Does reading just "click" later for some children?

[ClapHandsIfYouBelieveInFatties]

DD2 is 6 and in year 2. She's had extra help since halfway through year 1 when we suddenly realised she needed glasses. Her eyesight was bad in one eye but as she didn't have a "turn" in it, it had been missed.

Anyway....she was behind by then...with pretty much everything to do with literacy.

She's still getting help now and we're really lucky as apart from extra help in small groups she also benefits from two half hour sessions a week with a volunteer who is training to teach.

She's keen...her writing is much better but still scrawly..she's always in a rush to write...does;nt take much time over it though she's trying this week to control the size and placement more.....she's got her first spelling test this Friday and her list of words I know is VERY simple to cater for her ability. Words are "She, he, and, of, but and our surname which is long and awkward...think Brightlingtone or similar. Anyway...I've managed to get her to almost learn the surname by splitting it up...so she's learned BRIGHT today and realised that ling and tone make up the rest....and she seemed to already know the other words but she's SO not keen on reading to me.

She loves to be read TO but when I ask her to read to me she won't do it 70% of the time and I just don't want to force her or bully her...reading is such a big part of my life and such a pleasure that I hate it being a chore for her.

When she DOES read to me it's all still sounded out..."T h e the, l i t t l e litttle b r o w n brown h e n hen." and so on. Even when a word appears lots of time like "bat" or a similarly simple word, she still sounds it out...I sometimes forsee this and ask her "Can you guess what this is? B.A....and she'll say bat but she is just not fluent yet which is why it's hard for her and so laborious!

She is good at maths though...and very articulate and her speech is excellent as is her imagination.

Will it get better? We play word games...I hide words around the room and she has to find them...we do mixing up letters to make words and she is keen but...I don't know. I worry.

In my experience yes. My dd was so behind with reading books in year 2. Loved being read to but did not want to read to herself. But by the end of year 2 she was a free reader and something had clicked during that year. She just flew then. She is in year 6 now and a very good reader.
Keep what you're doing. Reading will be fun if you show it is.

Thank you Tippy she loves books and stories and poetry so I shouldn't worry. I suppose we're all nervous of there being an "issue" but if there was then that's that and we have to deal with it.

I will just carry on and be happy she's getting a lot of help.

I can only tell you my experiences with my 4dc but hopefully it will reassure you a little and yes, I do think children "click" at different times.

Dd1 - July birthday. Awful reader (c-a-t "dog" type painful reading) then October half term in yr2 something happened and she clicked. Later found to have difficulty with 4+letter phonemes and suspicion that it was due to intermittent deafness caused by glue ear.

Ds1 - April birthday. Was reading fairly fluently by the end of year 1. No reall issues, he was a doddle after dd1!

Dd2 - November birthday and currently in yr3 - the lightbulb moment happened during the summer holidays BUT she reads much more fluently if she uses her 'reading finger'. Tested borderline for both hearing (had to be retested a few times over winter) and sight (opticians).

Ds2 - June birthday, just started year1. Reads fluently and has done for a good few months, probably 'clicked' around February time. Shocked us all to be honest as we'd become a bit slack at practising !

Yes my ds seemed to be behind a lot of his with his reading. Then in Y3 it suddenly clicked and by the end of the year he was the top reader in his year group.

Thanks Roly I wonder about her hearing though it's been tested and passed about 2 years ago. She's very LOUD when she talks but that could be her personality...she's full on!

Name that's good! I like that!

Yes it will get better! :) You sound like a lovely mum, it's great to hear all the things you do together.

Perhaps she has a strong aural memory, and so sounds out words to help her remember, or to help recall the words.

Keep reading to her, it's helping her learn and that's why she likes it. Read her reading scheme books (or similar) to her quite slowly over and over, pointing to the words. Ask her what one of the easy words is each time you read. Try to pick out the same word on different pages.

It can take a while. DD1 was in year 2 when her reading picked up. She really wanted to read a big compendium book to herself which she'd had for Christmes. She could read over 30 words by sight but in the term after Christmas she unlocked the myseteries of reading.

Lots of children learn to read relatively late and then catch up.

Yes, it certainly can. Reading didn't really click properly with my DD till she was in yr3, then she was up and away - though she still preferred being read to for a long time. Keep reading to her as long as she wants, unconditionally - sharing books with a child is a privilige and joy.

Your DD is clearly bright, she's had a specific problem with her sight - of course you worry, but some children just need a little longer than others. You're absolutely right to avoid making reading a chore.

The reading scheme books are almost universally awful. THey do change them more regularly this year...around twice a week it seems...which is good! I read those to her once only. If she'll read some to me all good. But I tend to let her choose a decent book from the shelf at home to be honest.

If I do the slow reading and pointing she goes all grumpy as she knows I'm trying to teach her. :(

With both girls, they suffer in the winter (glue ear I guess?) but are very good at recognising it and acting on it.

Dd1 was tested repeatedly through her first year at school and kept failing 'just' but the ladies we saw were excellent at teaching her coping strategies. We remembered them and passed them onto dd2 when she too started to struggle over winter - last year was especially bad for her.

I don't think it was why they were both late readers but I don't think it helped. They are all avid readers though and see it as a pleasurable past time rather than a chore so I think you're doing the right thing in not pushing her to read to you.

One thing mine have/do all have is books with CDs so they can if they want 'read' along without it seeming like you're doing the finger pointy slow reading thing

We have the Roald Dahl CD tin and a separate book set from The Book People that they all enjoy (dd1 is now 13!), especially ds2!

