Reading Levels - Worrying?

[24again]

Son is in Yr 2 and despite trying really hard at school (Really, really hard - he always tries his best) he finds reading really difficult and is below national averages (Green band) He reads at home, we go to the library, I buy books on any topic that he is interested in and read them with him etc - but I have to force / bribe him to practise reading himself at home. How much should I be worried by this because I think it's a pretty big problem. Haven't passed this onto him by the way.

Also, and I am fully aware of how awful it is, but if he is trying his hardest and still not doing very well is he a just a bit thick academically or will he catch up with the others eventually? (August baby)

It's not awful, I'm sure. Green book band equates to level 1b, which is the expected level for the end of Year 1. He's only 10 weeks into year 2, with 2 full terms left.

Are you concerned about his ability to decode the text, or his comprehension, or both?

Can't quite remember where Green level is.

• What does the school say?

• Does he enjoy having stories read to him?
• What is his maths like?
• What are his problem solving skills like?
• Does he know basic phonics?
• Can he blend?

Maybe he is less good academically, that's OK. 25% of children are in the bottom quartile.
Maybe he has a difficulty with reading and needs intervention.
Maybe the school hasn't taught him phonics very well.

Sorry, no help at all.

Is his school using Jolly Phonics or Read, Write, Inc? What sounds is he working on right now?

green isn't BAD at this stage, it might not be where his friends are or where they would like him to be but it isn't awful. I agree though it does flag up some possible problems which the sooner you can look into them the better.

As a parent I would think it is possibly a couple of things.
he could be dyslexic
he could have some sort of visual problem - sight related or irlens syndrome (contrasts, letters jump about)
he could not have been taught phonics properly/picked them up properly.
he might not have got blending.

I would perhaps start with going back to basics. Go through all the phonics and check he knows them, does he have to think about them or does he know them immediately. any he doesn't know, practice them. then start again with building words up and breaking words down.

and speak to his teacher - ask if they have concerns/tips/suggestions etc.

Thank you for your replies - it took a long time in reception for phonics to click and I don't know if that is the cause of the delay, that it just took longer so he is behind because of that. His comprehension of anything he reads is very good. Don't think he's dyslexic, the only word he gets wrong is 'saw' says 'was' instead.

I'll talk to the teacher and ask what I can do apart from reading at home with him, ie: ask if there is anything more structured that I can do as an intervention.

best thing is to keep reading. keep making it fun. talking about the texts with him. for him to try and enjoy reading. do non fiction and fiction.

Honestly, keep doing what you're doing. He'll catch up. If you start doing even more you risk turning him
Off of reading altogether...

Virtually all children this age can swap 'was' and 'saw' on some occasions. I think they just see a 'pattern' that can transpose, rather than looking at individual letters.

I'll try and come back sometime with details of 'word building' methods we used with children who needed a bit of extra help.

Dd1 is Y2. For the first two years of school we have battled with reading, had long periods of backing off, etc.

The last couple of months we used reward charts with big rewards. She started y2 on blue. 4 weeks ago she was on green books, throwing tantrums about reading etc. I was reading up on dyslexia. But a few weeks ago something changed in her. She has gone from green to orange and I think could probably manage the next level okay. She is happy to read now!

In your case there may be underlying issues as I thought there were with dd but I just wanted to say don't give up hope that something will suddenly click.

I know how worrying it is but if it helps a little he isn't that far behind. My little girl at the start of year 2 was on yellow band and ended year two on green which yes put her at level 1b, shes now year 3 and just moved from green to orange, so similar to your little one but a year older, all Im trying to say is at this stage he isn't too behind and it could all click this year, it quite often does in year two. Speak to the teacher about your concerns but to be honest at this stage of the year I wouldnt be too concerned.

dd1 was maybe slightly ahead of where your ds is, but she would have been 6 months older at that stage too. I was getting concerned. By the summer of yr 2 she was happily sitting down reading books to herself - David Walliams. Two years on she has read some of the Harry Potter books, plus numerous other books and her reading age is now ahead of expected level. Most importantly she enjoys reading. With 3 dc I honestly think that reading ability is as much to do with the brain's readiness as anything else. The slower start doesn't seem to have had any long term impact (other than a few more grey hairs on my head).

Obviously you need to keep monitoring it, and raise any concerns with the teachers but with my daughters I have found that it is not until they are 6.5-7 that they really get reading and begin to want to do it. Ds is completely different and reading is coming easily to him, but I'm not sure that he is cleverer than they are, just ready sooner. I think that 7 is the earliest they formally test for dyslexia - and based on my girls I have seen how quickly they can change during yr2 so don't worry too much just yet.

