6 next month and can not blend sounds to read.

[orangepudding]

My DS is sox next month and is having a great deal of difficulty with phonics. He can just about blend two sounds to read a word but has trouble with three letter words. Even when he sounds out each letter correctly he often then guesses a random word.

At school he is on the FFT intervention. He uses cues from context, first word letter and pictures to read. After one attempt he has generally memorised the whole book.
I have read, mostly here, that the method he is using is not beneficial.

If a child really has great difficulties using phonics what is the best approach to reading?

How do you know he is having difficulty with phonics? Sounds like he is being taught mixed methods to me which could be the real issue.

I am not a teacher (just a parent) but to me is seems like he recognises the letters (say in C A T) but does not hear them.

Firstly, I would be getting hearing/sight checked just to rule it out and then I would be playing lots of games "can you pass me the J A M" etc (using phonics in everyday speech to get him to listen to the sounds.

I would also put a few cards up in the front room with easily decodable words on (pig, rat, pot etc) and play a game of "first person to run to X word" etc.

What sort of books does he bring home from school?

Have a look at Bear Necessities to build on what your DS already has (including his confidence and motivation, by starting with things he'll probably be able to do): www.prometheantrust.org/soundfoundationsbooks.htm%20

And buy this programme to follow at home on a daily basis (5-10 mins. a day): Check this out on AMZN: Toe by Toe: A Highly Structured Multi-sensory Reading Manual for Teachers and Parents amazon.co.uk/dp/0952256401
It's pretty easy to follow if you know these:

Toe by Toe is an old bible of a manual that helps both children and adults who struggle with reading, blending and with deciding (reading) accurately, rather than substituting with a similar word based on the first letter(s)/ shape of the word.

Decoding - not 'deciding'.

Also, a fun programme of activities is laid out beautifully in this book. It's a gem fir working on phonological awareness - hearing the sounds within a word, blending, syllable awareness, etc.

Oops! Forgot to attach the link: www.partnersineducation.co.uk/buy/index.php/literacy/phonological-skills/working-out-with-phonological-awareness.html

You'll find it's A LOT cheaper from Partners in Education than from elsewhere (including Amazon).

Hi orangepudding:

First off 6 is still very young and the most important thing is to remind yourself your DC will get there in the end.

My DD1 had a very slow start and was seriously struggling with reading until Year 3. Phonics was only just starting to be introduced in her time in Year R (and not happily) - 2 years later a new Year R teacher made swift progress with DD2.

We found CBEEBIES alphablocks was a very helpful way of seeing how letters work together: www.bbc.co.uk/cbeebies/alphablocks/. The tunes are very catchy and DD1 would sneak into the room and watch them with DD2 and suddenly things made sense.

I'm no expert - just a Mum - but I have two very different children. One can pick up things by being told about them, maybe shown an example on paper and the other has to see it and do it herself or she never picks it up.

The other thing we foudn helpful was to use the jolly phonics workbooks (now our school was using jolly phonics - your school may be using a different system, but odds are there are workbooks to help support learning each letter sound/ blended letter sounds). www.amazon.co.uk/Jolly-Phonics-Workbooks-Books-1-7/dp/1870946502/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1397806491&sr=8-1&keywords=jolly+phonics+workbooks - these are basically colouring books, with lines to practice writing letters (also shows child how to form letters) and works systematically through sounds.

Now the final thing we added was to work on sounding out when reading each night. So I would overexaggerate how I was sounding out words and got into the habbit of pointing to the word I was reading so that my child could see what I was reading and how I was pronouncing it.

For DD2 we had sounds of the week - so maybe -ough/ -augh sounds - and I made a point of having her attempt to say words with these sounds as we read.

My main advice is keep working at it - try to make reading together a daily activity (even if only for 10 minutes after bath time) - and if possible think of this whole process of supporting your DC learning to read as water dripping on a stone. You will make a dent in the end!

HTH

Thanks for the advice, seems a huge amount of practice is the way to go!

He is my third child and is very different from the other two who didn't have any difficulties.

I worry that the reading intervention the school uses will somehow be damaging but it is giving him confidence.

Yesterday I found out he has dyspraxia which I'm sure is having an effect on his reading ability.

