Pls help - Parents Evening tonight and I need some objective advice

[signet]

My youngest son is 6 next month and in year 1 at school. He's happy, he's articulate he does well with his numbers (not top of the class but is making steady progress and is probably about average which is fine by me).

However, with his reading he is still struggling to recognise the difference between b & d, he is on red books (has only gone up to red band in the last few weeks) and his high frequency words he can recognise only if he sounds them out (and he's not always consistent with this). Now, I know for sure that he's below what he should be able to do but school keep saying oh he'll make progress. He's not even in the bottom set, so I'm confused as to what I should expect from the school. Should I be pushing for some intervention here?

As I said, he has made some progress, but not nearly as much as I'd expect. His older brother and sister were far ahead of him at this stage and although I know they are all individual it just highlights to me how far behind he is. And yet, the school just tell me he's not the worst and he's gone up a band and a set. Should I just accept that? I really want to push for intervention because he only has a term and a half left in year 1 and then into year 2 and SATS. I just don't want him to keep falling more and more behind his more capable peers.

Having said that, he is one of the younger ones (although some are younger and doing much better) and part of me is trying not to be precious or pushy and thinking he'll get there eventually.

So what should I be looking for from the school? What should I be asking them? I just don't want to get fobbed off at parents evening tonight and find myself even more concerned next term when he is still on red books.

Thank you.

Schools shouldn't be talking about high frquency words! They should be teaching him to read any word via phonics!

I'd give up on school teaching him to read and teach him myself. Buy 'bear necessities' from prometheon trust. It's a program that's designed to be done by parents 10 mins every day.

He is behind, and he should be on an intervention. But if the school are not good at teaching reading, then there's no reason to believe their intervention will be any good either.

But Indigo, that is the exact cause of the problem - he cannot get on with phonics at all and I don't think giving up on school and trying to teach him with a different system that is used in the school will help him.

I have no issues with the school being poor at teaching reading. Most of the other children are flying with their reading which tells me its my child rather than the school. He just doesn't get on with the phonics system. Hence he has high frequency words to see if he can learn by sight reading rather than phonics which they acknowledge isn't helping him.

I'm not looking to blame the school, just simply trying to ascertain what I can reasonably expect in terms of additional help.

It is reasonable to expect school to teach him to read!

Very, very few kids can't learn via phonics but can learn via whole words.

From what you said it doesn't sound like he's doing better with whole words than phonics.

www.dyslexiaadvice.co.uk

if school is so good, how come he's struggling yet he's not in the bottom group?

Ok in terms of how much extra help is 'reasonable'. In Y1 my DD had small group phonics every day + 10 mins 1:1 every day.

Also ask if she thinks he'll fail the Y1 phonics test in June.

If he does fail it he should already be on an intervention.

If he passes it then he's doing OK.

He's in the second bottom group and the group below him are children with Special Needs who struggle to communicate verbally let alone to read.

He should be doing phonics every day.

If he's not making progress he should be on an intervention.

The fact other kids are worse than him is irrelevant. School need to teach all kids to read.

If he's not on track to pass the phonics test he should be on an intervention. If he is on track to pass he doesn't need to be.

He is doing phonics every day both in a small group and in the larger class setting. School say he is making progress but he is still below average and is struggling. They say he doesn't struggle at school so its just confusing.

Sounds like their defn of struggling is different to yours.

Ask what progress he has made. They should be able to tell you what phonics he knew at the begining of the term and what phonics he knows now.

And ask about the phonics test and if they think he'll pass it.

Never accept the explanation that there is a problem with your child. It is their job to teach all kids to read - by the end of Y2.

Are the red books he gets sent home with phonics books? If not insist they only send home phonics books.

I would be putting support in place for a child on red book band and suggesting parents explore physical reasons for their child's difficulties. Telling a parent their child is not the worst is bad practice ... a parent is only concerned with their own child's progress.

Mrz, that's exactly what I said to the teacher - I wasn't interested in other children, just my own child.

With regards to your comment about exploring physical reasons, do you mean problems with eyes? Or something else? I am going to take him for another eye-test and see if that brings anything up as a starter, but not sure what else to look at.

Indigo - he doesn't bring home phonics books at all. They simply don't have them for children to take home.

I didn't ask about the phonics test as I didn't see your message until I got back. The parents evening wasn't helped by the fact that he doesn't have his class teacher for literacy so all she had to go on were the comments another teacher had written and she couldn't answer my questions. I've asked her to arrange a meeting with the literacy teacher and will ask about the phonics test then. I had a look at a sample test from the Dept. of Education website and there is no-way he would be able to get even a quarter of the words.

