Nearly 6 and DS not interested/not getting reading

[adamantmine]

Feeling v depressed after tea with DS's best friend and his mother - her DS reading happily, going to bed to read himself stories. My DS comes home, it's a struggle to get him to open his little reader and have a go at reading it. Still struggles with 'a' or 'the' let alone 'going in the car', let alone Roald Dahl for pete's sake. His teacher says he's 'plodding along' and says I shouldn't force it at home, it'll just put him off and he will click eventually, 'he's a bright boy.'
I really struggle - on the one hand, I know I didn't read till I was 7 and still passed the 11+, went to uni etc; on the other, when I see other kids in his class pressing ahead and mine seems (and I stress seems, probably others in the same boat) to be lagging behind, it makes me want to shackle him to his desk and coerce him into it all.

What reading books are they sending home for him?

Really rather dull - 'going in the car' kind of thing. There was one book last week which he found funny and did make more of an effort with. I try to find things in the library but it's all an uphill struggle. So I'm reading him lots of Roald Dhal, Just So stories, anything which seems lively funny and interesting in the hope that perhaps one fine day he might want to read them for himself but I'm not pushing him. And I shouldn't make comparisons but when aware that others are doing well, I wonder how much I should worry at this stage.

Teacher's right - mine didn't really read until he was 7 and now is in top set (still 7!). I found it hard too, but just do what you're doing, so keep his love of books going by reading to him. That's what we were told to do and it's been proven right.

Does he really know his letter sounds? In my dd's reception class many didn't know their letter sounds or if they did it took too long for them to recall them to memory or sound them out into word. Its a struggle to recognise whole words when you haven't got letters sorted.
Some kids that do know their sounds well just find it hard on their memory trying to recognise words as wholes. By using books with simple sounding out for a while they are able to 'get reading' and that improves motivation.

But what reading scheme?

And I'm afraid Adam Ant is actually mine - I saw him first

Is he in Year 1? And can't read 'a' and 'the'?

Sounds like a problem to me.

Is he progressing in other areas, maths, writing or spellings?

I have a 5 yr old in y1 and chapter books are definitely not the norm in his class. What I'm saying is din't compare him with his friend.

Does your son have an annual sight test so that you can rule out a physical reason?

My son is considered average in terms of reading ability for his age so I understand what you mean by the pace being a plod. Mine has to read his book if he wants to watch tv after school.

How many books does he get a week? If you're at a school that expects kids to read the same book for the whole week I'd see if the teacher will lend you more. School reading scheme books are dull enough without reading it up to 7 consecutive days in a row!! Our school has a policy of change your book when you're finished your current book so kids can go up reading bands without reading the same book more than once unless they intentionally pick the same book.

What reading schemes do your school do? Ours have a large variety and in my opinion some are a lot better than others. Is your son getting a good variety?

As for books that I read to him, I've bought all sorts of books in topics that interest him like Star Wars, Lego, superheroes etc and let him look through them as bedtime reading. I've also left his baby books on his baby books on his shelf as they are more interesting than school books and some are quite simple and the other night I heard him reading a story about Happy Aliens to himself. Charity shops have been a godsend in expanding our information books - we have lots of £20+ books that cost 50p or so.
Superhero books and graphic novels have helped him learn words like splat, crash, bang which can be sounded out.

It wasn't until he hit 9 that reading really clicked for my ds. I admit it did worry me, I was devouring books at that age and I so desperately wanted him to experience that feeling of getting lost in a really good story. I It turns out that although his reading ability has really come up to scratch, he is still not interested in picking up 'story' books. However, he will pore over factual books and reference books on most subjects (cars, space, Bionicles, contemporary art), encyclopedias, annuals etc and so we really exploit that and make sure he has lots of this type of reading material.

Unless, as others have suggested, there is a particular reason he is struggling I would recommend just hanging in there because sometimes it just clicks over night. It did with my ds.

6 is very young. I wouldn't worry. It varies so much. It's not something you can force IMO.

Average of friends I think 7 or 8 for chapter books/boys and a bit younger/girls. Comics usually come first (smaller chunks and less decoding because of pictures.)

My eldest suddenly got it around about 8 he's now a total bookworm i wouldn't be worried at this stage at all.

If the teacher says he's plodding along then he probably does more for her than for Mum. Failing to read a and the wouldn't or shouldn't be described as plodding anywhere. Maybe it's worth getting a better idea of what he's capable of doing for the teacher.

6 yo ds here thats struggling to read.he just got to stage 3 the dreaded kipper books but has no interest whatsoever(as does another boy we know in same class/street)
im not especially worried.we read loads at home and he enjoys being read to..thats the key as far as im concerned,if they have a love of books it will come
(agree charity shops for books we have a shelf dinosaur books-bit sad mind that i know names and eating habits of so many!)

Does the schoool teach reading through synthetic phonics?

If so, what kind of phonic sounds is he working on in lessons at the moment? Single letter sounds (e.g. t) or digraphs (e.g. ai, th)? Does he have a REALLY secure grasp of phonic sounds (not words, but the sounds in isolation)? Can he sound out individual consonant-vowel-consonant words well - ie can he sound out the individual sounds and then blend them back into a word? Can he do the same for words containing digraphs e.g. t-r-ee or t-r-ai-n? (Eassy to do while you're reading to him - just pick out a single word on your page)

Are his school reading books from a phonics scheme (e.g. Songbirds) of form an old-fashioned 'look and say' scheme like ORT? If he can sound out and blend confidently BUT he's getting non-phonic readers then he's being taught reading skills in one way and then given books that he can't apply them to - and that can be a real problem at this stage so try to get phonic readers from the library.

If the school isn't teaching phonics systematically or mixing it with 'look and say' / sight words (only too common, sadly) then it's the teaching that's probably at the root of the problem - post again and i'm sure lots of experienced teacher types will link you to the resources you need to help him (though there are some mad posters around who make out it is more complex than it really is!)

Masha

If it's look and say books that are being sent home, I am having exactly the same problem with my 6 year old ds. He was blending well in Reception and progressing using Rigby Star Phonics. He was then chucked onto ORT stage 3 at the beginning of Y1, having not even been taught any key words of the bloody thing and has unsurprisingly made little progress since. The school say they have no money to further their phonics books past Reception.

I have recently taken the bull by the horns and signed up to Reading Chest. It's a bit like a library - I ticked all the phonic schemes (very handy for me to see what's available as a Literacy coordinator too!) and we get 10 books a month for a £10 subscription. I would borrow some from my school, but the books come in a big envelope addressed to my ds, which he loves, and it comes with a star chart too. We have been doing this for 3 weeks and already I can see more progress than I have seen since September.

Lots of children do well using mixed methods, but a significant amount of children (around 20%) fail to read using them. I think my ds is one of them - could yours be too, perhaps?