Reading Ability and How to Help?

[sparkleyes]

Hi my DD is in reception she is not 5 until July.

I am a bit concerned about her reading ability (also writing is not great but is improving)

She brings home the same few "pre-reading" books (they bring a book once a week) which either have no words or are typical nursery rhyme type books.

I bought some of the songbirds phonics books to help at home and she enjoys looking at these. She does know some of the first stories off by heart lol, she wants to read and I dont push her so some weeks she wants to read and some weeks she doesnt.

We try and practice when she wants and dont push her but she doesnt seem to be getting any better. She cannot seem to recognise the word "the" after repeatedly going over it and it being in lots of stories. She is still sounding out basic 2 and 3 letter words and seems unable to recognise them.

At her last parents evening her teacher said she was doing ok but I have the feeling she is struggling.

My DS is in Year 1 but he has a September birthday so almost two years older. He struggled reading at first and is now doing well but I am sure he was grasping the basics better at this point.

I am struggling to know how to help her. We have a set of common words that school have been gradually sending home but she is always reluctant to look at these.

So I know I need to speak to her class teacher but does anyone have any advice or suggestions.

Thanks

Do Bear Necessities every day with her for 10 minutes.

Thanks for that I have ordered it any tips?

Just follow the program 10 mins a day. Every day.

And probably don't do what school are sending home.

They shouldn't be sending home lists of words to learn. :(

Please do remember - she's 4. In many parts of Europe they don't start teaching kids to read till they're at least 6. Some children - regardless of brightness - simply aren't ready to read this early. You're very wise to 'practice when she wants and dont push her' - struggling with something that they aren't ready for can be a turn-off.

I know I know shes only 4 and I keep telling myself this!! I see reception as a settling in and getting used to school routines and learning the basics.

I know she is a bright girl but I just want to try and help her where I can.

I guess part of it is I work four days a week and feel like I am not available to spend enough time with her (same with her brother) helping them practice stuff. I read on here about all these children who are reading whizzes and it just makes me worry!

Don't worry about the 'reading whizzes'. You will find worries about struggling readers on here, too!

If she is keen to read you can't do better than take IndigoBell's advice. It's not 'pushing' her if she wants to do it. Children can learn to read at an early age without harm so long as it is led by them, not imposed by the parent.

I didn't have MN to reassure me when my DD was struggling while her classmates were reading proper books. All through KS1...then suddenly whoomph, the 'reading circuit' kicked in and she caught up and outstripped most of them.

As well as whatever it is Indigo suggested, spend time reading to her, to develop love of books that way (not to mention vocab and comprehension skills as a byproduct)

She is behind the 'expected' level.

I very much think you're doing the right thing and helping her now, rather than waiting and see if she'll grow out of it or not. Because that's a high risk strategy.

(ie she may or may not grow out of it. Not all kids do. Nor do all kids learn to read. 20% of kids leave Y2 unable to read, and a fair number of them leave Y6 still unable to read. )

If she has problems, the earlier you find out about them the better.

The 'expected' level, is the level English children should be at after 2 terms in school. So don't compare her to European children.

In England if you can't read anything at the beginning of Y2 (when some European children start school) you're in trouble.

I can promise you the longer you leave it, the harder it is to catch up. And the more there is to catch up.

By and large school expect all kids to make the same amount of progress. If you fall behind you're expected to make the same amount of progress as everyone else (ie 2 sublevels or whatever) - but you are never expected to catch up :(

So, you may be lucky. She may be behind now, but catch up easily and quickly next year without any help - or she may not.

my DD has severe dyslexia, and even before she started nursery I knew she had severe memory problems. She just couldn't remember anything. We used to call her 'our little goldfish'.

What I didn't know was that in a few years they'd call all those early symptoms 'dyslexia'.

What I didn't know was how bad she was compared to other children.

She never grew out of it. And I really regret thinking 'she's only 3/4/5 - too young to worry about.'

I Wasted 3 years I should have spent helping her.

