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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

Urgent advice needed re. reading with my reception dd

41 replies

legocreator · 19/12/2011 10:28

My dd is 4.9 and in reception. She knows her letter sounds and has learnt quite a few combination sounds as well (sh, ch, th, ee, oo etc.). If you show her a word with any combination of sounds she knows she can read it. School are really pleased with her reading. However, when it comes to reading her reading books at home it is a different matter. She guesses words, messes about and it takes ages. I feel myself becoming irritated, but i know i am supposed to stay calm! How should i approach this? I have told her off a few times for messing about and need to change my approach! Please help me stay sane.

OP posts:

ShowOfHands · 19/12/2011 10:42

Urgent? Do you need to read NOW?

I wouldn't worry about it too much. There are approximately 87, 484 opportunities to share reading throughout the day. Read books to her, ones she enjoys, foster a love of reading. Otherwise, just notice words around you. On cereal packets in the morning, in the supermarket, whilst walking past signposts etc.

Sitting down sometimes with those 'Sid can not sit on the tap, Sid is a duck' books is frustrating for everybody involved sometimes. Sit down with her, talk about the pictures, exaggerate the sounds of the speech, notice things like exclamation marks and speech marks and get her to change the way she says a sentence according to these signposts, talk about what might have happened before the story started, what might happen afterwards, point out facial expressions etc etc. Sitting there doggedly pursuing it in a way you're both not enjoying just encourages boredom. If she is bored, if you're frustrated, an airy 'never mind, let's play xyz' will do.

And guessing words is actually part of learning to read. She's doing well at school, progressing normally and I'd concentrate on making reading something pleasurable.

IndigoBell · 19/12/2011 10:45

Do the books she reads with you contain words she can't read because she hasn't got the skills yet?

If that's the case then I'd either not read the book with her, or read the words she can't read to her, or teach her the words as she comes to them.

A lot of schools teach phonics in class, but then send home inappropriate look and guess books.

If the books are part of a phonics scheme, and only contain words that she can read, then something else is going on.

Messing around is normally because the work is too hard for her and she's trying to get out of doing it.

She shouldn't be reading books which are too hard.

MigratingChestnutsOnAnOpenFire · 19/12/2011 10:47

I've found bribery works really well. Either with chocolate....or better still...a star chart.

My DD (now yr2) has been a real plod with reading but I found she has a love of megabloks dragons, which I can pick up for next to nothing on ebay. I did star charts where she got a star for every time/book she read and then got a dragon after about two weeks.
I can remember the moment whe she realised that if she read extra pages or another book, she got nearer the target!!

I couldn't do it all the time but it did boost her during the darkest days of level 4! Now, she seems to have got to a point of realising that reading for herself is great and we are on the edge of her starting chapter books.
good luck, I know it can get very frustrating

MigratingChestnutsOnAnOpenFire · 19/12/2011 10:54

and yes!

I echo the other posters who in keeping chilled (ironic given the agonising I've done on here in the past few years ). the most important thing to do is preserve a love of books that will carry her through the tedious and frustrating learning the basics phase.

The rest will come in the nest couple of years.

Original poster

legocreator · 19/12/2011 10:58

Thanks for the replies. I think she is capable of reading the books Indigo, and if I wrote down each word individually, she would break it down and read it. It is just when all the words are together she stops doing this.
She is quite dramatic ShowofHands and enjoys the exclamation marks and speech, but this too can lead to bouts of funny voices and exclamations which lead her away from actually reading the book.

OP posts:

MigratingChestnutsOnAnOpenFire · 19/12/2011 11:04

Yes, mine is a very creative visual little girl. She'd get bogged down in the pictures, looking at all the detail and working out what might happen to all the secondary characters in the rest of the story.

I think that your DD's love of the punctuation shows a fabulous understanding of the narrative which is very positive indeed. Reading is far more than just decoding.

IndigoBell · 19/12/2011 11:06

If she can reads individually, but not when they're in a sentence, than that can be an indicator of eye tracking problems.

ie she finds it hard to move her eyes left to right in a smooth motion.

Original poster

legocreator · 19/12/2011 11:12

Thank you for being positive MigratingChestnutsOnAnOpenFire. She definately has good a comprehension of books she reads and that i read to her. Even though i know that is just as important as actually being able to read, her renditions about what is going on, and why the author didn't use different word to the ones that are actually there, can be tiring after a while!

OP posts:

Original poster

legocreator · 19/12/2011 11:15

I had never thought there might be a physical reason for it Indigo. I think she reads quite well when she reads to her teacher at school though.

OP posts:

maizieD · 19/12/2011 11:17

And guessing words is actually part of learning to read.

Sorry, no, it isn't. Guessing words is a substitute for not being able (or bothered) to read them and turns into a horrible, hard to break, habit if allowed to go unchecked.

To the OP I'd say, like everyone else, chill. She's only 4, she's getting a good grounding in the basic skills and there is no urgent need for her to be reading books at the moment.

coccyx · 19/12/2011 11:21

Have a glass of mulled wine and some quality street. Relax

lynniep · 19/12/2011 11:23

I agree what shes doing is pretty normal. Are you asking her to read during the day? DS1 LOVES reading, but if he's tired he mucks about bigtime, so we have found it helps to just read to HIM at bedtime, and get him to read in the daytime.
We have also just discovered DK Readers. (Amazon cheapest I've found to buy, but they have a selection in our local library) They have an excellent Star Wars selection (OK she may not be into star wars but I'm sure they have something more relevant if she's not) DS1 is SO excited by these and desperate to be able to read them. Level 1 is perfect for reception starters.

