Worried about reading progress

[Stereolab]

Hi

I have read a lot of posts on this topic and gathered some really useful information but I would welcome any extra advice or thoughts.

My DS will be 6 at the end of May and has been at school for almost a year (they start at 5 here). I have been concerned on and off about his reading since he started school. His teachers have commented that he is a bright boy and the assumption seemed to be that reading would click into place for him. That doesn't seem to be happening.

His class teacher this year has said that he is progressing well and has put him in the top reading group (bearing in mind he is the eldest in his Y1 class). However, his reading was tested at school recently and the specialist reading recovery teacher put him forward for a 'pre-screening' for dyslexia. His results came back as 'not at risk'. He scored below average (just) on only one aspect of the test. This apparently tested the speed of naming pictures on a page from left to right.

He is bringing home books from school, which are one band below the band he should apparently have achieved after a full year at school (they are blue band and he should be on green by the end of May). However, my experience of listening to him read is that he is memorising the text at school when he reads in his small group and then parroting much of it at home. He has a good memory! Yesterday, left to his own devices, he was even muddling 'go' with 'get' and 'this' with "went". He knows all of his letter sounds (they use Letterland at school) and a few digraphs, however the book he brought home yesterday had words such as 'beautiful' in it and there is no way he would be able to decode that with the knowledge he currently has.

His comprehension and vocabulary are very good but I think he perhaps uses his ability in these areas to disguise his struggle with reading whilst he is at school (at home he gets very despondent about reading). I have spoken to the reading recovery teacher and he suggested that I keep badgering the class teacher with my concerns. He can't help directly as he is only employed to work with children reading at a lower level than my son. He did say that if both a parent and child feel there is a problem with reading, then there usually is.

What would you do? Do you think there is cause for concern or is he still too young for me to be worrying. I have tried Bear Necessities and thought it was good but my DS found it really uninspiring. We also have a set of the earlier Songbirds books at home. I am just worried that I will confuse him further if I veer too far from the school's approach. One last thing...he has glasses to correct long-sight in one eye and I have wondered if this is significant. He is often very fidgety and squirmy when reading but never when listening to stories.

Thanks for getting this far.

I had a bright child who was behind in reading... all the way through KS1 and then suddenly in Yr3 it did click. I was very worried (I'd been an early fluent reader) but DH said he was just the same. It really does seem that reading is a skill which can be quite out of sync with other abilities. You do know that in some European countries they don't start formal reading this young - but when they do, most of the kids are ready for it and learn really fast.

So try not to worry about it too much, and please be careful not to put your DS off reading by plugging away at uninspiring books. Do read to him lots, and discuss stories.

Has he had his prescription checked recently? - there might have been some change.

Thank you. That's very reassuring. Our older DS took to reading very swiftly so I've no experience of helping the process along (or of leaving well alone).

Yes, I am aware of the approach of some European countries and wish it were more widely accepted at times. I am torn between thinking there is nothing to worry about and worrying! If it weren't for the fact that my DS is very aware of how others in his class are getting on with their reading and gets upset about his own reading, I think I'd be more able to relax about his progress.

We do read to him a lot and always have. He loves chapter books and listens avidly to stories and will happily discuss them in detail. Unfortunately these only seem to highlight for him how dull most of the school reading scheme books are! We are planning to get his eyes tested again during the holidays and have thought about seeing a behavioural optometrist.

I would want to pursue what's going on if I were you. Are they being taught phonics well? What are the reading books he brings home? "beautiful" is quite tricky to decode, well the first bit is, I would just say that the first bit sounds "oo" and then get him to do the next bits, ti and ful, so perhaps not the best example. It does sound like he might be memorising the text if he's confusing those words- although sometimes kids put in words they think come next without even trying to read the word in front of them. DD does this sometimes and so I ask her to look at the word and often she'll get it right then.

His progress doesn't sound too bad if he's only been at school a year, but it would definitely be worth talking to the teacher, and seeing if your DS is getting the phonics teaching he needs. Perhaps he needs more books to practice from if he's bringing home the same book they have done at school having memorised it. I would mention that to the teacher. I found the songbirds books really good, especially at the level your son is. You can get blue and green level ones that are excellent. Perhaps you could start with the yellow ones to build his confidence and make sure he knows the sounds. The songbirds explain the sounds at the beginning so parents can use them and hopefully not confuse the children so I wouldn't worry about that! There are plenty at each level, so lots of practice and no memorising!
I would try to relax and not make it a battle whatever you decide. If he's started reading and is doing it at school then probably best to engage with it however you choose. It's fine for him to stay on blue level for as long as he needs, there's no rush, but if I was you I'd want to make sure he was getting what he needs to make progress and enjoy it.

well byoo really I suppose (beautiful!).

