Really worried about my DD's reading. Shes in year three and can't read hardly at all

[2girls2dogs]

All of her peers seem to reading books, harry potter etc and such like - but she is at key stage one still. She has always struggled and i have worried but my DP just says "she'll catch up". The school haven't seemed overly concerned - she has extra help and goes off during lessons for this.

Im starting to worry this isn't enough

I don't do tht much reading with her at home because she doesn't like it, this is because she gets frustrated :( I have been concentrating more on getting her to read signs out and about, reading things on games that we play than sitting down wiht books with her. She likes to be read to and i read alot to her, im reading her a book from my kindle and she loves it, my DP is reading harry potter to her at bedtime. She does read to DP but its the same books over and over - she is clearly just memorising and wont read other books, she has 100s of books to choose from as i buy them from charity shops.

in one way i think she will catch up, it will just click but i'm kidding myself. I sat and read her school book tonight (she only "remembered" to change it today because she had to read to her teacher and ive nagged her every day) and she was fine with what she had read to the teacher (she memorises it) but when it came to reading the new stuff she really struggled so then got upset and didn't want to do it. The way she sounds things out is illogical, she will sound out the begining of a word ok, and then try and fill in with something either random or what she thinks it should be - so earlier, Stand = St an ball????

Ive worried that she is dyslexic since before school but i think they think im mad, but her dad is dyslexic although he wont have it tht he is, i know he is and she has had "signs" since she was very young.

Its only week two of the term, do you think its too early to make an appointment with her teacher, i feel like I am letting her down :( Ive asked for her to be assessed for dyslexia but they keep telling me they don't do that yet :( The school is an excellent school, by far the best in the area, she very very happy there, but they don't have the best records for special needs

I mentioned to her new teacher that i was concerned during the open evening at the end of last term and she said that she was aware of DDs scores etc and would be able to tell me more in october (open evening). So i don't want to ask for a meeting because i am worried she will just say that she doesn't know DD well enough yet.

I don't want to come across as a paranoid mum but i really think she needs some sort of formal assesment, which i fear i will have to pay for and can't afford it :(

Absolutely make an appointment to see her teacher, you know her best and reading is so key to learning in all areas and so needs to be got right early on

It sounds like she really does need some kind of assessment, and you need to push for it. She's not too young, the school is just being lazy. I have a friend whose DD was assessed in year 1 last year and was found to need one of those colour transparencies over her books.

I'm so glad you posted this. I am having exactly the same issue with my Y3 DS.

I was just reading with him at bedtime and am really worried. He can decode individual words but there is no fluency and he really struggles to keep track of a story.

Like your DD he does't enjoy reading because he gets frustrated.

I have felt fobbed off by the school but I am going to make an appointment as he will go up to middle school next year and I am worried he'll struggle even more.

Good luck with your DD. Hope you get some answers.

Am going to make an appointment tomorrow, i am worried i will be fobbed off but i want to make a stand here. The thing is, i don't know what to ask for, if that makes sense.

If your dd cannot read the word stand in year 3 then there is a serious issue. Get in there now and start creating a fuss.

Have made an appointment for monday, the teacher knew why i was there, i was nearly in tears actually, but anyway, the teacher was fine about it, she said that she has been thinking about setting DD up with some different sort of books so am hoping she already has a strategy in mind. I have another thread open about this too, so will probably just reply on that one now as it has more traffic but wanted to reply to those of you who took the trouble to advise me. thanks x

If your DD has been at this school since YR or Y1, you should be in the Head's office with your DH by now, asking exactly why the school has failed to address your DD's failure to read until now and what exactly they are going to do now and how you as parents can support the teacher.

Don't be frightened of the school which is clearly failing to address its own shortcomings.

Hi

I agree with Bonsoir, ask questions now. You know your child best. I was concerned in Reception at dd's ability to read, when she knew a lot of basic sounds before starting school, and like you was a bit reluctant to keep mentioning it.

However, two weeks into Year 1, her teacher spotted it immediately and she went onto a Reading Recovery scheme, by January she had passed her peers, but there was no dyslexia, she just hadn't 'got' reading for some reason. She is now in Year 3 (although at another school) and is one of the better readers.

My friend is a specialist teacher and she gave me a lot of advice and she was adamant that testing for Dyslexia and any intervention should ideally come into place during Year 1 and Year 2.

Don't hang back!

To be fair to the school they haven't just ignored DDs reading issues - she has had extra help in terms of an early year intervention? is that what its called?? Anyway, it would be unfair of me to say they haven't done anything. I just think that now is the time to be thinking about a formal assesment.

You should definitely be chasing this with the school. It's very tempting to think it will all 'fall into place'. But if it hasn't by now, then it will be starting to have a big impact on other areas, not to mention her self esteem.

It's good that you are reading for her - it will help her enjoy more complex stories. It's only natural that she will shy away from something she obviously finds incredibly hard.

