Active discussions

Meet the Other Phone. Only the apps you allow.

Meet the Other Phone.
Only the apps you allow.

Buy now

Please or to access all these features

Talk
Primary education

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

Original poster

Struggling with Reading

14 replies

ReadingRage · 27/03/2011 11:04

Have namechanged for this as dont want to be too recognisable (lots of details).

DS is 6 but in P1 (scotland), so one of oldest in his year. He's not hugely interested in reading and is now struggling to keep up with his group. He only really became interested in writing within last few months, loves being read to, DP & I read lots, have lots of books, as does DS.

TBH, I help him with his 'set' reading which he gets home from school about 3 times per week, read bedtime stories to him but nothing else. Am I not doing enough? I was of the idea that 'teacher/school will teach him to read, we will support' but now think I've been lazy about this.

I had thought/hoped that he would eventually become more interested and just wasn't at that stage yet but now worrying that he is dropping behind.

I have looked through his books to find ones that he might be able to try to read eg 'read it yourself' and think I will try to do one of these with him every day or every other day.

What do others do? Any tips/reassurance very welcome

OP posts:
CecilyP · 27/03/2011 15:25

You have not really said anything about what his difficulties are. Is he just disinterested or is he not making progress, or is there something specific that he is having trouble with? When you say, he is not keeping up with his group, is the group a top group which is forging ahead extremely quickly, or is it an average group, progressing at an average pace?

sarahfreck · 27/03/2011 16:41

I'd make an appointment to see his teacher and ask his/her advice about how best to support ds. Ask what phonics they are covering at the moment and work with him on these at home. As a tutor I would recommend anything synthetic phonics based. You could try Dancing Bears and any phonics based readers.

Original poster
ReadingRage · 27/03/2011 19:04

IMO, they are a top group, forging ahead, but I haven't discussed with teacher, will do this week. He's disinterested in general & when reading will tend to guess words based on the pictures & relies on his memory of having read through the book in school, I think.

I think with his remembering the story it maybe hasn't been spotted up till now that he may not be 'reading' but stories/books have got longer & so he's now unable to remember word-for-word from previously hearing it.

OP posts:
maizieD · 27/03/2011 21:58

Do you mean 'uninterested'?

It sounds to me as though his phonic knowledge is very poor. He knows it's poor, and he knows he can't really read the books, so he feigns lack of interest to escape the task.

I agree with sarahfreck. Find out what (if any) phonics he is doing and what you could help him with. If you don't get any joy, we can help you!

Original poster
ReadingRage · 31/03/2011 11:48

Hi, yes, I do mean 'uninterested' Blush
Have talked to teacher and it seems he doesn't even know his basic phonics Shock
His group started with phonics then moved on to word lists & these were coming thick & fast, at the time I was concerned that he hadn't mastered one word list but kept being given more (I so wish I had discussed this with teacher Sad). I put it down to lack of interest.

Then they started getting reading books home & he seemed much more interested and appeared to be 'reading' happily. As the books became more difficult he has started to struggle and it appears that he has never been 'reading' them but remembering the story & using cues from pictures.

Sooo, we are going back to beginning, starting with his phonics & simple books, with key words from books separately, to check he's reading the words.

A positive is he clearly has a really good memory, but I'm really sad & stressed that he has got most of the way through his year but is at the beginning in terms of reading.
Thankyou for any advice

OP posts:
maizieD · 31/03/2011 12:01

I would forget about the 'key words' unless they are ones that he is able to decode with his current level of phonic knowledge. Concentrate on using the letter/sound correspondences that he knows, or is currently learning, to get lots of practice at reading and writing words which contain the correspondences. This way he is just about guaranteed 'success' and success leads to greater confidence and interest in reading.

There is a very little need for children to have to 'learn' words. Once they know the correspondences (including the more rare and 'tricky' ones) they should be able to read most words they encounter. I don't understand schools sending home lists of words to 'learn'. Lists of words for decoding practice are a different matter...

prettybird · 31/03/2011 12:09

Ds went through P1 in the top reading group - but I kept on telling the school that he wasn't actually "reading" but was memorising the books.

The school said not to worry, as some children (especially boys) just don't "get" it until they are 6+ (his birthday is September, so he was 5 during P1).

