I need to broach this with DS's teacher - but how and when?

[Vagaceratops]

DS is in yr1 and has SN.

I am starting to get worried that his teacher thinks that he can read when he cant. Since we have been back to school we have had 3 different books, with notes in his reading diary saying 'well read', fab reading etc. In fact what he is doing is memorising the text (pink books so not a lot and much repetition). I can tell because he can read the line before I have even turned the page.

He can recognise some of the words from his high frequency sheets, but again its recognising by sight, rather than breaking down and working out the word.

I dont see his teacher as his TA brings him out of a different door and he goes in via the office. I have spoken to his TA about it and written comments in his reading diary.

Should I leave it a few weeks or should I bring it up now?

I would bring it up now.

I think they probably know, and are just encouraging him with praise.
DS can't read either, and his book has the same type of comments.

If you're worried then you'll feel better for having a word as soon as possible though.

I had this BS for years.

I would bring it up straight away. I would right in his reading diary - 'No, he can't read this book. He's just memorised it'

Teachers are always positive - and they don't realise what damage that does.

Maybe sit down and discuss what a good reading plan for your son would be- it sounds like he might need something a bit more specialised that discourages from memorising.

IndigoBell: pls don't teacher-generalise, i would definitely write something more constructive in a reading record than the above, as would the vast majority of teachers that i have worked with.

Ok, am genuinely curious and not saying I don't believe the OP at all; but when parents say that their child can't read and that the teachers haven't noticed because the child has memorised the books; from where do they think the child has memorised it?

I mean, clearly, lots of children will do that with books read to them frequently at home (which can lead to the opposite issue of parents thinking their child can read when they really can't) but aren't school reading books given to the child for them to read to the adult on 'first sight'? (Certainly as a parent helper I would pick up straight away if a child was struggling with decoding because it was always a new book with new words in it every day - not disputing that sight memory of individual words doesn't happen, of course...but surely they've mostly decoded it themselves before repeating it by rote?)

In some schools do the TAs read the book to the child first so they can go home and just repeat it to the parents?

Ok, am re-reading the OP and it seems your ds is still on very early stage books with just one or two words changed per sentence so it might be easier for ds to be memorising/picture guessing but with other children supposedly on a higher level.

Sorry to veer off, OP; I would be asking teacher what level phonics he's at, what else you can do at home and maybe read some of your own books with him, asking him to sound out random words from the text and then if he can't, give teacher some proof that you don't think he's 'got it' at all.

My DS can recite the whole of The Gruffalo Child, the whole of Room on the Broom and most of the episodes of ITNG. He has echolalia and most of his speech is repeated sentences.

The book he has at the moment is about cars. On each page it will say 'I like the red car' and then it goes on through blue and yellow and green. His eyes are on the picture, not on the text.

His TA will read the book to him first, and then he will have memorised it, so he just looks at the pictures for the clue to the colour, then after a few reads he can read the whole thing without even looking at the book.

He has no level of phonics - he doesnt understand them save from singing the songs. He doesnt know how to apply them to letters, although he can recognise letters.

In that case I'm pretty sure the teacher will know he isn't really reading

If the teacher knows he's not reading she shouldn't say 'well read' she should say something else, like 'concentrated well'

It is not good enough to say 'well read' in his diary if he can't read.

I expect she wants the child to think of himself as a reader. We used to talk about ours reading as toddlers when they were actually looking at pictures and then when they were reciting words they had memorised. It's a helpful self image for them to have.

This is pink level! The objectives include - tracking from left to right, learning one-to-one correspondence by pointing to a word as they are saying it, holding the book up the right way, picking out sounds and any keywords they may have learnt etc etc. 'Well read' could just be shorthand for saying he is meeting some of these objectives. Teachers know when a child is 'reading' or not.

If the child can't read then writing an 'incentive' in their book such as 'well read' hardly makes sense

But he wont think about himself as a reader because he has absolutely no awareness of what it means or what it is.

On your list LeeCoakley he is not doing any of those things.

If the TA's reading it first then I'd guess they know he's not reading it. I've never seen a situation where the TA standardly reads the book first.

Mind you if the book's as boring as that I don't think he's got any incentive to try and read it. A child will normally take the easy way out and if the words are as predictable as that I doubt many children would actually bother to read it.

I would speak to them and see what their actual view is, rather than the "encouraging the child" comments.