Learning to read - seems to be no structure to it

[grumpypants]

I'm a bit frustrated at the moment - ds (5) is in Y1 and brings home two books a week, one to read to me, and one to have read to him. There is just no continuity to the books he is meant to read and he is just not reading as well as i thought he would be by now. Older ds also couldn't read (worse than this) buy the end of Y1 and we hired a tutor for Y2 - he is now a free reader (Y3) and has a brilliant reading age.
The school read in groups, and apparently use several reading schemes.

Any thoughts?

My reaction remains the same Gooseberrybushes

I'm not in the least bit surprised.

That free books are available or that I'm horrified at the idea of paying hundreds of pounds for something that you can get for nothing

That you can see no merit in buying reading scheme books at all. Despite the fact that there's quite a lot.

I see merit in buying reading books (I do it all the time much to my OHs dismay) but that is so parents don't have to spend their money to do my job
As others have said the OPs first call should be the class teacher ... the school seems to have plenty of books available from the OPs posts so it should be a case of working together.

I had to give up on the school way, and start Headsprout.

I cannot possibly praise it enough, despite the American accent.
My ds has a passion for reading (and writing) and his comprehension is beyond what the school were telling me he would manage.

Unfortunately parents are always doing "your job" in the state education system because they are the ones listening to their children read and indeed teaching them to read

In the OPs case very little is being done it seems to help the child to read. There is nothing horrific about buying reading books in such a situation.

Goos Headsprout comes with REAL books

What is this Headsprout of which you speak?

I always try to suggest free options first and personally can't get away with the American accent but I know lots of people have had success with Headsprout.

It's taking far too long (over 15 secs) to open the page.

You mean you can get a set of reading scheme books at your home in your hand for nothing? That's pretty marvellous.

It's an online resource. YOu can do the first 3 episodes for free if you want to have a go/trial. You get data on your child, so you can see what to practise outside of session. You get sent real books to accompany and printable books as well as flash cards if you need them.

The data is the most important thing though. It is systematic and based on reams of evidence which updates itself AI-like.

Nope. Tisn't free. The first 3 episodes are, but the first 3 episodes don't have supporting books. When you sign up you get the books in the post.

I don't know. I don't think anything replaces sitting with a book and a caring adult and having individual responses, praise, feedback. Being able to revisit books when confidence drops a little and so on. Online data can't be half as sensitive.

Yep, thought you'd know of it mrz. YOu know too that my ds has ASD (not that that is what HS is for) and as such are struggling with the difference in expectations for him between the parents and the teachers.

So, hopefully not such a common problem. (school believe have been told that my ds will only ever be able to sight read and not decode, and will have no chance at comprehension, therefore don't attempt to 'teach' comprehension - I don't agree with this).

Perhaps online resources are more useful when in the very very early stages of reading. I can imagine that might be true but still.

It's extremely sensitive, but more importantly ensures that there are never ever any gaps in learning, and that learning occurs in the most efficient way.

However, it isn't expected that you'd stick to the web-based resource. The computer does the hard work bit, the practise and repetition, but the parent/teacher is expected to work with the child on the more 'useful' and 'fun' aspects of reading.

StarlightMcKenzie my son is also ASD and I wish the school had persevered with a structured phonics approach as his spelling suffered greatly by sight reading although reading/comprehension has never been a problem to him.

We use a programme called Lexia Reading in school and which we provide free to use at home on line.

Thanks for that mrz. It's hard to know whether you are doing the right thing when you start out, but I was very scared of the sight reading being taught alone. In hindsight I appear to have been right, but it is tough to go against 'professional' recommendations sometimes.

I'm not suggesting parents are always right wrt to teachers though, but SN truly is another world.

"SN truly is another world."

I believe that. I have a profound regret in not having my son assessed (twas a long time ago, before greater understanding) and sometimes I just don't understand the way his mind works. It didn't happen because he's bright, good reader and stuff but everything about the way he functions intellectually seems different from my other two. Have dealt with it at home but in some areas I feel I've been ineffectual.

Am not trying to minimise SN or claim to know more about it than I do.

"feel I've been ineffectual"

pls read "have been utterly ineffectual"

I had the EP accuse me of being a neurotic mother based on the fact his reading age at that point was 3X his chronological age so never doubt a parent's instinct.

It must be hard to be a teacher/mother "dealing with" (for want of a better phrase) a teacher/teacher if you feel something is wrong.

Yeah, but I've ever met a teacher that rates EP's anyway, so why don't they just go with the parents?

I can't speak highly enough about his primary school teachers (apart from in reception) who were as frustrated as me with his issues, however he was achieving highly and the EP disagreed.