DD having difficulty blending words.

[ClaraRenee]

My youngest DD(4.6),started school in september, just 4, (her school start all reception children in Sept). She has had no problems learning phenomes, but is having difficulty with blending. She has the first pack of words for 6 weeks, the teacher keeps returning the pack with a message "she needs to stop reading the words backwards". She blends words like sit,sat,it,as. The words that can be reversed like tap, pin, she reads as pat and nip. For all the practise and times she reads them she always reverses them. I ask if she's getting help at school with her blending, she says "no". She's getting upset and panicky now about not being able to do it so I've turned it into a game to keep her interest. She's in a very difficult class with all teacher and TA resources going into very difficuly characters in class. She's has 3 ear infections in 4 months so wonder if this has affected her. Would you be worried as she seems to be making little progress in blending ? Thanks, and I've got a meeting with her teacher next Wednesday.

Oh she is very little. I am sure not unusual to read words backwards sometimes but also i'm sure a teacher type person will have good advice for you soon! Do you think she may need her ears testing? May have temporary ear problem due to infections? Also, you may need to speak to the teacher about support she is receiving as at 4 her account maybe inaccurate as so little. Also you don't want her to get anxious about reading when she is so small.
Good luck!

Get her to point to the letters as she says the sound and ensure she is starting on the left. You may want to encourage her to read "pat" as p +a ="pa" pa+ t= "pat"
It is very common for young children to experience glue ear just as they are beginning school and it does cause them problems.

Shes been to a doctor about her ears, he said they'll refer her in the spring if she's still having problems. They only use grommets in severe cases. I have spoken to her teacher informally, who says that she is having problems with the class because they have a lot of social problems. I think they are still settling about 4 disruptive children down. I haven't had much feedback yet. At parents evening in November, I was annoyed when the comment I got back was "she's not like her academic sister". I just replied "thats because she's a different character". I think her teacher thinks that eventually she will turn out like DD2!

She is very little!
Games are a great idea, she shouldn't be panicking about it and if she is, the teacher needs to ease off.
Have you got magnetic letters. so that she can say the sounds and choose the letter, then make and blend? I'd have a go with letter strings as well :bat, cat, fat, hat.
Make an indicator for where to start, smiley face on the left hand side or something along those lines.

I have tried that but she always goes back to reversing it. I always remind her that when she's blended to say the word from the first sound. I wondered if there were anymore ways of encouraging her to read from the first sound of the word.

I like the smiley face idea, I'll give it a try, thanks.

That words should be read from left to right might seem very obvious to us but it is not a 'natural' skill, it has to be learned and it has to be learned to the stage that it is automatic. It isn't obvious to children and it can sometimes cause a little strain as the L to R tracking muscles are being 'trained'.

I would suggest that you use a piece of blank card (about business card size) to 'disclose' the sounds in the word, one at a time, from L to R. This will help to develop the L/R tracking. If she reverts to reading the word backwards when you stop using the card then just start using it again!

Asking her to point to each 'sound' as she reads it could also help. And, ask her to point to the first letter in the word before she starts to decode it. Make sure she does understand the concept of 'the first letter'.

Try from time to time to see if she can read in the 'right' direction independently, but revert instantly to 'props' if she can't.

She will eventually learn to track correctly through a word, just be patient and remember that she is still very young.

I am really sad to hear that this 'problem' is making her panicky. Learning to read should be a thrilling experience for a child, not a source of stress.

really useful tips maizieD thank you !

It might be worth seeing if you can find any of the Letterland books. They give each letter a character, and are heavy on grouping words by their initial letter/phoneme. This can be a drawback, but sounds as if it might be helpful here.

I don't think her teacher sounds very good
fancy saying a four year isn't academic!

My experience is that children get so hung up on the Letterland characters they try to read words hairy hat man annieapple rather than using phonemes

Yes, that's a drawback I had in mind!

But if you specifically want to encourage first letter recognition, then it has a place.

I'm not a fan of LetterLand either.

Some good advice here, I would just add that when you model sounding through a word for her, point to the letters but also say the initial sound significantly louder than the others. Encourage her to do the same. For some children it can just help to cement that sound. It is not uncommon for beginner readers to remember the sound they have just said first, thus reversing the word.

Thank you for all your comments. Just got back to the blog as computer been caput!Had a meeting with her teacher today which was unsuccessful. Her teacher told me that she has not listened to her read the words since last time (7 Jan, its marked in her home-school diary)because she can't blend the sounds. I got the impression that they are just leaving her to struggle and that they are leaving it up to me to help her blend the words. I don't know what to say as I'm gobsmacked. Teacher told me DD3 very clumsy, keeps falling over and stubborn. Have no idea the connection this has with her blending. I felt I was being white washed for their failure to help her. I will keep trying these ideas, got a feelng I'll be in again for a meeting if she continues to keep getting upset.

As I understand it she knows her letter/sounds but can't put them together to read whole words. I have to say I wouldn't give her a reading book at this point.
You could try lots of oral blending with her
can you h-o-p? please give me the b-oo-k
look at the d-o-g type games them encourage her to do the same before using magnetic letters to "write" the words you are blending then moving onto books
You could try magnetic letters and moving them together so she can physically see what happens to the sounds as she says them to make a word.

She does know all the phenomes and can sound a word out when writing the word. She has homework every night (hmmm) and tonight had to write the last sound of a word and managed to get the g in dog. I like the idea of the magnetic letters to physically see it. Thank you.

Could an ear problem be causing the falling over - affecting sense of balance?

Do what mrz said, I reckon that will help. Lots of children that age like to play 'robot talking' e.g. you say 'can you pat your b-a-ck' 'can you h-o-p' 'where is the c-a-t' etc. and with each phoneme move your arms like a robot(start with one straight and the other bent, then swap, if that makes sense?!)

As ever, I agree with mrz.
Lots and lots of games, keep it fun, lighthearted.

Would avoid Letterland, I really really dislike it anyway, but putting that aside, it doesn't sound as if letter recognition is the issue here.
Sorry teacher being so unhelpful. I also wondered if ear problems could be causing balance issues>

Shes always been clumsy, I don't think she has a balance problem, She can walk along a beam without any problems. I think she runs faster than what her legs can carry her. I'll monitor it and let the GP know if it continues. Thanks

I will keep it fun and play loads of games. She's learned all her phenomes through action (jolly phonics) and loves to act out the sounds. I want to keep it fun to help her stop worrying about blending. You've all been a help, thankyou-just wish her teacher could be more helpful.

Sounds like you've been given loads of great advice. I haven't warmed to her teacher much! All I wanted to add was that I would advise you to go to your GP again and ask for a referal re her ears now.

My DD had ear troubles 6 months back (4yo too). I was really concerned and was quite assertive at GPs. You could lay it on thick with GP, eg "the class teacher is concerned about her accademic progress and says she's concerned that she may have a balance problem etc, etc". Once she's got a referal you'll get to see the real experts!

If nothing else it'll just rule out this as being an "issue". If they do find a hearing problem, I know they don't like gromits any more, but at least you can thrash out stratergies and anything else that could possibly be done with specialists in this area.

Just as a final thought, you might like to start recording dates when you see teacher and record comments the teacher makes about your DDs progress. It is unreasonable to be sent back the same words again and again without any advice about what to do next. You are the parent, not the teacher. It's just lucky that you've worked out that you need to make it fun for her. Lots of parents would just feel lost.

If you record stuff at least if you do decide to take it further you've got the amunition.

Good luck