With DD it helped to ask her what she wanted. eg sometimes she was happy to try and 'work out' a word. Sometimes she just wanted to point and for me to tell her without a great long lecture about magic e :o

She had a terrible Yr1 where school wouldn't agree there was an issue and in March of her Yr 2 I decided I needed to do something about it. First thing was for me not to get too stressed at home. This was tricky; elder DS had been an easy and natural reader and it was frustrating for me as well as her when she just couldn't 'get it' when she was looking at a word and saying something completely different.

Once I realised, there must be a genuine 'problem' if you like I found it was much easier to keep patient, help her out rather than to make her 'try' when she obviously couldn't. That sounds obvious, but you know, it was difficult.

There are lots of help schemes: Apples and Pears, Dancing Bears workbooks lots of people seem to like. Toe by Toe might be worth looking it by her age.

I'm sure IndigoBell will be along to let you know about reasons behind dyslexia and what you can do to help these, whether auditory, vision or diet related.

and this has really helped us. I've given a description on another thread here about it, but you could look at the website and see if you think it will help your DD. Warning - it's about £700 but you can spread the payments and to me it was money better spent than the extra lessons DDs school were going to charge me for (private). DD has been doing it since March, she's now on lesson 140 of 225 and has gone from unable to blend CVC words to reading words like occasion, concerned, doubted etc quite happily. More importantly she is no longer avoiding books.

Thanks better - i just couldn't afford that amount of money as things are really tight at the moment. I have spoken to DP about getting DD a tutor but im really not sure about that to be honest becuse she needs specialised help anyway. I don't think we can afford the tutor either. I had to beg DP to allow horse riding but it is helping DDs self esteem no end, she already seems more confident around the horses and whilst she isn't shy, she does already lack confidence.

2 threads going :)

I know what you mean about the horse riding and confidence and it's so tempting to have something that's non-stressful. There are other things you can do at home to help the reading. The Toe by Toe book could be useful with the reading/ blending. It's limited to 10 minutes a day so not too onerous.

Come back once you've had your meeting with the school and let us know how it goes - there is a lot of good information on here.

lol at two threads, im confused now too :) I may try the book, i want to have the meeting with the school first as i want to support/extend what i hope will be done at school. THanks so much for your advice, it is really appreciated.

Apples and Pears, Dancing Bears - have helped mine.

www.dyslexiaadvice.co.uk/index.html

Good site if you want to look for possible underlying causes and possible schemes for help.

Obviously worth talking to the school - though my DC school not very helpful there are issues that some of their teacher have acknowledged but they not struggled enough to access help - me doing a lot of support at home possibly isn't helping there but TBH the first thing they do apparently is Dancing Bears and apple and pears which I can do at home without them missing lesson time.

The dancing bears in 10 minutes a day -

www.prometheantrust.org/soundfoundationsbooks.htm

Though the spelling lesson in apple and pears take longer.

DS1 was like this in reception and at the start of year 1. He would just make a wild guess at the word and hated reading as he couldn't decipher it. During yr1 the school changed reading schemes to Read Write Inc which has been brilliant for him and he now 'gets' how to read. I don't know if they have any stuff which parents can use at home though but if they do it's a great scheme.

Hello again
Stay here - you get more useful advice eg as Cassandra says - if school does the Apples and Pears, there is no need for her to miss out on lesson (or play) time at school. You can do it at home. Make it special - have a special cosy corner you sit in together etc (NB You could do this for Toe by Toe as it is reading only, for Apples and Pears she will need to be at a writing table)

Also she is old enough to show her the end of the books eg ToebyToe where the words are quite long and you can assure her that if she does her 'magic exercises' everyday with you (+star chart if that helps) then she really will be able to improve and manage to read that. Even read her the reviews of what some people on Amazon say??

UPDATE (oh and i have changed names because someone told me my name reminded them of a dodgy youtuble clip!)

Had really good meeting with DDs teacher, she said she hasn't seen any red flags for dyslexia yet but to be fair, we are two weeks into class, she said she will keep an eye on that side of things. She made DD a whole box of flash cards to practice, that she was going to bring home, but when she did them with her at school DD reeled them all off, which made the teacher go So we are currently on a different set of books that are more phonically bent and DD is doing well with these. We have also talked about some word games and the teacher is going to make me a "sound board" as it seems that DD has a very good, almost photographic memory that is actually holding her back because unless she sees the words in the context that she is used to she stumbles. So some of the words she read easily on the flash cards had DD stumped when she tried to read them in a book only a few minutes later.

The plan is to see how this goes, to possibly make DD a reading mentor for reception children and/or a little lad in her class with SN. This came about as i spoke about the "reading dogs" as i know someone who does this and is tring to get this in DDs school. Teacher is going to mention to head mistress about it again. She said that DD lacks confidence so wont try if she isn't sure. I notice this, and i am very much this way - today we were practicing tables on the way to school, she reeled off her five times table, but refused to do her twos because that was too hard so if she is confident she is very keen, but if she is unsure, she wont try for fear of failure.

Am on the whole very pleased with the way it went, teacher seemed to be very supportive and didn't dismiss the dyslexia thoughts, just said she needed some ore time to see how DD adjusts. I agree - if we get to the open evening (october) and there has been no improvement, then i will insist on an assesment.