - and then they go on to get good A levels and go to university?

Indigo we had a family join our school just over a year ago. The eldest child was predicted to achieve a 2a at the end of Y6 after just a year he looks on target to meet national expectations ...high expectations are never misplaced.