Any reading tips for ?asd 6 year old

[JackJacksmummy]

My DS is 6, just gone into year 2.
He is currently on SA+ and we suspect asd but not severe.

He is still doing reception stage work for most things, mainly reading, writing and numeracy, he is better at the physical aspects of work - he is a kineasthetic learner.

He seems to have forgotten most of his phonics - he is ok with the single letter sounds but doesn't get any of the digraphs so even sounding out is not really working. He won't even attempt to try tricky words like "the"

He is on the red level of Oxford reading tree and struggles with that, I have to sound every word or he will just make up the story from what he sees or remembers.

I really don't know how to help him, my other 2 were free readers by the end of year 1, we have always read to them all as we all love reading except him.

He is also on the lowest level of reading - bag, bad, am, an and the - he spelt bad as bab and bag and ban.

I suspect he is dyslexic too but scho won't assess until he is a bit older.

School, not scho!!

You say you suspect ASD but is he being assessed by Camhs. Does he have any of the behaviours? School may not want to pay for it but camhs will do all the testing required for free and make recommendations for both educational and social support. It was a long process for my brother.

I know that doesn't help with your original question about reading but I'm sure you'll get some recommendations for programs such as Bear necessities and toe by toe, both of which I understand from mumsnet are good but I don't know how appropriate in your DS's case

My little girl is on red band too, also a year 2 also has other issues but no support in school, she is under camhs and we are currently waiting for our second appointment, we too struggle with reading, we do try but its difficult, no advice really other than suggesting that if you haven't already been referred to camhs its worth asking as appointments can take a long time, we have been waiting since April but we know or at least hope that we will get some answers soon

It's not the done thing any more but have you seen whether he has a strong visual memory and see if he prefers to learn to read and spell by memorising. Both mine with autism taught themselves to read before nursery, ds was 2 and picked it up from subtitles on the tv and the books I read to him.Ds was pre phonics. Dd was three because I tried not to let her learn to read because I knew she'd have to learn phonics later. She still learnt phonics but doesn't use them as her primary source of reading or spelling more as something else to learn and memorise tbh.

He has been seen by the ed psych, a paed at the hospital and now awaiting assessment through an specialist ASD unit at the hospital - all of that is underway and has been now for almost a year - he shows lots of behaviours which we've always just taken as it being "him" but mumsnet & NAS have been a great resource and made us realise he isn't like his brother and sister - He has always been a lot harder work than those two - he was always angry and "highly strung" but it has become more obvious since starting school and seeing him to kids his own age.

Currently he has IEPs, 1:1 for 20 mins a day and is seen by the local SEN facility once a week so help is there which is why I want to know more about how I can help him.

Is visual memory is fantastic - he remembers things that we see every day and if they have slightly changed he is the first to point it out.

He reads books from memory - but doesn't even look at the words. He was given a new book just before the holiday, someone must have read it to him because he knew it. We read it sporadically through the summer holidays and he still remembered it word for word.

So I'd get flash cards and teach him like that tbh. Repeating from memory might just be audio memory show him a flash card repeat the word and see how it goes.Ds could read newspapers by three and spell all sorts of words with magnetic letters. Dd can read and spell any word she's ever come across without resorting to phonics either tbh.

Ok, next question....where can I get those from? Places like ELC?

Yes ELC have them I think and lots more on Amazon www.amazon.co.uk/s/ref=nb_sb_ss_i_1_11?url=search-alias%3Daps&field-keywords=flash+cards&sprefix=flash+cards%2Caps%2C331

Thank you, just ordered some :)

JsckJacksmummy - if you have a look at piperbooks website and would like to try a set of books I'll gladly send them to you. I'd very much welcome your feedback. The scheme has been used when many others have failed to help children to decode, to read fluently and with expression and to engage with the characters in the books.
Reading from memory generally will only get your child so far - there are well over 1/4 million words in our lexicon and many children fail to read fluently at secondary level as they lack foundational skills.

Ok will look today thank you x