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.

Yep, both of mine :).

Dd1 was a painfully slow reader. Wasn't interested, didn't get it. I think some of it was the gap between her ability and her interest/intelligence, iyswim- she really couldn't give a stuff about biff and flipping chip and I couldn't get her to read them for love nor money.

I hated them too so didn't push it, I'd read to her, and we got her stuff she did like, science, non fiction, and read them together.

She was still on biff and kipper all the way to the end of yr2, so made no real progress. In year 3 I bought her "the boy in the dress" because she didn't like all the fairy and fantasy stuff kids books are now.

That triggered everything and now in year 6 reading and literacy are fine.

Dc2 is year 2 and the same. Slightly more able, but still on the magic key books.

Reassuring to hear for me too. My DD1 took to reading stright away in reception and was a free reader in year 1. DD2 is in year 2 and really struggling. She spells out all words, misses words out, gets lost , reads words backwards and as for spelling.........!!! No prgress at all in a year but then again she hates it as well but it is difficult to know whether she avoids reading because its a struggle or shes poor at reading because she can't be bothered......you're def not alone OP!

If I've understood correctly she's only had her glasses for about 6 months or so - therefore I'm surprised you've already decided that phonics doesn't work for her because in some ways it must be like she's only been learning to read for 6 months in total, rather than 2 years.

It sounds like you find it quite frustrating to listen to her sounding out words and I can't help wonder if she's not picking up on this, however well you hide it, and that this contributes to her not wanting to read to you?

I know that people often feel very strongly about phonics/whole words etc. however it seems like the school are teaching via phonics and rather than you continuing with teaching her to try and guess words, have you thought about asking her to sound out the words in her head?

Some children pick this up very quickly whilst still at quite an early stage of reading, so although they read slowly, with a pause between each word they will only sound out tricky or brand new words vocally. Other children need to have the process explained and modelled for them. However all children learning to read via phonics will go through a process of sounding out everything to sounding out just new words vocally to then sounding out in their heads only.

You say you are already playing word games and that she really enjoys this so how about starting with a few single words (written on card or buy some fridge magnets) for her to read. Explain that you'd like her to sound out in her head (or whisper as that can also be a good stepping stone to sounding out silently). Just practice with 3 - 5 simple words and see how she does. You will of course need to choose words that use code with which she is confident in applying.

You could then try using a sheet, giving one tick for sounding out and saying a word, but two ticks for sounding out in her head or recognising it instantly.

I think it is worth at least trying because the aim of phonics is still to achieve automatic word recognition, but instead of repeating key words again and again to achieve that recognition via whole word books, you learn the code that allows you to work out the words. Children that learn to read with ease tend to have very good visual memories and I've heard children read that only needed to sound out a word once for it to be embedded in their memory. This is not the norm however, whether learning via whole word or phonics most children need to repeatedly see a word. Those with poor visual memories need even more exposure.

If you approach her learning to read individual words with as much fun and praise as possible, (and a few rewards that she loves) over the coming weeks and months she should build up a reasonable bank of words whilst still learning in line with the school's phonic programme. And if she gains the skill of sounding out silently along with some fluency via her 'word bank' then reading at home should become much more enjoyable for both of you.

Diamond I do NOT get frustrated hearing her read thank you. And I never said phonics were shit or anything...my older DD did well with them. I don't like them for this DD though.

Yes, sigh some children.
Not with others.
I would recommend bear neccessities by sound foundations.
Good luck.

some children need to sound out and blend a word hundreds of times before it gets into long term memory, some just need one or two repetitions. all children are different (as I am constantly being told..). sometimes children go on sounding out and blending even if they don't need to because they've never realised (or been told) that they don't have to do it.

I'd suggest to her that she could try to sound out a word in her head before she says it. If you can think of games to play with her that would help her with developing faster word recognition (but absolutely no guessing allowed), using words which are within her phonic knowledge, it would help. (Mind is blank at the moment else I'd sugggest something!) When I worked with 'strugglers' at KS3 we used to do a timed reading of word lists, 3x for each list to see and the children tried to beat their own times (words they had already 'read' several times in the course of the lesson). Sounds very dry but the children loved it!

I wouldn't advise looking for words within words, she should be sounding out and blending from left to right all through each word, not looking in random places for 'bits' she recognises. Nor is running your finger under the words a particularly useful strategy, especially if she is annoyed by it.

OP,
You hate the phonic books; you don't like phonics for your DD.

