do I trust the teacher or trust my instincts

[Chocolotta]

This is a weird one, probably - or that's how it seemed when I talked to DS's teacher.

DS is in Y1, and his teacher says he's good at literacy. He's above average on the reading book levels too - they don't have book bands at school, but he's reading books from the Y2 classroom.

My worry, is that whenever DS reads at home, he can barely get a sentence out. He's very quick at reading, and I think he reads by memorising whole words rather than by phonics, because he often struggles with new words and just reads an approximation (sometimes not even starting with the same letter) and carries on even if it doesn't make sense. He skips words and adds others in practically every sentence. Every time I hear him read at home, he does this. He makes 4 or 5 mistakes on every page, even mixing up a and the, or when and then. I have written about it in DS's reading diary, and I do correct DS as he goes along, but it gets so dispiriting for him after a page or so where I've stopped him in every sentence.

Anyway, I let him read his book a few days ago without me correcting him, and noted down all the mistakes in his reading book - they ran to a couple of hundred. After he'd finished, DS had no idea what the book was about.

So DS's teacher talked to me after school today, and said DS's reading was above average, like an 8-year old, and at school he didn't have any problems and I might want a new reading diary for him in case other parents who heard him read, read what I'd written. So I went away feeling (a) I am a horrible parent criticising my child like this and (b) I am imagining problems that aren't there.

I know I'm not imagining the fact that DS finds it hard to read accurately when he's with me. I'm embarrassed that the teacher thought I was being so critical (and possibly unhinged) on this.

What should I do? Go with the flow, and just hope the problem will sort itself out? The teacher didn't want to move him to easier books. I worry that DS has a problem reading, but it's masked by the fact that he's quite bright and has memorised tons of words already, he just can't make the step to fluent reading because he can't handle new words, and he goes too fast for himself.

It certainly sounds like he has a reading problem.

I find the idea that he should get a new reading diary very disturbing.

I don't know what you should do - but I know you shouldn't trust this teacher.

has she assessed his reading then -how does she know it's like an 8 year old's? Ask her to show you her evidence.

i am no expert here - mum of 2, in yrs 3 and 1. At our school though they are really big on the issue of comprehension, and do 'guided reading' in small groups where they discuss the text. they even put the children down levels if they feel the comprehension is lacking as they don't want 'decoders' rather than readers....

i would share your concerns from what you say, let's hope someone with better knowledge answers, but is there someone who is in charge of literacy at the school in general?

never had any issues like this as both mine were slow to learn letters and read - they knew little before school - but comprehension has always been great as a result, feels to me like if they are slower to read then maybe they don't get ahead of what they can truly take in? ( and perhaps why the scandinavians etc pick up reading etc so quickly when they start school later)

One of the key things is whether they've understood what they've read or not

Can you make appointment for both the teacher and you to hear him read together, so she can hear the mistakes he makes and possibly reassure you if she still thinks it is fine?

What time of day does he read to you? My year 1 son is a pretty good reader but if he reads at the end of the day or after school, he is noticably worse than if he reads when he is totally alert and not tired (making similar mistakes to what you describe).

tbh I feel so embarrassed now about raising it, I think I need to leave it half a term or so before asking to speak to the teacher again about it - I honestly think the teacher thinks I'm deranged.

He can read better if he slows down - and he then understands what he's reading, but still gets blown off course by new words.

Cornsyilk she said she assessed his reading today and it was like an 8-year old. I have a feeling that if she asked him on single words he'd do well, it's just having to read them in a sentence - he skips about all over the place.

idril he does read to me at the end of the day. The books he gets now can be quite long, too (but he's still making mistakes on page 1, so I won't put it down to that). However, if he's trying to read the weetabix packet at breakfast we get the same sort of thing.

I agree with idril. Sounds like you are putting a bit of pressure on him tbh. You want reading to be an enjoyable experience long term. If you don't have faith in the teacher teach him yourself. You can't have it all your own way.

Trust your instincts. If he isn't understanding what he's reading, then he should be going back to easier books and having lots of discussion. In your shoes I'd find some simpler books to work through with him. I think the idea of changing the reading journal is very strange.

