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Primary education

Join our Primary Education forum to discuss starting school and helping your child get the most out of it.

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Original poster

Sorry, reception reading question. . . please help!

20 replies

medoitmama · 14/02/2011 11:29

I'm not a pushy parent, (honest!) But I'm getting myself in a bit of a state! My DD1 is in reception and I think she's doing ok but I'm just not sure. I'm dyslexic and struggled terribly at school. I obviously don't want the same for my DD.

She'll be 5 in April. She recognises most of her letter sounds (although still sometimes struggles with or muddles up v, j, p, d and b). They are on to phonemes now and although they have been doing them for about 6 weeks, she still doesn't recognise any of them confidently. Guesses at 'th' and 'sh' having the 'ch' sound and vice versa. It just doesn't seem to come easily to her.

She has had her first set of tricky words for about 7 weeks now and recognises all except 'the' when looking at the flashcards but not in books. She is on ORT pink 1+. She's happy to read to me with lots of sounding out.

She's a confident, bright girl with a great vocabularly. Her maths seems pretty good and she can tell the time if it's an o'clock or a half past, (just trying to give you the full picture in case it helps!)

I try very hard not to pass my anxieties on to her, I just think I'd feel better if I knew where she should be at her age. Is there a website that I can use to track whether she is keeping in line with national average?

OP posts:

crazygracieuk · 14/02/2011 11:44

I think that you are anxious because of your dyslexia. It can't be diagnosed until 7 years old.

I have a son in Reception. They have done all single letter sounds and have started digraphs. When they were doing single letter sounds, they were doing 3 sounds a week but now they are focusing on 1 sound a week. If you think about it, they have done 1 term of sounding words out letter by letter so they aren't on the look out for phonemes. The teacher said that "th" is especially difficult as it can be the sound as in "there" or "thumb" and some children haven't mastered saying the "th" sound anyway.

My son is on the same reading level, recognises a similar number of sounds and he's average-ish in his class.

deepdarkwood · 14/02/2011 11:47

She sounds pretty 'normal' to me - they vary so widely at this age! Certainly some in dd's class are still learning their single letter sounds, and others are just mastering the first few phonemes - lots of them only manage those when they are pointed out iyswim - ie what does ch make not reading chair.
Lots of sounding out is good!!

IndigoBell · 14/02/2011 11:57

crazygracieuk - Serious reading problems (often called dyslexia) can be diagnosed before 7.

Do you think a child is absolutely fine - then they have their 7th birthday and they are no longer fine?????

OP - I have no idea if your child has 'dyslexia' or not. There certainly is a genetic link and the odds of her having it are higher than the normal population. She is certainly doing better than my DD was at that stage in reception (my DD does have 'dyslexia')

I think you should keep a very close eye on her and her reading progress - but not 'worry' yet. Maybe post back here at the end of reception and tell us what she's doing?????

crw1234 · 14/02/2011 12:01

Honestly my DS1 is in reception, he was 5 in December and sounds exactly the same - he has just started on phonemes but hasn't got the idea. I am not concerned.

ellina · 14/02/2011 14:01

Another one here with a 5 yr old in reception - sounds completely normal to me. I wouldn't be worried.

crazygracieuk · 14/02/2011 14:06

Indigobell- I'm not an expert in SN and dyslexia and should have worded my post differently.

SlightlyTubbyHali · 14/02/2011 14:09

She sounds absolutely normal. Pretty much the same as my DD1 who is also in reception.

PoppetUK · 14/02/2011 14:23

Sounds in the totally normal ranges to me. I can understand why you would be anxious but all sounds good so far.

DreamTeamGirl · 14/02/2011 14:29

My DS couldnt SAY 'th' and took forever to get 'the' and many of the other 'th' words

His teacher said she had never had such a high proportion of horrid little oinks children with poor pronunciation as she had his year, but he is Y1 now and has all of them sorted.
Penny dropped for him when he asked why 'dem' had a ' t h ' on the start

Point being, you can stick the word 'the' up all over the house and let the penny eventually drop, or you could move past it, and hope its temporary (which it was for mine and a few of the others) or you could focus hard on it with her and how it blends, but its just one word and she is doing fine otherwise by the sound of it

(apparently now necessary disclaimer I am a parent and not an expert and the above is just my opinion, so I am probably not allowed to post it...)

mullymummy · 14/02/2011 15:52

One of the most important things for children at this stage is that they enjoy looking at and sharing books so that there is plenty of opportunity to take this further through modeling how to read words (sounding them out etc). Good readers become good readers because they practice reading a lot - there is no easy way around it.