I guess I need to keep on pushing.

Sight (and as Indigo knows sometimes that isn't picked up in a normal eye test) hearing does he hear and understand... and physical - coordination - gross and fine motor.

If he's being taught phonics and then given books he can't decode without help that's going to slow him down.

try him with these www.oxfordowl.co.uk/Library/Index/?AgeGroup=3&BookType=Phonics and these www.mumsnet.com/learning/ebooks

That's great. Thanks for those resources.

He has had problems with his hearing when he was in nursery. He has some possible damage to his ear-drum as a result of glue ear when he was younger but at his last hearing test at the hospital his hearing is coming up as perfect. I will take him for an eye test though.

As for the physical co-ordination - My older DS has some issues with co-ordination but trying to get referred to anyone around here is terrible. His GP sent a referral for an occupational therapist nearly a year ago now and he is still on the waiting list. Its so frustrating.

He has an appointment at the doctors soon anyway for his ongoing digestive problems so I'll mention it then to the doctor and see if they can help with checking out his motor skills.

This makes me so mad/sad.

We've just had a long thread about the Y1 phonics test - and so many people were arguing that it wasn't necessary because if a child was going to fail the test the teacher would already know and the child would already be on an intervention - clearly not the case here :(

1. Don't read any non phonics books with him. Refuse to. Mrz has posted some links to some free ones - I still think you should buy the bear necessities book with him and do your nightly reading from that (oh btw the govt has given every school money to buy new phonics books)

1. Vision test. There are two very common problems which stop kids learning to read but can't be fixed with glasses and therefore arent tested for much.

1. eye tracking problems. Which is the ability to move your eye smoothly left to right. The reason kids reverse letters and words is because half the time they move their eyes left to right and the other half right to left - therefore a b does look the same as a d.

2. Convergence insiffuciency. The ability to focus your eyes together - ie to go a bit cross eyed at something which is close up. Again you need this ability to be able to read.

Ask your standard optician to test for these things. They are both very easily corrected by proper vision therapy - the incredibly hard thing is getting hold of proper vision therapy.

1. A hearing test. Again there are lots of subtle things that can be wrong with hearing which a standard hearing test doesn't pick up.

1. Honestly read through my website - www.dyslexiaadvice.co.uk

There's loads of things in there that I have tried which have worked. You'd be amazed (because they're certainly not the first thins you'd think of) - but if you think your child has been taught properly and he's still not picking it up - then its down to some underlying problem which you'll have to fix

School can't do anything if the problem is omega deficiency or eye tracking problems or an underdeveloped cerebellum - but you can.

It's taken me years to find out about all of DDs problems and cure them. Years. But it's been worth it. She can read now - and she never ever would have learnt if I'd left it up to school.

School taught her to read - but only after I fixed her brain.

Sorry I didn't read the part about digestive problems. It's all linked :(

Leaky gut causes stuff to get into the bloodstream which causes brain fog:(

Cutting out sugar had an amazing effect on DDs ability to learn.

Most kids don't just have symptoms of dyslexia, they also have symptoms of dyspraxia / ADHD / ASD.

You can read more in:
The gaps diet
Is that my child
Disconnected kids.

Have the school tried the "toe-by-toe" books? They are gret for getting the basic skills across for readers that are finding it harder. My son (YR2) has made great progress since they started him on this.

Velcro - toe by toe are good, but bear necessities is better for this age group. Toe by toe goes very quickly in the beginning.

The school should be making sure any child in year one who is struggling with reading is having on to one reading every day. One of my friends who daughter struggled with reading and didn't grasp it till year 2, used the toe by toe book, and it was remarkable what doing the book each day has made, after 3 months she could recognise sound at words a lot faster. Maybe you could speak to the SENCO at your child's school about your concerns, they will be able to offer you advice. You could also speak to the your boroughs Educational Psychology service, they will be able to organise a meeting with an educational psychologist and if they have a learning difficulty they could organise an assessment for dyslexia for example.

I could have written this a year ago about my DD. I trusted her school when they said it was just a question of maturity () and she had a VERY frustrating and unhappy year to the extent that I considered withdrawing her from school. I did A LOT of reseach and helped by info on here (thanks Mrz, Indigo bell ) and things are now moving forward. She's in Yr 2 and still finding it difficult but things have REALLY moved on since she started doing Vision Therapy with a Behavoral Optometrist in December. We are are also doing Dancing Bears and Apples and Pears (for spelling) at home. And she's much happier about the whole thing.

Trust your instinct.