Phonics Test Year 1 Query

[NigellaEllaElla]

DS is doing the "Test" next week. I did a few flash card words with him last night and just have a query.

He sounds out the word but if it has a "y" at the end he sounds it as "yu" as in the letter name, not sound. (Not sure yu is best way of explaining it but can't think of alternative) rather than "ee" but then still says the word correctly.

So for "Happy" he might say "H a p p yu - Happy"

Because he is saying "yu" not "ee" when sounding will this count as a fail even though he knows the word correctly?

Bloody stupid test. He's a really good reader for his age, possibly a little too good cause I don't think it will do him any favours in a test like this!

Thanks in advance for your help.

Babies can read words if you tell them what the word is.

DD is doing the test this week but it won't be marked/recorded I would imagine as she is only in reception.

I only know this because I volunteer in the school and over heard it the teacher has not mentioned it to DD nor me (as I would expect) and she has had zero preparation with flash cards etc...

I taught myself to read at 2.6 apparently and I thought that was young

My son learnt to read concurrently with speaking, I think.

It was difficult to tell what he was doing at the time, he seemed to know things. Curiosity led me to investigate further and he could recognize whole words and I knew he could recognise sounds (electronic phonics games). I don't think he was quite as young as 20 mnths but not long after 2.

^ years that is!

yes Nigellaellaella
No one had told him the words learnandsay that's the point

So you showed him a word and said it, no pics, and then when he saw the word again he knew it?

I am testing this theory out in the morning. Really, really interesting.

Nigella yes, my DS did.

No I didn't show him a word NigellaEllaElla ... he picked up leaflets that came through the letterbox and he read them out ...as they were junk mail I'm sure there were pictures.

For the record my son is autistic and has a co-morbidity of hyperlexia which I imagine is where his fascination with the Financial Times came from.

Incidentally I'm just not the sort to do loads of flash cards (not interesting enough). Once was enough for me to think, 'Oh, he can do it,' From then I just encouraged him to join in with stories, read words in the environment, play with plastic letters, make up words that he and I would read.

So long as he says the correct word he will get marked correct.

He can blend it as much as he wants, he can say the wrong sounds for letters as much as he wants.

But as long as he says that the word is "happy" then it gets marked correct.

I'm afraid I'm a bad mother ... all I did was read him stories

Quite a few of the yr1s I read with would sound out the word window as

w i n d ow (ow sound as in ouch)

but say window correctly as they are using the more common ow (as in ouch) sound first, find it doesn't fit then going to the next sound that ow makes iyswim.

and fall asleep while he read the Nato defence document to me (no pictures Nigella)

I learnt to read before I was two. I know my mother did not explicitly teach me, as she had tried to teach my older brother when he was 2 and had completely put him off reading. By age 4, having had no teaching I could read the encylopedia britanica. Apparently I was a terrible show off and if mum's friends came around I would pull out a Dickens from the bookshelf and read it.
I am fairly certain I must have learnt to read phonetically as even now when I am reading long words quickly e.g. dinosaur names, I know I am decoding a word as I am going through it.

Fascinating.

But mrz at that age how could he look at a leaflet and have any comprehension what the words were? I've read to all mine from around a year (proper stories, pic books before that) but I can't see how, if you haven't even read to them, that they could possibly make that association. I'm intrigued, not questioning that you're being honest.

www.gosh.nhs.uk/medical-conditions/search-for-medical-conditions/hyperlexia/hyperlexia-information/?__utma=1.1204626555.1371414723.1371414723.1371414723.1&__utmb=1.2.9.1371414748192&__utmc=1&__utmx=-&__utmz=1.1371414723.1.1.utmcsr=autism.org.uk|utmccn=%28referral%29|utmcmd=referral|utmcct=/about-autism/related-conditions/hyperlexia.aspx&__utmv=-&__utmk=31323455

I don't know how he did it nor do the numerous psychiatrists who have examined him. He could (still can) also do complex calculations in his head and says he just sees the answers.

:) I think I am/was hyperlexic, I didn't even realise people made eye contact until it became an issue when they were assessing DS1 for autism.

mrz where on earth did he get hold of the NATO defence document at 20 months? Are you also a spy?

They publish them daftdame freely available on the internet now

and he was at nursery when he was reading the Nato doc so much older

mrz cool. I may take a look.

He had good comprehension,spoken language and eye contact but poor social skills.

I've just discovered there is a NATO APP! itunes.apple.com/us/app/nato-news/id524701930?mt=8&ign-mpt=uo%3D4

www.nato.int/docu/review/index_EN.htm#2
The CIA have a good site for kids www.cia.gov/kids-page/

Slight detour off topic but I actually find the concept of alien words v useful for my year 1 son who is reading pretty well. He has a tendency to guess at an unfamiliar word, and it's useful to say "pretend it's an alien word", which makes him stop and sound it out.

I have no time for Michael Gove at all, but actually have no objections to this check at all (and if my son doesn't pass, I am not worried about it reflecting on him, nor on how this will impact his university entrance....)

My daughter sometimes guesses wildly at words (depending on how tired she is.) It used to be much worse than it is now, saying things like hospital for the word unlikely. At least now when she does it the word normally has some vague resemblance to what's written on the page.

But I always say, no. That's not right. Read it carefully.

And then she sounds it out and pretty much always gets it right, unless it's one of those words which isn't pronounced the way that it's spelled. Sometimes telling her it's a tricky word in those cases is enough to do the trick and in the rest of the cases I just tell her what it is. That doesn't happen all that often, about once per chapter or so in Mr Fox.