DD failed her phonics screening - any advice?

[formerdiva]

I know there's another big thread on the screening, but it mostly seems to be debate about whether the test is worthwhile or not. I just wanted a bit of advice about what my strategy should be? To give some context:

I trust the school - the teaching staff seem good, and the other children don't seem to have an issue
They've told me that DD is immature (she's an August baby, but to be fair her friends who are summer babies don't seem to have issues)
She doesn't concentrate or focus very well at all
We do her homework every day and read to/with her every day

I feel really anxious for her. Any advice about what our next steps should be?

How well can she read?

Not advanced for her age, but not really terrible (her report today said that she's just inside the standard for her age, which is progress on where she was 6 months ago).

Thanks for replying - I know I'm probably sounding a bit precious.

How old is she? I don't know when they do the phonics test. I think it's important to remember that she's a full year younger than the oldest kids in her class and children really do click with reading at different stages. One of my twins was way past 6 before things clicked. He is doing as well if not better in English than his twin brother who was reading fluently at 4. Don't panic! It sounds like you are doing everything right in terms of giving her lots of chances to practice. Keep it low key and fun though! The key is making sure she doesn't get put off reading before it clicks for her.

Please do not worry. Your daughter is 5 years and 10 months old. In my daughter's school (in France) some children only began to learn phonics when they were 6 years and 8 months. Your DD will learn to read.

Why don't you make an appointment with her class teacher to discuss where she thinks your DD could do with some help. Have you got time to help her? Could you afford a tutor over the summer holidays?

Thanks scummymummy, she'll be 6 in August. Interesting to hear about your son - I'd really love to think that this is a maturity issue that she'll grow out if

I've just done a super graph of our results which shows quite clearly that the better readers did relatively badly reading nonsense words.

Up to orange reading level, the % scores for reading nonsense words were better or equal to % scores for reading real words.

At turquoise +, there is a total change in the pattern of correct responses and the % scores for reading nonsense words were significantly less than % scores for reading real words.

Very interesting.

Bonsoir - time is tight as I work full time, but a tutor is an option. Very reassuring to hear the French approach!

Honestly, if you can find a good tutor (one who really knows her stuff with phonics and has the books), I would get your DD some sessions over the summer. It will reassure you both!

I don't think it's precious at all, and in the current climate where phonics is in its ascendancy, politically speaking anyway, there is justifiably a lot of worry about it. But the fact is that although there are some fabulous teachers out there who are unbelievably committed to phonics, there are also teachers out there who either don't understand it or who do understand it and don't like it. It would be lovely if all teachers and parents understood it perfectly and where committed to it. But they don't and they are not. For my own daughter(s) I'm teaching them to read using any method at my disposal, including sounding words out. I hesitate to call it phonics because it doesn't have any of the theoretical baggage. We just sound out cat -cu-a-t and so on. Above all we read lots and lots, we practice lots and lots and my daughter has books which she can read all of, like Cat in the Hat and Where the Wild Things Are, and she reads them to me often. We add other books as time goes on and she can read those books too. Don't be frightened to read with her and above all don't let people with their own pet theories make you scared of teaching your daughter to read and of reading with her. You are her mummy and she should read with you.

This screening test should be showing which children are having difficulties in decoding. The school should be using this information to plan interventions when there is still plenty of time (much better to find out in yr 1, than watch an apparently good reader crash and burn later because the foundations are not in place). So your first port of call should be the school, to find out what they plan to do, and what activities at home will support this.

That is interesting, flexibex. Suggests that the better readers at that age are recognising whole words rather than using phonics to decode, maybe? Whereas those who don't recognise whole words yet and have to try to phonically decode them use the same strategy successfully with the nonsense words.

Please please don't worry at this stage, fd.:) It is very very likely that she will find the reading key with time and patience.

flexybex - that is indeed very interesting, and precisely what the recent project I have been working on (albeit with a slightly different slant) demonstrated.

We found that long real words that were phonically not too difficult were a much more reliable test than short pseud-words.

Michael Rosen (yes, the Michael Rosen) argues that confident whole-word readers will fall over in the phonics test, and that every word they get "wrong" will knock their confidence so they skittle the rest.

I am a big believer in different reading styles regardless of teaching method, so I would not be upset by her result, unless it made a difference to her treatment at school (e.g. being kept back or something).

Is the OP's worry the technical details and experiments around phonics or her daughter's continuing success with reading? Apart from some people's insistence that one is dependent on the other, some people do learn to read admirably without using phonics. If the OP's daughter turns out to be one of them then she should be taught without it.

The phonics test is about the ablity to decode strange words. It is testing a particular skill. Hopefully the school will set up an IEP so that you daughter can get the help that she needs so she doesn't get left behind.

It is not as if she has failed her GCSE and employers will not be interested in what score she got for her phonics test. The aim of the test is identify childen who need additional help.

Tutoring at 6? Surely you are joking?

Tutoring at 6 is where we get a complex, not about not knowing how to read, but about not knowing about phonics. All you really need now is a fancy theory about walking and a few fanatics and we'll be frightened to teach our children how to walk/let them learn naturally/ and have to get walking tutors and £30/£40/hour.

At risk of rehashing the other current threads, if the child cannot decode they are not the "better" readers: and are the ones at risk failure, because of insecure foundations as they move on. Slower starters, who lay good foundations, over take their peers. Michael Rosen, BTW, has neither direct experience of teaching small children to read, nor has he studied it academically. Although he has an eye-catching day job, this is not his area of expertise.

Children have learned to decode securely have the skill for life - you see this in adults (brain scan when reading shows this). If the child is unable to decode, it's because they have not learnt to do so well enough.

learnandsay - why are you in such denial about phonics? It's getting ever clearer from your posts that you are indeed teaching your daughter by this method.

Okay, I disagree with most of what has been said here.

If my child failed the Phonics screening test I would: ask the school what they were going to do. I would start to keep a diary of what they promised, and dates by which things would happen, and any other related communication with the school. I would also request termly updates with the SENCo to see what was happening, and an IEP to be put in place with SMART (look it up) targets, probably 3 a term.

What I would not do is allow the school to blame it on her age, or to ignore it. It may be something she grows out of, but learning Phonics is never bad for a child, and will help her decode unfamiliar words in future. The whole point of the test is to pick up any children falling behind, and give them a boost. If the school doesn't do this, the test is a waste of time and resources.

Speak with school and get a box of the Read Write Inc phonics and more phonics flash cards off amazon and do 5 mins everyday with her over the holidays.

Interesting flexybex our data shows the good readers didn't drop a single mark

Please don't use flash cards with phonics!

Ask the school for advice, as the first step. You could always post here later if you wanted further advice on what they say.

BTW: does anyone who has worked with KS1/KS2 pupils have an opinion on "Toe by Toe" ?

Why not flash cards?

As a teacher and a mum, I completely agree mummytime.

AFAICS, the main benefit of using this test is to identify gaps in a child's phonic knowledge, then do something about it. It may not be a big problem and your DD is perhaps just not quite "ready" (my DS would have probably been exactly the same at that age, but is now a level5+ in Y6), but the school should definitely be putting something in place for her and the others who need it.

Which specific ones did she fail on?
We has a small number that did, mainly EAL who need more experience of certain phonemes they don't seem to experience in their home language when speaking, i/e confusion for example. I'd also be looking for consistency in her results, rather than a patchy collection of phonemes she didn't know.
Yes, this has been used to flag up specific children for interventions next year.