I am torn between thinking there is nothing to worry about and worrying!

Been there, done that, doubtless got the extra wrinkles! It's very hard to take a step back when you feel that they're behind where they should be - but ' try to relax and not make it a battle whatever you decide' is excellent advice ... just easier said than done, I know!

I'm not too sure I'd try labouring through any sort of 'reading scheme' book at home (other than the ones he brings from school) - he might retain his interest better with comics and illustration-heavy non-fiction (there's so many good ones for young children nowadays) - things he can dip into without pressure.

well byoo really I suppose
Unless you're from Norfolk!

I'm sorry, but what OP said has rung so many alarm bells that I am deafened. I was hoping that someone else might respond, but they haven't...

What has rung them?

Letterland - not the best phonics programme ever
Non decodable books
Books he's already struggled through read being sent home
Reading recovery - a very expensive and over-hyped intervention that is completely incompatible with good phonics instruction; if your school is using it then they probably don't really understand how to teach phonics well.
(you could read this thread HERE for more information)

The school's approach is not good; I wouldn't be surprised to hear that they advocate guessing words from pictures and 'context' as well

I'm sorry that he didn't find Bear Necessities particularly inspiring but I think that at this stage of the game you should be making it very clear to him that although practising can be a bit uninspiring it means that he will be much better at reading in the end and then he can enjoy all the wonderful books that the world has to offer!

I would keep up the phonics at home, get decodable books for him to practise on and don't allow him to guess his way through any text.

If you feel brave enough you could ask the school to only give him decodable books to bring home to practise on but I suspect that they don't have any...Anyway, if he's already 'read' his reading scheme book at school I wouldn't bother with doing it again at home...

www.amazon.co.uk/Fergus-Crane-Far-Flung-Adventures-Stewart/dp/0440866545/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1397581260&sr=8-1&keywords=fergus+crane#reader_0440866545

I wonder if these books, you reading to him may help to inspire him, I wouldn't worry too much though...its still early for it to be clicking...

Reading is such tricky thing for some kids, but it does generally just 'click'

If he is struggling, or losing confidence with his reading, id let him read the songbirds books you have, but maybe start at a lower level so he can build his confidence up again.

Also, dk do some early reader books that are character based. Ds has a cars one, 2 lego movie ones and ive just found wwe ones on amazon. He loved trying to read these as they were about something he liked, and I just helped him with the trickier words he couldn't do. You can get them off amazon.

I absolutely feel your pain.. DD is 6.6 in her second year of school and further behind your DS - she's on yellow - and only because 3 months ago I decided I couldn't sit back and keep hoping it would get better. I think its partly the way school teach and partly DDs make up.

We do Dancing Bears and i outright bribe her with sweets to do it; it is only 10 mins and she loves a page full of ticks.. I've also bought sound foundation workbooks for a change of pace and to ensure she has all phase 3 - then phase 5 - sounds Dancing Bears seems to have a different order of intro to standard letters and sounds.

But what i wanted to say was that Book People currently has all 36 songbird books for £16.99. SPRUNG gets free delivery until end of today.

When I was little reading wasn't expected to click on avg until 6.5yo. So that's avg & anything up to 8yo must still be normal in my mind. I don't understand kids who learn to read much younger.

I agree with others, alarm bells would also be ringing for me too.

Is he being taught phonics at all?

I would check out the Oxford owl website which has loads of free ebooks online (decodable books - try the RWI or songbirds ones).

I don't know the Letterland books but I agree that Songbirds phonics are good and they certainly shouldn't confuse with whatever school are teaching him. if they ARE teaching him phonics correctly then songbirds would be compatible and if they aren't teaching him phonics then at least the songbirds books would, with your help.

As Simpson has recommended Oxford Owl is really useful and free.

I would however say to keep your eyes open for any possible problems once you have taught him phonics. My daughter has quite a rare language condition which affects her reading, confused us all greatly but because I knew I had done phonics with her and I knew the school had done phonics with her and her phonic knowledge was excellent we knew there really was something not right.

@nonicknameseemsavailable

Don't want to derail the thread but I would be interested to know more about your dd's language problem. It's always helpful to know what problems might crop up despite good phonics teaching.