Don't worry too much about particular words/sounds at this stage - just make sure you read lots with her - and real books are far better than reading schemes as the vocabulary is much richer and the stories far more interesting. When I say practice reading - just do the reading yourself, follow the words with your finger and stop at words she might be able to recognise or have a go at sounding out. Show her first by sounding out and reading the word and then let her have a go if she wants to. No pressure if she doesn't!

Just make it enjoyable... practice makes perfect!

TallulahDoesTheHula · 14/02/2011 16:13

sounds very very similar to my ds who is 5 and in reception. his teacher tells me he is doing really well and she is pleased with where he is at, so id say its fine!

mrz · 14/02/2011 17:04

The problem is Indigo many of the common symptoms of "dyslexia" are present in many under 7s who won't go on to have reading and writing difficulties which is why many EPs won't consider testing before a child in in KS2. Like any difficulty things need to be carefully monitored but it is highly unlikely that it would be considered from the OPs description.

Original poster

medoitmama · 14/02/2011 17:29

Thanks to all for the input. I'm feeling less etressed then I was when I wrote my op! Hi Mrz, pleased to see you've joined us. I'm a regular lurker in education

Although reassured by the posts, is there a website that can let me know what average is in the foundation stage? Just feel like I'd be happier if I knew where she was in the grand scale of things and if she does need a little extra support at times.

OP posts:

coccyx · 14/02/2011 18:24

What does the teacher say?? All sounds fine to me. Reception is a class full of varying levels of abilities. I have a June baby and his teacher said try not to compare him with others in the class. Some born in sept/nov have been on earth 25% longer than the summer babies.
She said the gap lessens as they move through to Key stage 1.
And yes 'the' does seem to be a tricky one for them

Olessaty · 14/02/2011 18:27

Do you have a parents evening soon? I would talk to the teacher about your concerns and she can either reassure you or be able to help otherwise.

mullymummy · 14/02/2011 18:29

Talk to the teacher - she will be doing on-going assessments for the early years foundation stage profile (there is a section on literacy which looks at all the early reading skills). Each child gets a score at the end of the year - all very crude measurements but probably the easiest way for you to get a feel for where your daughter is compared to others in the class.

The best extra support at this stage will come from you encouraging her to read and getting her interested in reading. Lots of encouragement and praise and time spent just reading to her and enjoying the experience.

mrz · 14/02/2011 18:41

I wouldn't be worried at this point in the school year about a reception child who can do what you describe. Confusing b, d, p, q, and number 9 is very, very common in young children and would only become a concern if it persists.
I don't know how the school is teaching phonics as it can vary a lot. Are the ORT books the new Floppy Phonics or the older version? (It is harder for children to consolidate and apply what they know when the books require them to read words they can't yet attempt to decode).

Original poster

medoitmama · 14/02/2011 20:25

They use Jolly Phonics. They seem to have old and new ORT books. Today she actually bought home a Jelly and Bean book which seemed better to me.

I have a lot of respect for her teacher and think she's very intuitive with the children but don't have a parent's evening coming up and don't want her to think I'm pushy/mad/a bit of a pain in the arse at coming to her in the last few days before half term. Having said that I'm thinking I probably ought to see her soon as I've definetly been getting my knickers in a twist about the whole thing! (I do know it's all about my own school experiences - just want her to be ok.)

OP posts:

Original poster

medoitmama · 14/02/2011 20:29

Any recomendations for very basic "real" books which we could get out the library?

OP posts:

mullymummy · 15/02/2011 08:29

The trick to using real books is to use a technique known as 'paired reading'. Choose whichever real book interests your child - don't worry about the reading level. Then, support their reading by doing most of the reading yourself - this provides the child with a role model - someone who can show them how to decode text (sound out words as you read etc) then let them join in when they want or encourage them to read the phonically regular words (e.g. c-a-t cat, w-e-n-t went). For irregular words (the ones where sounding out doesn't help, i.e. 'the') tell them what the word says and get them to repeat it.

I'm sure there'll be more information on paired reading on the net.... this is just a very quick overview!

Happy reading!

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