Honestly, it sounds like you are doing all the right things and that she just needs a little more time to reach the point where all that work you've put in, just clicks into place.

If you wanted to do some extra things with her (assuming that the school isn't doing them already), there are some great programmes out there but I wouldn't rush into those for fear that you may put her off entirely. PM me if you do want a few more details (infant teacher for 12 years and SENCo for 4 of those).

Often, children learn how you learn. Since segmenting the word for spelling worked, it can also work in reverse so maybe just spend some time looking for hidden words in the HIgh Frequency word lists - hen in when, hat in what etc. She doesn't have to be able to find them right away but going on a hen/hat/ant hunt when you open the book can help them to recognise whole words by their shape. Especially if she is a visual learner. Having a few words to recognise by sight does wonders for confidence and stuff all those people that say synthetic phonics is the only way

A little game can also help, such as you reading the words wrong (especially if it makes no sense in the context of pictures or sentence etc). She can then have fun correcting Mummy.

HTH. It can be a long, frustrating process but I'm sure she'll get there in her own sweet time!

Or play Bingo with words like the or it or in etc. again helps with mental recall and stops them feeling like they are always being taught!

Yes, my older dd was nine when it all came together. Before that she could read slowly and laboriously and found it just too much effort to be enjoyable. By the time she had read a sentence she had forgotten what the previous one said, so it was difficult for her to follow. I don't actually think it was practice - she didn't practice much - just a developmental stage she had reached.

"She loves to be read TO but when I ask her to read to me she won't do it 70% of the time and I just don't want to force her or bully her...reading is such a big part of my life and such a pleasure that I hate it being a chore for her."

I agree with you completely. If you want more reassurance that reading to your daughter is accomplishing more than just helping her maintain a love of reading, check out Jim Trelease's "The Read-Aloud Handbook". He points out that hearing books helps kids develop their grammar, vocabulary and general knowledge. All of this will stand them in good stead when they are finally ready to tackle the job of learning to read.

For instance, I doubt my daughter would have been able to decipher the following punchline to her favourite comic strip if she hadn't heard plenty of books read aloud: "Tragically, this serene metropolis lies directly beneath the Hoover Dam." All the phonics skills in the world wouldn't have helped her with that sentence if she hadn't known the meaning of "serene" or "metropolis", or what the Hoover Dam was.

Yes. My dh has been telling me not to stress over Ds, because dh didnt read until he was 7 and went on to learn to read/write greek, latin, french, german and math. (Math is too a language! He writes books in math now.). i have been stressing anyway. Darned if ds didnt suddenly 'get it' about a week after beginning p3 in August, and is moving through p1 workbooks at a rapid pace and doing P2 work sometimes. He denies what he is doing is reading though. He says he is "just looking at the letters and guessing". His dad said he did that too.

Yes.
And trying to sound everything out is quite normal at the beginning.
The big leap forward comes when children can read instantly, without still trying to sound out, the most common tricky words which cannot be sounded out completely (e.g. to, do, into, said, the, he, she, was, you, your, could, would, there, here, one, some, come, down, blown...).

7 is a magical age for reading for lots of children. Hang in there. :)

Another thing to do is make sure she sees you reading things for your own benefit and enjoyment. Including learning new words.

Yup. Ds1 was way behind in reading for a year or two. Then it just clicked and now he reads more and of a more advanced level than any kid I've ever known. He's a better reader than many adults I know, even after his shaky start. He just found a book that particularly interested him one day and he was away.

His handwriting is still atrocious though

Yes, absolutely.

Mine have varied very much in when it clicked. Dd1 it clicked around her 7th birthday. By the time she was 7.5 she was reading long books. Dd2 is 7.5 and it still hasn't clicked really. She uses an overlay which helps but it is still a struggle. Ds is in reception and already reading fluently.

We were advised not to be too concerned until yr3 which is why we are now investigating possible dx for dyslexia for dd2 but haven't until now.

I'm going to disagree with LookslikeI'mstuckhere. If I were you, I'd be really focusing on her phonics skills at this point. It sounds as though you're doing a lot of that, but from your OP it also appears that you don't have access to phonics readers- those books that start with really simple sentences like 'Is it Sam?' The school should be providing these, but if not you can get packs like the Songbirds ones fairly cheaply. If your DD is still sounding out words like 'hen' and 'bat' then attempting 'little' and 'brown' will just be off-putting. If you can find some books that she can read completely independently, that should help her confidence.

Another tip is to construct your own simple sentences from words that you know she can read e.g. 'It is a big dog.' Pair that with a picture of scat and she can enjoy correcting you.

Not disagreeing with me Castle, think phonics can work wonders! Just don't think it's the only choice.

Don't forget that the UK tries to formally teach kids to read earlier than many other countries - many don't really start till 6 and I think some 7 yet still end up with good (better?) literacy rates. If your DC is naturally an early reader great, they should be encouraged - but painfully forcing kids to attempt it before that bit of their brain has engaged really does seem to do them a disservice.

One more thought on reading aloud ... do you have a pet or maybe a younger DC? Some schools have found that reluctant readers are happy to read to a friendly dog - someone who listens totally without judgement.

And another thing - comics. I'm not sure what there is for your DD's age group, when slightly older my DD started to enjoy the Beano - purely for fun, no parental interference involvement and not those 'educational' well-meaning things which any bright child can tell are a poorly-disguised ruse to make them read because it's good for them, rather than something entirely for fun.

mrsCastle she does have phonics books but I can't tell you how much I hate them. Phonics don't seem to help her at all. For some children I am sure they are great....don't want to debate about it but I don't think they work for all.