Thanks

Stereolab I'm assuming you aren't in England?

Thanks so much everyone.

mrz-I am in New Zealand (though I'm British). Explains my silence-I have been asleep!

Will respond in full soon.

maizeD there is one where children can decode beautifully but struggle to attach meaning to the sound - about 10% of "dyslexics" I heard quoted once.

New Zealand I have heard is a bit behind on diagnosing dyslexia, and its where Reading Recovery originated isn't it?

OP I would try to get him to do a little practise each day with the Bare Necessities, look for other easily decodable books and work on his phonics (Jolly Phonics is one way).
Most European languages are far more easily decodable than English. Also lots of children are in nursery and learn pre-reading skills there (eg. games with sounds) even if they aren't introduced to print.

I will PM you MaizieD

maizeD there is one where children can decode beautifully but struggle to attach meaning to the sound - about 10% of "dyslexics" I heard quoted once.

I think that's a bit of a myth. This study found that fewer than 1% of children with comprehension difficulties were good decoders.

onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/ldrp.12024/abstract

The few children I worked with ( all of them poor decoders) who had real comprehension difficulties, once their word identification problems were sorted, had very poor vocabularies.

Lots to think about here...though I am still not certain if I should be worrying or not. I try to keep reading time very low pressure as the last thing I want to do is make him dread reading even more than he does already. That's why I am hesitating over picking up the Bear Necessities book again. How do you make that fun/interesting? Or do I just need to resort to Smarties!

I am not sure if Letterland is widely used in NZ. It seems quite dated (although I think the school use the most recent version with all the on-line bells and whistles). My older son did years 1 & 2 at a different school and there was no Letterland there. By the school's reckoning, My DS2 does not qualify for reading recovery (at least not at the moment) so I am not sure if that would be helpful for him or not. When he started at school last June they had a nightly list of ten words to learn (reading not spelling). Once they knew all ten they moved up a level. It went on for about 24 levels. It was deadly boring and I could never really see the value of it (thankfully they have now dropped this for the younger children). This rote approach really seemed to dent my DS's confidence as he plodded through the levels whilst some of his peers sped through.

I am pretty sure that comprehension and general vocabulary are not problematic for him. He was writing a little book the other day (a rare occurrence as he does not like writing (left-handed and gets fed-up with correct letter formation-though his drawings are beautifully detailed) and he asked me how to spell 'cautiously'!

I will have another read through all your comments now. Very helpful. Thanks again. At the very least I feel less neurotic about the whole thing as it seems others have been (or are) worried about similar issues.

www.massey.ac.nz/massey/fms/Massey%20News/2013/8/docs/Report-National-Literacy-Strategy-2013.pdf

Thanks for posting that mrz - it was very revealing.

One key point I picked up was ". Students
meeting this standard are expected to read seen texts at the Green level with at least 90%
accuracy" When I worked on a reading intervention we were told that a 90% error rate was an instructional level, and this was in an unseen text. In a seen text, it sounds like the tests aren't even measuring real "reading" ability.

Stereolab - I would suspect that NZ (well in nice middle class homes) has an assumption that a lot of literacy learning is being carried out at home either by parents or secret tutors. A method I used with my children is "The Reading Reflex" which is one way of teaching systematic phonics without resort to contextual clues (even though she doesn't call her method that).

Children can learn to read without Phonics (I did, and learnt phonics working backwards) but if there is any kind of learning difficulty then explicit learning of the building blocks of learning is a key necessity. Understanding phonics helps with spelling - if you can't even make a stab at spelling by sound, then you can't write unlearned words and you are asking your memory to learn thousands of words and variations and recall them at will - which is a Herculean task.

Smarties are good. But keeping sessions short and frequent is key. Maybe use a timer?

OP how long were you spending on Dancing Bears each time? In the early stages it should only take 5 or 10 mins.

I'm no expert but his reading progression sounds fine to me. He's reading some words and memorising lots of text. Seems like a normal transition into full-fledged reading.

I would be more concerned with him feeling like he needs to pretend he can read at a higher level. I am a New Zealander and know that the education system there is relatively good but at times overly rigorous, especially with the little ones. As mentioned earlier, the school's proposed 'solutions' seem pretty clumsy and potentially damaging.

Can you have another conversation with his teachers, asking them to ease off? He likes listening to stories but is showing signs of stress when it comes to his own reading - this doesn't exactly scream Nurturing A Love of Reading