There is plenty of co morbidity (coexistence) with dyspraxia, dyslexia (IF your DS turns out to have it), etc.
did the person who told you about your DS' dyspraxia also give you some recommendations / refer you to a Paediatric OT?

It was a paediatric ot who said he had dyspraxia, she couldn't give him an official diagnosis as that needs to be done by a dr. He also has sensory issues which I hadn't noticed.
She said he needs theraphy but at the moment we can't afford private theraphy even though we paid for a private assesment.

When her report comes though I will take it to my GP mad they will hopefully finally refer him to a developmental pead. I asked for a referral a few months ago but was told his issues were for the schools to deal with and to make any referrals not the GP!

Oh so frustrating for you. Keep on at GP. Make lists on your phone of characteristics and difficulties causing your DS difficulty in his daily life at home, school, hobbies, etc. I did this for my DS and was successful about the fourth time of going to GP and in third time of requesting a referral. Had to wait ages but hoping it'll help in the end (different difficulties but mine is also 6).
Good luck with the resources you choose to go for. I hope that, with consistency, they make a difference and limit the widening gap between your DS and his peers.

Thanks for the good luck tadaah, it's unfortunate that that's what we need to get help for our children.

I hope that the ot report will be proof enough that my son needs to be seen by a dr. He is being assessed by an ed psych at school next month and his salt is also assessing him at the moment. I just need someone to put all the pieces together to see the bigger picture. I also hope an official diagnosis will make help for readily available but I may be naive in thinking that there will be any help available.

Good luck with your son.

Even when he sounds out each letter correctly he often then guesses a random word.

Can he blend two sounds together to produce a two letter word, like 'at', 'in', 'on' etc?

If he can do that, have you tried getting him to blend 'progressively'?

So, sound out the word, then go back and blend the first two sounds, when he has blended them securely get him to add the last sound to the two he has aready blended, that should produce the target word with no bother. As he gets more skilful at producing three sound words you can introduce more sounds, using the same strategy. Children who can't 'remember' the all sounds to blend them often respond very well to this technique and it is a perfectly valid one..

I think that children often get the impression that they have to blend the sounds from memory but as the graphemes are right there on the page as a prompt there is no need for any memorising (apart from knowing the sounds represented by each grapheme, of course), they can just read the sounds straight off the page.

You are absolutely right to be wary of the FFT intervention - it leads to guessing and will not be at all helpful when unfamiliar words start coming thick and fast! OTH, guessing is much easier than sounding out and blending so you may need to do lots of practice at home to counteract the 'intervention'

Sadly, support on the NHS and (often but not always) at school is usually inadequate (children often being discharged too early due to demands on the NHS). But at least your report should arrive before your E.P. And SALT appointments/ assessments. I really hope that all goes well. Do tell the EP how you've already been supporting DS at home as if you've been implementing a programme such as Toe by Toe for a while, it should be taken into consideration when interpreting any results, etc.

Dyspraxia/DCD can be officially diagnosed by a paediatric occupational therapist it doesn't need to be a doctor. They should be able to provide you with a programme to work on in school and at home. You may find your LEA has a DCD (new name for dyspraxia) support team.

you might be interested in this article www.educationviews.org/yes-dyslexia-wrecks-lives-experts-money-spinner-quack-therapists-schools/ your child's needs are the same with or without a formal label - good teaching!

I am about 6 months behind you (DS2 is 5.6) but he is really struggling with phonics, blending etc.

His teachers say not to worry and that he will get there but I am worried that he won't all his friends are way ahead of him already (he is in Reception).

I have bought the Reading Eggs package and I can see some slight progress but I think he is memorising words rather than blending. I have also paid for a private speech therapist to assess him (something school did recommend) and it was apparent that he does not understand rhyming or have any syllable awareness. I am just waiting for the report and exercises/games that the therapist is putting together to help in these areas.

My mum is an ex-primary school teacher and she is convinced that he is a 'whole word' reader but obviously schools do not encourage or teach this way and he would obviously fail the phonics test next year. Unfortunately DS1 is an extremely high achiever that has flown through school so far and I can see how easy it is for him compared to DS2

it is also apparent that he is a very visual learner and can memorise books/lines from films and tv programmes easily.

Not much help but just wanted to say you are not alone some useful resources on here which I may investigate.