I'm not for a moment suggesting that your child has dyslexia, or that she'll stay behind. All I'm saying is that at this stage you don't know either way. After 2 terms at school she's not making good progress. And you don't know why.

And all I'm saying is dont listen to all those people (including teachers) telling you not to worry, she's only young, in Europe they don't start school yet - all those people offering you advice won't have to pick up the pieces of a 7 year old or a 9 year old or a 11 year old who can't read. You and your DD will.

I think if she is sounding out basic 2 and 3 letter words, that is what you need to hold onto. So she knows letter/sound correspondences. Can she blend the 2 or 3 sounds to make a word? If so, that's great too. If not then I'd say at this stage in the year, she needs more support.

What type of books does she bring home from school? Songbirds, from what I recall, are quite tricky for real beginning readers and may be something like Dandelion would be better and give her more confidence. I'd be wary about lists of words until she is more confident.

Thing is though, before you panic about your child being left behind forever (I'm also the Mum of a July-born DD) she wouldn't be behind the expected level if she'd been born in September and was reading at exactly the same level as she is now. Because she'd still be at preschool. The number of terms at school won't change what developmental stage you're at.

If this was my daughter I'd start where I started with my child and write words on sheets of A5 paper with marker pen. First I made foo, moo, coo etc and dee, fee, wee, etc. Then I made cat, dog, etc, and would lay all the words out on the floor and my daughter would fetch the words for me as I called them out. Sort of do it yourself flash cards. A couple of years later she would arrange the words into sentences. We got up to tens if not hundreds of words. We finally stopped when she wanted to write out the whole song Five Little Monkeys. (I did try but ran out of paper.)

The 'expected' level, is the level English children should be at after 2 terms in school

...and it's almost completely meaningless for reading. They really shouldn't set this 'expectation' this early and assume that everyone progresses evenly from this base.

Indigo offers good advice - she's right you can't sit around complacently assuming all will be well because while it probably will be for a kid without any degree of SEN you just can't tell this early.

Thank you for all your replies its great to get lots of points of view.

I have ordered the dancing bears and dug out a magnetic whiteboard we have with reception words and we will have a little play with that later and see if she can find the words if I say them.

Re-reading this and she has made progress since starting school. Before she started school she was barely able to write her name, draw a recognisable picture or indeed know ht letters. She seemed a very young 4 on starting school. She has come on in leaps and bounds ( from knowing nothing!). Perhaps I am expecting her to progress quicker than she is able?

We will spend the next few weeks practicing phonics and reading and see if we get Amy improvement.

We spend a lot of time reading to her and she has good comprehension.

Thanks for the advice again

That should be any not amy!

Really encouraging that she has made good progress this year.

Hopefully she'll do well on bear necessities, and by September will have caught up.

Still heaps of time between now and then :)

I wrote a similar post this time last yr. My DD was in yr r last year and is a summer born and young for her age. At the end of reception she couldn't do cvc words at all and recognised just 2 words reliably, the and me. She also joined reception knowing very little and having spent nursery in the sand pit and running round the garden. But she has really come on in yr 1 and is now reading and writing well for her age, she also uses the phonics she learnt last year, even though at that time she didn't apply that knowledge. Her reading just took off in October and the teacher noticed and put her up several levels. She has been forging ahead ever since.

I didn't do anything extra last year in term time as she didn't want to. But in the summer holidays when she was relaxed and receptive after 2 whole weeks off, we did some Floppy Phonics books together and cvc words clicked after a few attempts.

If she wants to learn, do a bit every day. But personally I wouldn't rush a reluctant 4 year old. Hope this helps.

Yes, do remember how young she is. My DS is the opposite end of the year, October birthday. I am pleased that no one expected him to read in nursery although actually for much of the year he was the same age as many of the children in Reception. He has made very fast progress this year with his reading, especially since January, so he was 5 and 3 months when it started really clicking into place. Yes, do some phonics if your DD is receptive but keep it fun and give her time .

Just to update that the Bear Necessities came today and I have had a look through and we are going to get started tonight it looks nice and simple for me to follow :)

Good luck.

Update us with his progress......