Can sound out the letters but cannot blend!

[jenpenny]

Hi

Hoping for some good advice on supporting and teaching a child with blending. My daughter has just started Primary 1 at school and is presently learning sounds. She has started with s a t p i n. She can identify each letter sound no problem at all but if I put her cards together to make a word such as pat or sat and sound it out myself for her she does not seem to 'hear' the word. She sometimes even guesses a completely differently word altogether!

Thanks!

I think you just need to keep at it and something suddenly clicks.
I know with DS we went through months of him sounding out C-A-T, having no clue what it said, me sounding out the letters and then running them together so he could "get" what the word was. Then one day I realised he was doing the running them together step himself and in very swift succession could read the word without sounding. It did feel like we would never get there at the time though! (he was halfway through Y1 so had had a whole year and a half of school, so quite a bit further on than your DD).

Agree with red sky.
It took a while for ds1 to blend. Keep showing and doing and it will click.

Yeah, it'll click. I remember reading a book with DS last year, when he'd just started Reception. There was a boy called Sid in the book but DS had it in his head that he was called Jack so he'd sound it out "S-I-D...Jack!" It can be a bit frustrating when you can hear it so clearly in your own head but there does seem to be a point when it just clicks and they can do it.

Keep reading and sounding out and she'll get there!

Oh god this took ds2 an absolute age to get! He knew almost all his phonic sounds before he even started reception but still couldn't blend reliably at the start of the summer term. It was an extremely frustrating year for both of us to the point where the teacher actually suggested we stop trying at home for a few weeks and just let school get on with it. And tbh that's what I did, it simply wasn't worth the tears and upset it was causing. And as we approach Y1 he's now blending and decoding fairly successfully though nowhere near where his older brother was at the same age. Have a word with the teacher in a few weeks if you feel no further on, but just be aware it can take some children the whole of the first year for it to click.

You could also start saying words during the day in a blending style. E.g. say to her what would you like for l-u-n-ch? Make sure that you aren't adding an 'uh' onto the end of some of the sounds such as 'd', 'r' etc as that makes it harder to hear the word e.g. duh-o-g is harder to work out than d-o-g.

It does take a while but it definitely clicks at some point.

Whilst my eldest son could blend naturally, both my youngest sons were nearly 5 before it clicked and needed lots of practice.
I used to say words to them like 'cat' at almost full speed but with a very very tiny pause between the phonemes and see if they could guess the word. Gradually increased the gap between the sounds until they would be the speed they would read them at c...a....t.

Lordy, is p1 like the beginning of Reception? My ds can't write his name yet [just first letter then he will say 'you do it'] and can recognise most letters and mostly get right letter at beginning of word eg 'p is for poo'. Blending? No been there...

'not been there...'. Sorry.. [re previous post].

Hi - DON'T WORRY ABOUT IT!

It isn't that many years since she learnt to TALK! Blending and reading does not happen overnight, and after all - what new stuff have YOU learnt in the past four or five years?

TALK to her, READ to, and with, her, but please don't 'push' or suggest she isn't getting on as you hoped and expected she would be.

If you want an excellent book that will support her (and you!) through primary school, then try this (it may be the best £5.66 you ever spend!):

Oxford Phonics Spelling Dictionary

www.amazon.co.uk/Oxford-Phonics-Spelling-Dictionary-Reading/dp/019273413X/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1373490750&sr=8-1&keywords=Phonics+dictionary#reader_019273413X

And for Numeracy, count bricks, dolls, Lego; have dolls' tea parties, share cakes - half, quarters, how many pieces? etc.

Just relax and enjoy it with her and the rest of the family.
(Come back if you need more help - I worked in primary schools 25 years.)

[FS: I thought " No' been there " was your Scots dialect!]

I have just bought my little boy a DVD and CD that have helped him get this.

It is really annoying and American but watching and litsening to it for 10-15minutes or so a day definitely made blending and segmenting 'click'.

Heidi Songs

Thank you all - very helpful suggestions and reassurance!

I will continue to practice and practice with her if she tolerates it! Tonight she did a little better though. We are sounding out the sounds correctly i think, and she does really well sounding out the letters she has so far learnt!

Thank you Ferguson for that book suggestion - I will check it out.

Euphemia - thank you- its good to know that this is not an instant thing with most children - hopefully it will click before we start getting reading books home!

This is very interesting. My DS can sound out but every time it's H-A-S and by the next sentence he seems to have forgotten and is spelling it out again. Very frustrating!!

There's no need to worry about that, either, WipsGlitter. Some children can get a word into long term memory after sounding it out two or three times, some children need loads of repetitions. It will come.