Mrz thanks for the article. It shows that persevering with phonics is very important.

The ot made a few suggestions yesterday such as taking DS swimming and using caring cutlery. Her report will contain a more comprehensive list of ways to help DS.

it is also apparent that he is a very visual learner and can memorise books/lines from films and tv programmes easily.

sorry he's struggling but the whole visual/kinesthetic/aural learners concept has been shown to be "bad science" we all use a combination of these "learning styles" and different tasks require different things ... for books he may focus on the visual (if you are reading to/with him he will be using aural skills too) with learning lines from the TV and films his focus is going to be aural ....
Good phonics teaching is "multi sensory" - visual, aural and kinesthetic!

Spooky my son does the same memorises whole books and needs visual clues to help his learning.

I also have two older children who both had no problems at school and are both in top sets. Very different to DS who can't access the same curriculum as his peers.

"Mrz -you might be interested in this article www.educationviews.org/yes-dyslexia-wrecks-lives-experts-money-spinner-quack-therapists-schools/ your child's needs are the same with or without a formal label - good teaching"

Quite an unbalanced article Mrz - lots of parents are sucked into alternatives but mainly through desperation because of the ignorance and lack of support in many schools. Many children continue to be given inappropriate interventions based on mixed methods. I agree with some of Julian Elliot's arguments but do not think this is the whole picture.

From an article in The Telegraph about the dyslexia debate

"Another part of the jigsaw is new research that shows that reading difficulties may be due to some not-yet-understood brain malfunction: what experts believe is there's some area of the brain that distinguishes the tiniest differences between sounds that doesn't work properly in some children, and this affects their reading."

This is my daughter's issue, I believe - caused possibly by repeated ear infections and glue ear leading to temporary but repeated hearing loss as a baby. My daughter has been diagnosed as having severe dyslexia, but is an academic high achiever. She has to work significantly harder than her peers to achieve the same results. She has developed a range of strategies to help her cope, but still has significant problems with phonological awareness, sequencing and auditory memory. She reads well (if slowly) but her spelling is appalling - this inevitably loses her marks in exams and can be significant with grade boundaries.

In addition, she took part in NHS funded research part of which used a computer to measure and track her eye movements when reading. There is apparently a fairly typical pattern for dyslexic and non-dyslexics when reading which affects the reading speed and makes it harder to accurately read dense text. Just knowing that this was an issue and requesting larger font exam papers has been very helpful.

OP - I would recommend the Bear Necessities reading intervention for you son

www.prometheantrust.org/soundfoundationsbooks.htm%20

I would also focus on activities which promote phonological awareness - there are loads if you google.

The article is written by a parent who was sucked into "alterbatives" out of desperation ... it's much easier to slap a label of dyslexia on a child than to discover their glue ear or sight problems are the cause of the difficulty!

Would it interest you to know there is no reliable method of diagnosing "dyslexia"

www.nhs.uk/Conditions/Dyslexia/Pages/Diagnosis.aspx

Mrz - I am well aware of the problems relating to diagnosing dyslexia and agree with some points that Julian Elliot makes - I do think the term "dyslexia" inappropriately covers a myriad of different problems. However, The Telegraph article highlights research suggesting a brain malfunction relating to distinguishing between sounds - not glue ear - and suggests that this could be the root cause of reading difficulties. The article goes on to suggest that the causes of the malfunction could be environmental and/or genetic.

Personally, I do not care whether my daughter's problems and other children like her are labelled "dyslexic", having "reading difficulties", "problems with auditory memory" or "poor phonological awareness" - what I am interested in is that she and other children receive appropriate help and support. This is sadly lacking within schools and many teachers and SENCos (I speak as a primary school teacher) have a depressing lack of knowledge when it comes to supporting children who have poor phonological awareness and difficulty learning to read.

As children move into secondary school, there appears to be even less awareness and if she had not taken part in the research, we would not have even known it was possible to request exam texts in a larger font. (Not an unreasonable request in the circumstances).

What is unfair in the current system (and Julian Elliot makes this point) is that only children whose parents can afford to pay are able to access the full range of support out there.

Apologies OP for highjacking this thread.

"what I am interested in is that she and other children receive appropriate help and support."

Which is exactly the point I'm trying to make ... obviously not very well!