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Primary education

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Original poster

Still struggling at reading!

14 replies

MrsVoltar · 17/11/2011 19:23

Hi, would appreciate some advice. Have posted before about my DS reading difficulties, he struggled in P1 (Scotland) with the sounds and especially with reading ORT (Floppy etc), was guessing, memorising and using picture cues.

Now 1 year on, I thought he was improving, his spelling is good and his writing is definitely better than his reading, but reading is not improving. I had hoped that it would all 'click' at some point.

His teacher has said she is doing individual work with him and is aware that he is struggling with his reading but I want to do more to help.

Am thinking of getting the Jolly Phonics set/guide/something, to work on to help his reading. They don't seem to work on phonics in his class much AFAIK, and a lot is on 'sight' words, think they have all gone beyond and he is left behind Sad

What should I do?

OP posts:
IndigoBell · 17/11/2011 19:39

If you want to do daily phonics work with him at home the best thing to get is http://www.soundfoundationsbooks.co.uk/ Bear Necessities

IndigoBell · 17/11/2011 19:39

Sorry - Bear Necessities

MrsC24 · 17/11/2011 19:47

Try Reading Eggs on the computer. You get a 14 day trial before you have to subscibe. If your DS is like my son he loves playing on the computer and I wish I had known about it earlier. He is 6 and only this school year has his reading started to improove and the reading eggs programme helps reinforce letter sounds and lots more.

Mushaboom · 17/11/2011 21:10

You might want to look up Read, Write Inc too. It's all phonics based. I'm a teacher and have seen it work wonders with readers who were struggling, even as late as P5. It's always worth asking the teacher if there's anything she'd recommend doing at home too - if you were a parent in my class I'd always be happy to provide extra resources for you to use. Apologies if you've already been over this with them and they've not been helpful! Try not to worry too much, he's still only wee!

Original poster
MrsVoltar · 18/11/2011 11:04

Thanks for replies, Dancing Bears looks good.

I have talked to his teacher but she hasn't really given me anything concrete to work on. A lot of his homework is spelling, which he does well but his reading just isn't improving and I feel we need to go back to basics in a way, eg he cant recognise 'sh', 'ch'.

I know he's only young but just want to help him to 'get' it so he can be at same level as his peers.

OP posts:
crazygracieuk · 18/11/2011 11:37

My Y1 (5 year old) son enjoys the Project X reading scheme. (Book People or Red House do a set)

crazygracieuk · 18/11/2011 12:00

My son is the same age and his progress is so slow. He's read more than 100 reading scheme books and is still on red level. He too struggles with the sight words that can't be sounded out but I know that he's in a phonics group with 3 other boys who are similar or at a lower level so that makes me feel a bit better but I can't help but worry. My son is targetted at a 1b/1a in literacy for the end of the year which is average so I am trying not to freak out even though others are racing ahead

My oldest son clicked with reading in the summer between Y1 and Y2 so I'm really hoping that ds2 will be the same. Ds2 is August born and it's unfortunate that he wasn't born on his due date in September because I think he would find it a lot easier in the year below.

Memoo · 18/11/2011 12:06

Can i just say try not to worry. My dd really struggled with reading. It only properly clicked when she was in year 3.

Now she is in year 8 and is a fantastic reader and always scores highly on reading tests.

Some kids just take a little longer to get the hang of things.

IndigoBell · 18/11/2011 12:07

Crazy - when they tell you his targetted grade, that doesn't actually mean that's what they think he'll get.

They tell all parents their child's target is 2 sublevels over what they were at the start of the year. And the teacher will try and get all children there.

But they might not. And if you get to the end of the year and he isn't a 1b, you have no 'comeback'. You can't say 'but you told me he was going to make it'.

Original poster
MrsVoltar · 18/11/2011 12:17

I hope so, that he will just 'get' it at some point.

He's nearly 7 (P2 Scotland) and seems bright, has really good memory, shown when he was memorising stage 5 ORT books (!) and we thought he was reading them.

Has recently said he wasn't given the class homework because the teacher said 'it would be too tricky' so I find that hard when I know its only his reading thats letting him down.

OP posts:
crazygracieuk · 18/11/2011 12:32

Indigobell- I realise that targets aren't guaranteed but his target is individual to him and not the national target . (I know this as other children have different targets and I asked the teacher.)

I also realise that a end of year target after Christmas or in the Spring will be more accurate than the one calculated in October so I will check at Spring and Summer parents evening and grill the teacher if he's lower than target.

IndigoBell · 18/11/2011 13:35

Crazy - Target's aren't individual to him, in that all kids are targeted to make 2 sub levels progress.

So kids with different targets have different starting point - but are still expected to make the same amount of progress as your DS - even if up until now they've consistently made more progress than your DS.

IndigoBell · 18/11/2011 13:40

I know I sound crazy, but I'm not honestly :)

Saying he is targeted to make a 1b is not the same as the teacher saying she expects him to be a 1b.

I can't tell you how many targets I've been given which my kids didn't reach (all of my kids - not just my kids on the SEN register). And the teachers always just shrug and say 'well kids progress at different rates.'

But by the time you realise they've missed their target it's the end of the year and too late to do anything about it. Then the next year's teacher gives you the same reassuring target and the cycle repeats again......

No teacher will ever admit that a child is expected to make disappointing progress. At this stage of the year the teacher always genuinely believes she'll be able to teach little Johnny...... But when their expectations change they won't tell you.

mrz · 18/11/2011 17:41

As a teacher I agree with Indigo
My head point out that we are now setting "must hits" rather than targets which might be missed ... no confusion no excuses no vocabulary that leaves room for a child not to learn.

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