Alltheseboys you might be right. And it's not that I don't have faith in the teacher - I think she's very nice and DS seems to have settled well in her class. It's just that my view was so much at odds with hers that I was taken aback.

I'm not sure when I could do his reading books with him tbh, if we rule out after school - I need to have left the house by 7.45 in the morning and already get up at 6 to deal with another child.

I would also go with your gut instinct, DS (yr2) is very good at decoding the words but his comprehension is not nearly as good as his reading of the words iyswim so we work on that

Do you get him to finger point at each word as he says them? Or use pieces of card to block the other lines of text. Both strategies will encourage him to focus on individual words. But I would also want easier books!

Reading at home is a chore DCs want to get over and done with as fast as possible.

DD2, who reads brilliantly, went through a phase at 6/7 of reading very fast, missing the fullstops and ending up in a muddle. If you asked her what the last few lines meant she wouldn't know.

She simply got carried away with being able to read, she forgot the understanding bit.

What helped her was her Dad teaching her to read with expression. mainly with Garfield and Calvin an Hobbs cartoons of all things. If you take it in turns to do the voices and put correct feeling into the text you have to slow down.

My advice would be find something your DC really likes and is familiar with and play with it. Take turns at giving the characters silly voices. Reading it in a happy or a sad voice, softly or loudly depending on the mood of the story.

If you read the book more like a play discussing the story tends to happen naturally. The more of a giggle you make it the less he'll realise he's learning.

I've taught children who have made the mistakes you describe who have eventually been assessed as dyslexic, despite being "above average" readers. What is his spelling like?

I wouldn't ignore this. Why don't you go to the library and pick out a range of reading books that would interest him and see what level of book he really seems to be at? If they have age/skill range books at the library it may give you some kind of idea of his ability. Then you could show his teacher or the headteacher, if she won't listen. Better a little embarrassment now, than a bigger problem later on.

Sloppy reading such as described here is not a sign of a good reader. Good readers do not make errors on this scale, and when they come to unknown words, they make an effort to decode them. It is not too late in Y1 to make a determined effort to stop this before it becomes entrenched. It does sound like your son is riding on his memory, but it will come back to bite. By not paying attention to the sounds in words, spelling will also be impacted.

As a guide, he should be reading about 90-95% of the text accurately. So 5 mistakes in a page of 100 words. Agree that comprehension is key though.

I'm with Educating Arti here. This rings bells with what my son was like, despite constantly being told by the school he was OK. I am a teacher and my gut instinct was something just wasn't quite gelling. It was the gut reaction that guided me more than anything else. If he is generally quite clever, he may be able to pull off dodgy reading without anyone being really aware

I took him to an ed pysch when he was 7. It cost a lot but was the best thing I ever did for him. He was both dyslexic and GT. The two were masking each other.This would never never have come up at school, and he would have been left to coast.

He is now 18 and doing his A Levels. He has extra time in all his exams due to this report, and is about to betested to see what extra support he will need at the uni he is going to.

Get him tested hth

I help with reading at school (both guided and individual) and have come across kids who race through the text making silly mistakes. Some do it because they really want to read on to see what happens. I would ask yor son to slow down and ask him to use more expression - this will help to slow him down.
The comprehension issue is more worrying in my opinion. When I am with a group for guided reading I ask the following types of question (highest year group I read with is year 3)

• what do you think will happen next
• how do the characters feel
• favourite character/part of the story. In year one the teacher is pretty strict about comprehension and won't move kids up a level if they cannot show they have understood what they have read. We have several children in the class who are technically able to decode words, but don't like to answer any questions.

I would like to add that some of the comprehension questions designed for year 3 students befuddle me...and I'm a published writer. I think that some children are simply confused by the constant demands to "predict" and to discuss this and that because they're simply enjoying the book!

Thank you for all these perspectives. educatingarti and orangesandlemons this was what was worrying me. He is doing well compared to his peers in reading (and generally across the board) - I think he's on the highest level in his class, which is probably why the teacher thinks I'm barking, but it's the sort of mistakes that he's making that are worrying me.