At the beginning of P2, they gave him him 6 weeks of intensive 1:1 tuition from the depute, before we agreed that, for his confidence's sake, he should move to the middle group.

He actaully only "got" reading towards the end of P2, ie when he was 6.75. It started with "Captain Underpants" and "Super Daiper Baby" - which the school said was great and not to bother about the dreadful kiddie grammar. They told us to encourage him to read whatever he was interested in - which was initially just the sports pages of the Herald, to get the Queens Park score - and progressed onto reading the actual match reports.

By the end of P4 (he's now in P6), he moved back up into the top group and is now a confident reader - amd more importantly is free reading :). OK, slower, than I would like than I did when I was his age: it has taken him forever to read his Skulduggery Pleasant book (but as he told me prudly this morning, only 11 pages to go of a c.400 page book :)) - but he is reading for himself :). And he is writing his own "Captain Cowboy" book. :) (OK, derivative - but it is interesting to see his language develop and improve as he writes it).

The only time we had a problem was in P4 when he was "between" groups: not being challenged by the reading given to the middle group but not yet ready to move back up to the top group. We worked with the school during this period, pretty much ignored the homework ('cos it was too easy for him/he had done it on the first night) and read other books with him instead.

Talk to the school if you have a good relationship with them (it helped that we did with ours): it might be that he's just not yet "ready" for reading and that too much pressure will put him off. Have a think about the Captain Underpants books - boys seem to like them and the cartoons make it easy fro them to "read". Next stage of good books (but he's probably not ready yet) is the Diary of a Wimpy Kid series.

Is there anything he is particularly interested in: sport, stars, dinosaurs? Maybe get him some simple books to reflect that interest?

Original poster
ReadingRage · 31/03/2011 12:10

What I mean by key words is several words from the book he has to read but written separately (so that he is not memorising the story or using the pictures to 'read' them)

so if the story has the words 'the' 'have' or 'I'm' in it, these are the words that we'll look at in addition to the story.

I think the word lists were for decoding practice, but he certainly struggled with them, especially when they progressed to mor tricky words

OP posts:
Original poster
ReadingRage · 31/03/2011 12:11

'more'

OP posts:
prettybird · 31/03/2011 15:26

Meant to say: my consistent comment to the school was "he's not blending" in that I could tell he didn't know how to put a word together.

School tended to teach a pragmatic mix of phonics and word recognition (think they are more strongly focussing on phonics now - but suspect they are still quite pragmatic Wink).

Reading "homework" used to be a nightmare: until we backed off, what was supposed to take 15 minutes used to be over half an hour of pressure on both of us :(

But that all changed when he "got" it :)

Have patience: it will come.

Speedbump · 31/03/2011 15:38

I didn't really get reading until I was 8 but then by the time I was 9 I had a reading age of 12. Keep supporting him and read books that interest him as well as his set reading.

My mum used to help me by reading one page and I read the next one. She gave me the confidence to keep going.

My school had banned Enid Blyton books but I loved them so we read them at home and slogged through the set reading books.
As long as he eventually gets there, he'll be fine. He may just not be quite ready yet. So many children are pushed too hard and too early. Help him to enjoy reading and he'll go much further than he would if he's forced into it.

mathanxiety · 02/04/2011 21:44

I agree with Maizie that his grasp of phonics may be insufficient and that this may have killed his confidence.

When you read to him, do you run your finger under each word so that he can look and absorb/associate printed words and sounds? Phonics is very important as a foundation but reading can be learned by many routes all at once.

Try not to convey fear or too much worry; stay positive and don't panic. In some parts of the English-speaking world, children are only beginning to learn letter-sound association at age 6.

Was it Dolch words or irregular words like this that were on the lists?

prettybird · 03/04/2011 16:24

Seeing that list of dolch words reminds me of the mnemonic that the depute taught ds: Big Elephants Can Always Understand Small Elephants. (=because)

Seems so long ago now :)

Mashabell · 04/04/2011 07:11

If u are worried about his basic phonics, print out some words with a particular pattern from the Learning to Read page on
www.EnglishSpellingProblems.co.uk
(changing font and size to suit his needs)
find out which patterns he is struggling with and work on those
with about 10 or so words at a time.

New posts on this thread. Refresh page