Is phonics that important? / Is a lower phonics score teamed with a high reading level worrying?

[whyisthishappening]

My daughter scored OK for her phonics but has a much higher reading level.

She reads beautifully with good understanding and expression.

Her dad has a photographic memory and our daughter also has a fantastic memory but she can't spell.

She seems to learn words, she sees an unfamiliar word, guesses what it is - or struggles and works it out, or we tell her. She then knows it.

We try to get her decoding the words but it is a struggle. She is a very enthusiastic reader and reads everything.

I struggle with phonics - I read words not letters. I struggle to work out the sounds when they are not in words. I took a long time to learn how to spell also.

So is phonics that important for my daughter?

After the basic stage, after i.e. R and Y1 at primary school, young and older children learn to spell mainly by taking careful note of their mistakes.

For weak spellers having all their mistakes corrected can be very discouraging. It's best to focus on just a few at a time. Parents can really help by helping their children identify recurring mistakes and to focus on the most high frequency ones - a few at a time.

The hand-to-brain, or fingers-on-keyboard-to-brain, memory can really help with this, i.e. looking at the correct spelling - writing it - checking - three or four times.

U really can't beat the old LOOK, SAY, COVER, WRITE method for words that keep causing trouble.

Thank you masha.

It's a pity what you post about MY son isn't what I've shared masha just your made up version.

Mrz
Please correct what I have misremembered:
could read the Financial Times at three,

but later had great problems with spelling.

I also asked a few questions which u never answered:

Did he not have all kinds of other problems as well? Might they not have affected his literacy progress more than lack of early phonics?

Did his reading later regress too or did he remain a good reader?

Well his father dropped dead when he was five masha which was as you say a problem although it didn't affect his literacy.
He's also HFA /hyperlexia which according to the expects is why he can read whole words and would have benefitted from explicit phonics instruction. Interestingly his assessment included a test very similar to the phonics screening check which picked up this gap in his overall reading profile ... unfortunately not until he was a teenager!

He remains a prolific reader although how good/accurate I couldn't say ... do you think I should get him to read aloud to me?

Sorry for your loss mrz

Thank you but it was a very long time ago

I am very sorry too, Mrz.

It's the first time i have read u mention that. It must have been traumatic for u and your son, even though as u say, it was long time ago.

Events like that have huge impacts on our lives. I am sure the fact that my father was killed in WW2 while my mother was still pregnant with me had a significant effect on both her and me.

I was pregnant with my daughter at the time and you will be pleased to hear she learnt to read and spell with no problems whatsoever

With or without synthetic phonics?

She was taught Jolly Phonics at school

So, OP - I hope this measured and objective discussion has helped to answer your question!

www.aft.org/pdfs/teachers/rocketscience0304.pdf