Is reading just knowing your phonics and lots of practice

[PeasandCucumbers]

Just wondering if there is anything else I can do to help DS improve a bit. I know that comprehension is equally important but you can't comprehend what you can't decode. I think he has very good phonics knowledge (well at least the ones he has learnt, not yet done some of the more advanced phonemes yet) but he still struggles a bit with words that don't seem to fit in phonic rules, the only examples I can think of right now are caught and taught. We have lots of reading material available and use the library. I may be over thinking this and he does seem to be improving (slowly!) and enjoys books but really just wondering if it is just practice or are there some other tricks I could try. He does have a visual impairment which may make things a bit trickier for him to track words well

I think that although phonics is really important, some words such as 'tought' could be learned by sight, or practice. When my DS reads a very difficult word and struggles with it, I write it on a blank flash card and we practice the word a few times. Then he gets it and can read that word, and similar words, better (such as words ending in 'ing' which he sometimes struggles with).

lol at tought!

We cover the 'aught' sound in phonics. (Phase 5 Letters and Sounds I think)

If he can't track well it's going to be harder for him to read.

Could you practice eye tracking?

What visual impairment does he have? (nystagmus?)

Whilst such these are being answered, my DD is being slowed down because school haven't covered these phonics yet.
Could would etc
Laugh
thought, through
Here, where, there, were

When are these taught? And any hints how? I get in a right muddle explaining them.
Sorry for mini hijack

Missing * PHONICS AS

He has learnt taught & caught as sight words now but he did try to use laugh to figure it out which was obviously no use as the augh in laugh makes more of an arf sound.
Yes Indigo he has nystagmus which I have always been led to believe can't be improved but having read some of your posts I am going to ask his consultant at our next appt on Tues.

some of the words you mentioned, shattereddreams, are taught as tricky words rather than decodable i.e. were and there in Phase 4 and could in Phase 5. Here is taught as a decodable word in Phase 5. These are all in the 2nd high frequency words list ie. 200 to 299. The other words you mention are taught later in the next 200 hfw list in the following order - where would thought through laughed. If your DD's school haven't covered them yet, it is probably best to just support your child to read these words in the context of a story rather than as individual words for spelling/reading. Then if she is reading for meaning, looking at pictures and using the phonic knowledge she does have, she will learn these words over time. Encourage her to check if what she is reading makes sense.

some of the words you mentioned, shattereddreams, are taught as tricky words rather than decodable

They should be taught as decodable but with a tricky bit, which is a better way of looking at them.

To the OP (and anyone, come to that) I would say that if your dc encounters a word which contains a grapheme that hasn't yet been taught just tell them what 'sound' the grapheme is spelling (so that they can successfully sound out the word) and tell them that they will learn about it later at school. It's no big deal. Some children may apply what you have said to the same grapheme if they come across it in a different word. Which is good! I like the example of the child who was trying to generalise from 'laugh' to 'taught', it shows nice independent thinking. In a case like that you need only point out that sometimes a grapheme can spell more than one sound. That then confirms what they should be being taught at school.

maybe check out the letters and sounds website and see where he's up to , and maybe do a bit of detective work to find out what size font he needs, whether different colours (print or background) make any difference, and maybe get a set of wooden letters for kinaesthetic feedback (so he can feel the shape of the letters as well as see them) I'd definitely be thinking multisensory learning for a dc with visual impairment, I do this with children without such difficulties as well as those with hearing/vison/learning difficulties, and the more ways you can get to grips with those digraphs the better
I'm a sen teacher btw