From blending to reading

[Goldchilled7up]

My son is 3.10 yrs old. At the school nursery he goes to they use the read write inc system, which has been fantastic. I also bought the cards to use at home, so he already knows all the letter sounds and can read very simple phonics books by sounding and blending the letters. But how do I help him to progress from here? He reads t-r-a-i-n and then says train, how can I coach him to just say the word without having to say the letter sounds first?

I understand that's how they start, but with simple words such as dog or cat which he already is very familiar with, I know that he could just read them but he's so used to the blending that he doesn't try.

Why would you want to, unless you're so tired of reading the newspaper that you want him to read it to you? He's three. My daughter didn't blend at that age, she just read. But that was because she read whole words. The difference between blending and reading without it is practice and at three yo children haven't had much of that.

Blending is a form of reading. There are many others.

Yes, time and practice. But I wouldn't hurry it, you can't really and you don't want to put him off. Both mine didn't start blending until over 4. It's fantastic he can blend. Do you read the sentence back to him so he hears it? That can help.

Thank you for the replies. Yes I read the sentence back to him. I'm not pushing him in any form, he loves books and picked up the letter sounds easily at nursery because they repeat them everyday.

As I'm not experienced in teaching I just wondered if I should be guiding him somehow differently. What has triggered me to think this is that when I told his nursery class teacher what he's been reading, she asked if the just reads the word or sound it out, so I assumed that this would be the next stage and how I could help him. Practise makes sense, thank you

That's great he loves books, keep reading lots to him . Yes, practice and time.

Although having said that, some teachers and parents have noticed on here that some children (4 and 5 year olds though) seem to need permission not to sound the word out- they are so used to having to sound it out when practising at school etc that they don't realise that if they know the word they can just say it without sounding out first. So you could check this isn't the case with your DS.

That's a good tip free, thank you.

practice - definitely practice. I agree I would explain to him that when you don't know a word you sound it out but once you feel confident that the word says cat or whatever then you can just say it.

my eldest (borderline dyslexia) struggled with blending right from the start and just learned to read the words. my youngest started blending at 3 but also learned some words I assume as she read some without sounding out and others with.