What does she think? After all, it's her learning to read, not you..

Many European countries which outperform the UK in terms of literacy skills by age 15 don't teach reading at all, in any way, until age 6 or 7.

We live in one of those countries - DD half taught herself to read (with help from me only when she wanted to "learn reading" - I bought her the Jolly Phonics finger phonics books) before she was 5. DS1 is 7 and started school 3 weeks ago - GE had no interest at all in reading til school (he knew his letters and could write his name at 6, couldn't read and didn't want to). He's been at school 3weeks. His teacher is not brilliant. However he was writing a little story about an elephant on his practice chalk board when he finished his homework ttoday - and he spelt elephant correctly (in German, so no ph, but still).

IMO lots of kids shouldn't be taught to read til they are 7 :o

Yes, I believe it's very much like potty training. They do it when they're ready.

Also, once it's clicked for them, progress can be exponential. A friend's son, just started reading law at Oxford, didn't bother to read at all until he was 7.

FriendlyLadybird
But now that the stupid phonics test which includes 20 nonsense words is mandatory at the end of Yr1 teachers have to try and teach all children to read before then, ready or not.

Hurrah. Reading clicked for my ds2 this Christmas. Just wanted to share that with fellow anxious parents languishing in the pre magic key doldrums and wondering if their dcs will ever crack it. He is 6 and 3/4 and has made achingly slow progress up until now. The other night he muttered don't turn off the light, I am reading. It helps me get to sleep. Hallelujah.
Ds 1 was v slow to read and is now the biggest bookworm in his year. Dd very quick but can take or leave reading for pleasure.

Thank you thank you thank you for this.

I am so not an anxious parent and have started to really worry about my intelligent and engaged DS's reading (he's only just 5 and in reception but reading on here it seemed to me all reception aged children were reading practically fluently)

Phew.

I have posted regularly about my late reading child.
Year 2 in fact.
He's year 10 now and doing just fine

I am very pleased for u, Procrastin8.

Even almost 40 years on i still remember the huge relief when our son finally took to reading after a very slow and reluctant start.

Looking at my DD and her large number of similar age cousins, and thinking back to myself and my 3 siblings and DH and his 3 siblings, it seems to be a very broad range of when reading clicks - and has no correlation to future ability (except where there are issues such as dyslexia that aren't properly picked up and help given).

My DH was speaking sentences by the time he was a year old and reading fluently by 2.5 years with Narnia etc by the time he was 4.5 years. He ultimately won a scholarship at a top indie and went to Oxford.

His brother didn't start to speak sentences till he was 5, and didn't read fluently until he was over 7. He won a place at the same indie and went to Cambridge, then did a postgrad and an MBA - and earns 5 times what DH does!

MIL kept a weekly diary till they were 9, so she's not remembering wrong.

With my own DD, she had no interest in reading at all until about 4 weeks ago when it suddenly clicked. She didn't like the 'boring' school books and refused to even attempt them or decode or anything. She was doing phonics at school (and is having extra classes after school as she wasn't at the level she should be) and it seemed that once she had acquired enough to be able to read the books she wanted - fairy stories that were 'proper stories' with decent amount of detail - rather than the 'I went to the pool, Sam went to the pool, Mum went to the pool etc etc' she was prepared to give it ago.

She's suddenly made huge progress. I was very frustrated that a bright kid was not making any effort and falling further and further behind. The school were adamant that each child finds their own pace and time to be ready and once they do, they learn very fast.

Some of the things we were asked to do in order to try and get her to read were to have cards with different words and get her to make sentences with them. I would also make sentences and put in deliberate mistakes to see if she could spot them.

You may find that your DD is scared of getting things wrong and won't attempt because of that fear. Perhaps making lots of deliberate mistakes that she could correct when you are reading to her could help her see that even adults make mistakes and it's nothing to worry about. My DD has had a lot of issues around not wanting to fail and not trying meant that she wasn't in a position to fail.

Lots of schools around the world don't start to teach reading until the kids are 7, so she's not actually behind on a global level.

It's very easy to panic when all the others seem to be racing up the levels or have taught themselves to read off the back of the cereal packet, but don't look at them, just concentrate on finding fun ways to help your DD. Hopefully the glasses will really help.

Good luck to both of you.

elf Thank you again for such a lovely,understanding and practical answer to the OP. This has really helped me and my anxiety over DS too.

I was 7ish when reading clicked. I was desperate to read my older siblings beano and it just clicked with Ivy the terrible!