ShowOfHands · 19/12/2011 11:27

maizieD, dd is in reception and reading short books and is encouraged by her teachers to use the starting sound of some words and the pictures to 'guess' the word. We then look at the word on its own and she learns it. This is not with words you can decode or the tricky words on the phonics scheme, it's words like 'curtain'. It's helped her bridge the gap between phonics and free reading.

Bramshott · 19/12/2011 11:37

Clearly every child is different, but DD2 is also in Reception and learning sounds / starting to decode simple words. I must admit that it hadn't occurred to me that she was supposed to read the books that come home from school herself yet! After all, she's only 4!

I read them to her, following along under the words with my finger, and ask her to pick out letters she can spot. Then if there's a word I think she does know, I'll ask her to read it - and sometimes she will, sometimes she won't. If she has read any words herself, I make a note of it in her reading record so the teacher knows how she's doing.

DD2 certainly enjoys reading, and asks to "read" her book almost as soon as she gets in from school, so for now, this approach is working for us.

Original poster

legocreator · 19/12/2011 11:50

Good idea coccyx. Maybe i am expecting too much of her. I have an older ds in year 2 who was much more complient and learnt to read quickly. I suppose i want the same for dd.

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SydneyB · 19/12/2011 12:02

Eessh, give the child a break, it's Christmas. LOVE the fact that DD's school kept the book bag at school for the holidays. They need a good ol' rest after their first ever term at school.

maizieD · 19/12/2011 12:10

ShowOfHands,

I'm afraid that your dd's reception teacher is not taking any notice of the excellent government guidance on the teaching of reading and is just going on in the old way which failed a good 20% of children.

I only hope that your dd is one of the lucky children who manages to work out the phonics for themselves and isn't harmed by her teacher's methods.

Guessing is not a reading strategy, however much anyone might insist it is. Guessing is guessing. You might just as usefully (in fact, more usefully) give a child a pictures only book and ask them to make up the story for his/herself' Because that is what guessing really amounts to...

maizieD · 19/12/2011 12:11

Ooh, grammar failure: "him/herself...

ShowOfHands · 19/12/2011 12:36

maizie, dd can effectively read. Her reception teacher has been instrumental in teaching her this skill using phonics and decoding, moving onto the tricky words etc etc. She (and I) see no problem with her using the picture as a signpost to help her when she meets a word she's never seen before and can't quite get it. She then learns the word individually so next time she can read/remember it without needing a signpost. She can read simple chapter books. She has been in no way failed. The reception teacher is bloody brilliant actually and knows the government advice inside out. What I mean is that she has tailored the way dd learns best to suit her and I didn't mean she just guesses the words out of nowhere in a lazy, can't be bothered, hasn't got the skills to work it out otherwise type way, she uses all of the skills taught to her and if she truly doesn't know the word, is able to rely on other information within the book, plus the sounds she does recognise to make an educated guess.

ShowOfHands · 19/12/2011 12:41

I should have been clear in my first post really. DD has just read a book to me this morning about a mouse who hides behind a curtain and she didn't recognise the word curtain. The hideous illustration of a mouse peeping out from behind a paisley nightmare meant that she could work out the word for herself. I've just asked her to spell curtain and she got it right so it is helping her. Next time she'll just read it.

Original poster

legocreator · 19/12/2011 12:42

Really pleased that your dd is reading Show of Hands. Did she read before she started reception? Surely she didn't learn all her sounds in one term! I thought my dds class were moving fast, but none of them have been taught all the sounds yet.

OP posts:

ShowOfHands · 19/12/2011 12:49

She already knew all of the letter sounds before school, knew all the ch sh oo ee stuff, what a magic e does to a word and the tricky words (to the no go of come away and so on) etc. The preschool taught her the basics when they realised she was starting to read cvc words at 3. So she spent a few weeks with the reception teacher reviewing what she knew, made sure there were no gaps at all in her phonics knowledge and that she could also write the things she knew and then started sending basic reading books home. DD then started going into year 2's reading group twice a week and it's sort of progressed from there. She's just v keen where reading's concerned.

Original poster

legocreator · 19/12/2011 12:54

She sounds great. It is so lovely when they read for fun, and i suppose that is why i am probably in too much of a hurry with my dd.

OP posts:

ShowOfHands · 19/12/2011 13:04

I know what you mean. I found Biff, Chip and Kipper desperately unamusing though the scheme the school has is better to be fair. I realised in a flash of inspiration that it was only a small part of her reading experience and actually reading books to her fulfilled that fun bit for a while until we'd finished the Biff is in the mud stage. Still does in fact. I'm reading Alice In Wonderland to her atm and it's lovely.

DuchessofMalfi · 19/12/2011 13:07

Does she still enjoy having stories read to her? If so, just enjoy snuggling up on the sofa with a pile of her favourite books, and read to her. If you both feel up to it, let her follow your finger along the sentences as you read. You might be surprised at how much she will pick up just from that.

DD is in Yr 1 now. She learned to read quite quickly and is now an enthusiastic reader of as many books as she can lay her hands on. I think that doing lots of reading to and with her has helped her immensely.

However, I get the feeling that DS is going to find learning to read a lot harder - he doesn't like sitting down to have stories read to him and doesn't listen when I do try to read to him, so that will be a lot harder for his teachers and me!

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