Helping ds to read better/more confidently - any tips?

[PiedWagtail]

DS age 5 is in Reception,. He's on yellow level books (about the middle of the class) and can read and sound out 4-letter words confidently. He knows all his phonics and can blend 'sh a r k', 'sh o p', 'l oo k', and similar words easily.

He seems to memorise words a lot of the time rather than reading/decoding them - we have 100 HF words to learn over the year and he's done the 100 and is on to the next 200!

What I'm worried about is blending/reading words over 5 letters long. He can sound them out but often gets the letters in the wrong order, reading from right to left (he's left handed, if this makes any difference) and just cannot seem to sound out more than 4 letters.

He will read longer words, instantly, that he 'knows' - school, his sister's name, etc.

Is this just a stage, and practice will help with it? What can I do to help him?

Thanks

It sounds like he's doing really well :) Keep up the reading over the summer holidays so it doesn't slip.

No doubt the teachers will be on later, but it sounds as though phonics hasn't clicked yet. With both of my boys, I could actually see the day they "got it" and started blending.

I would keep up the reading, but maybe also play games with the sounds themselves. Have you got the junior scrabble games etc? Or sing lots of silly rhymes with rhyming words -"fat cat sat on a mat in his best hat" etc. My sons found the start and end sounds easy to hear, but took a bit to hear the middle sounds in words.

An ex-head told me that the best way to help a dc develop their reading was to tell them they should nudge you if they want you to read, and then again when they want to start again - so they are in control. It takes all the pressure off - they can decide whether to have a go at decoding or to let you tell them the word.

dd2 loves doing this.