I'll see how it goes this term and then perhaps talk to his Y2 teacher about it if it continues. I want to trust the teacher - she's had plenty of experience so she may have seen this sort of thing before, so I'll suppress the doubts until September.

DS did have a stammer when he was little, on and off, and we took advice from his SLT to just completely ignore it and slow down our own speech and it'd sort itself out. Despite having months where it'd take 2 minutes to get a sentence out, it hasn't come back since a short period in reception. The SLT said it was his mouth couldn't keep up with his brain. Perhaps this is something similar with his reading, and it'll sort itself out if we ignore it for a bit. I'm not totally convinced, but I'll keep my fingers crossed.

His school will presumably be doing the (controversial) phonics screening soon. It includes nonsense words which have to be decoded. If your DS is getting by sightreading (which his teacher should really already know) it will be shown up by this.

Hi Chocolotta,
I have two bright DC. (Eldest has to work hard to achieve what her brother finds more natural to achieve). Both read by the time they started school, both reached expected levels throughout primary school with my youngest, who really is exceptionally clever, achieving level 5 in all subjects by year 5.

To cut a long story as short as possible, both we're eventually diagnosed with dyslexia at the ages of 15 and 12. It took years of me pushing, fighting the system and eventually giving up on state education and moving them into the expensive world of independent education. The dyslexia warning signs were always there and never acted upon. Sadly there were many pupils at my DC's primary school deemed worse and so neither were seen by an educational psychologist. My son's teachers used to moan constantly because my son would never read. He hated reading! In the end I grew fed up with teachers whinging implying I was not doing my job as a parent in pushing him to read. Trust me, I did everything I could, but it was obvious the pressure was putting him off even more. The only time I managed to get him to read was when we cooked together. He had no idea my sneaky ploy in cooking was only to get him reading labels and recipes!

If you can afford it Chocolotta, pay for your own independent Educaional Psychologist's report. So many children are in need of these and schools only have a set budget and allocation of pupils. It could be that your DC doesn't tick enough boxes to require a report? My eldest's diagnosis was of a 'non standard dyslexia' while my son was as standard as you could find, but with an exceptional intelligence. Yes the reports cost us a few quid, however thanks to our youngest's HT, who found a more reasonably priced Ed Psych, we were not left needing a second mortgage! They reports enabled my DC to get the support they required both in the private and state sectors of education. I now have one DC who passed all their GCSEs above grade C, A levels have been more miss than hit as she's been completely switched off from education. I regret that it took so long to get her diagnosed (she was 15) and feel this delay cost her achieving more within education. She's now starting on her working pathway and can only hope she finds that confidence she lost from about year 4 onwards. My youngest is on course to gain IGCSE/GCSEs grades A-B, including A in English. His reading and spelling were both years below what they should have been by year 6 so the improvement is phenomenal.

Trust your instincts. Not saying your DC has dyslexia and it could just be a learning delay which will improve. Whatever the case, your DC has a supportive mum and that's half the battle won. If you cannot afford a private Ed Psych report and you still have concerns, push the school as much as possible to see if there is an alternative reason why your child is struggling? I learned the most common dylsexia symptom is poor concentration and not poor spelling and reading. If only I knew then what I know now and trusted my instincts. Those instincts told me my eldest had ADD so they were a little off, but they got there in the end. Good luck!

I agree with Mutteroo. My eldest sounds like your ds, they were saying words on a page, but I wasn't convinced they could "read".

I kept on raising this with the school, and being told they were advanced for their years etc.

When they started at secondary school, 2.5 weeks after starting, the school asked if our dc could see an ed psych, we said certainly.

Our dc is severelly dyslexic, and reads by seeing words as pictures not decoding. They just memorise the word with a photographic memory.

It was highlighted to us, that due to it not being recognised when younger, that they didn't have the skills for building how words are made. This is effectively building on wordskills with out any foundations, and at some age (when in secondary and words are a lot more complicated) the decoding or lack of comes all tumbling down.

Not saying your ds is dyslexic, but certainly sounds like they are being pushed by the school too soon, without the full building blocks.