Reading Reception

[wildmutt]

I'm starting to get a little worried about my ds aged 4.5. He started reception back in September and was full time by November. He's a typical rough and tumble 4 year old who loves football, ben10, knights, pirates, dinosaurs and all that sort of thing. We had a parents evening in November and his teacher said he was settling in well and nothing to worry about. He seems very happy going to school but I'm worried he is not picking up any of the phonics and still cannot recognise many letters of the alphabet. He really has not got the hang of blending at all and if I ask him what sounds he's been doing he just changes the subject. He's been getting ORT level 1 books and has had the same 16 high frequency words to learn but he is really struggling to retain these and he struggles reading his book so much so that he's not enjoying it at all. Also his homework this week was to practice writing 2's and 3's across the page but he found this very difficult. He can write his name reasonably well but that's it as far as writing goes.

I know you shouldn't compare children but I can't help be a bit worried as his sister now in y1 just whizzed through her words and reading books and was writing loads last year in reception.

In so many ways he is a very clever little boy and far more clued up than his older sister with many things. I'm hoping he's just not ready for writing or reading and that it will come in time but equally if there is a problem I know it's better to get help sooner the better. We have another parents evening in March so I'll discuss my concerns with his teacher then but if any one has similar experience or advice would love to hear from you.

He's been getting ORT level 1 books and has had the same 16 high frequency words to learn but he is really struggling to retain these and he struggles reading his book so much so that he's not enjoying it at all.

That's where the problem is. He should be getting decodable books (which ORT is not) and not be expected to 'learn' high frequency words. I am assuming that he is having to learn these as 'wholes' rather than as 'decodable with a tricky bit.

The school should really be concentrating on establishing his phonic knowledge (letter/sound correspondences)and giving him plenty of practice using it for sounding out and blending words. Once this is established he will be better able to cope with the 'tricky' words.

The mix of methods he appears to be getting at the moment is only confusing him. If the school believes that this is the way children should be taught to read in, my opinion, talking to them won't change anything.

Thanks Maisie, yes this is the way they do it. It is exactly the same system dd had last year but different teacher. TBH he hates looking at the words and his books. At first I thought it was just tiredness but he really is not capable of retaining whole words as yet. I have put a note in his record book to say he finds the words hard to learn but I don't want to knock his confidence as he is far more sensitive than his big sis. She really took to the reading and somehow never had to learn the words she just seemed to know them. There was me thinking at the time it was because of my fantasic parenting skills that it was all so easy.

Get yourself a copy of the Jolly Phonics Handbook from Amazon, or have a look at my friend Debbie's Phonics International web site www.phonicsinternational.com, or have a look at the BRI books from piperbooks.co.uk/ and work with him yourself on the phonics.

Ignore the HFWs for the time being when they are sent home and don't worry about the fact that he won't be able to read the ORT books. Let the school do the worrying while you schoolproof him with the skills he really needs for reading He'll be much happier and more confident.

My ds isn't blending yet but the school is apparently on phase 3 of letters and sounds so he should be able to do the basic cat,sat etc....He can do some but I think he has a good memory rather than truly blending.

I have found the ideas and videos on the standards website.I'm going to get stuck in with a daily 5 mins with magnetic letters and paper letters spaced out for individual sounds then brought together for blending.I think if we keep at it, it will twig eventually.The sounds are btw although I taught these ds before school with jolly phonics and he picked these up fine I don't think he has learnt the 2 letter sounds yet such as sh,ch so I'm going to do these.If this works I'll then do the precision teaching phonics daily for reinforcement.

My ds has rubbish old (years old!) sight word books from school with easy sight words mixed with ones which are way beyond his level and sight words to learn which he does easily and then forgets.I actually think the 5 minutes I spend each day doing these would be more usefully spent doing the above.It is all becoming a bit confused as he will encounter a new word and instead of sounding it out just guesses randomly from words he knows which are similar.

Writing we are OKish with.He likes light sabre letters,writing letters in flour and on an upright board.Not keen on paper but I'm more concerned he forms the letters correctly rather than size and neatness yet.

I think some children just need more 1 to 1 to click and some schools use a mixture of lots of different methods to teach reading so that the phonics is just a tiny amount of each day.If it doesn't click with your child then the class has already moved on.

I know my ds is young and it is likely to be fine but I really feel some home help doesn't go amiss when it is low key and just 5 mins a day as there isn't the resource for 1 to 1 at school.

We'll still read lots of his picture books for fun as we always have.

I would imagine your school will say it isn't a problem.

Thank you again Maisie and Sunandstars for some really good advice and info. Will look into getting the jollyphonics book for home. Love the light sabre letters idea - will be trying that with him tomorrow!