The other thing which helped my girls is making them read for fun - e.g. treasure hunts, maybe with Christmas coming up having a different Christmas challenge/treat if not every day maybe on the weekend, and only he can read it out. Best to type clues etc on the computer when they are still learning, and try to find easy font like the ones in his books.

Agree with brain readiness 3bunnies. DD's writing made a visible improvement from July to September with the summer holidays in the middle and very little school type work! This was both her handwriting which went from big to smaller, speed, plus the phonic elements of spelling. Also, her reading is improving more rapidly now. She is 7.0 in year 2. OP, would you be worried if your DS was a Sept born and only a few months into Year 1?

Hi 24 again:

DD1 was in this boat in Y2. Like your DS - she was behind others and I think as a parent going into reading mornings I found it really shocking to see what other children of a similar age were capable of doing and upsetting that DD1 just didn't seem to get it.

Some things that I've discovered over the years that seem to help:

If your school uses jolly phonics the workbooks (although a bit young for a Y2) these really do help with learning letter sounds and writing skills

Oxford Owl: www.oxfordowl.co.uk - has all sorts of information about supporting learning to read at home:
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Also there are free e-books banded by age: www.oxfordowl.co.uk/home/reading-owl/find-a-book/library-page?view=&agegroup=0&book=1&booktype=all&series=all# - so if your DC responds better to a computer than ye olde fashioned hard back/ paperback book - this may help.
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Don't just have them read to you. We found that by a bit of trickery we could encourage reading by playing the you do this little thing and I'll read a paragraph/ a page/ a chapter.

For example: I had this thing where DD1 was asked to read a whole sentence perfectly and if she did I read the next paragraph.

We built up to whole paragraphs - so if DD1 read a whole paragraph well - I had to read the next page.

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Take turns reading. Or read a story he's ready for but skill-wise can't read for himself. We tend to do this at the weekend - nice to make the weekend reading different and something a bit special.

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No seeing the movie without reading the book.

Brilliant for films like the Harry Potter series, The Hobbit, Charlotte's Web, Sheep pig/ BABE, Roald Dahl stories, etc....

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Comics/ Graphic novels. It sounds like it shouldn't work but DD1 was really into Pokemon and begged and begged for a comic. DH weakened but our reward was that at the start of Y5 she announced that X, her 'arch nemesis', was sitting on her table for start of the day. I can assure you arch nemesis could only have come from that comic!
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Out and about reading. Just simple things - like road signs, directions, back of cereal boxes.

We had DD1 read the instructions for making a gingerbread house for Christmas when in Y3. Also made her do all the measuring and convert from teaspoons & tablespoons to ml. (that was just because we're a bit evil really!).

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Children's magazines are great for reading - get a magazine of a show they like. They're pricey yeah - but there usually is tons of reading there and often educational games too!

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Video games:

Chose a game for DS or Wii/ Play Station or PC that has a lot of text and make them read it. Play it together but get them reading the clues/ dialogue. DH played lego Batman with DD1 which involved a lot of reading - apparently (not sure if he and DD1 were spinning a line there).

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Board games involving reading are a good idea - monopoly ticks all those boxes.

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Match Attack style cards with points for various abilities - involves a lot of reading/ and calculating.

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Competitions:

Have them enter competitions but make them read the instructions and write off (not e-mail) to them

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get them writing: thank you cards, post cards, letters to father Christmas. We found with DD1 working on writing fed into working on reading. Some of our work just working on writing joined up letters better made a big difference with reading - we used spelling lists from school for DD1 (but later with DD2 found Collins Easy Learning Writing series).

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For you my advice is this - keep positive. Keep him believing that you are confident he'll get there in the end. DD1 was dire and dreaded reading out loud (can't say the letter 'r' well) - but work with us at home and joining a reading recovery scheme in Year 4 at school with a great TA leading it really made a difference.

At school - ask that your DS is put forward for any reading recovery/ extra reading schemes they have going. They may say no (there may be others in more need) but if you keep letting them know you're concerned they will listen (i.e. we started asking in Y2 and didn't get intervention until Y4, but we did in the end).

Over the summer try and see what is going on at your local library or main library. There usually are tons of reading schemes/ story time type events. Really important to keep that reading going on over the holidays/ half-term breaks. Treat it as a muscle that needs regular exercise.

HTH