How can I help my daughter with reading

[localgirl26]

Hi, My daughter is age 5 and in Year 1 and has made good progress with reading this year wholly using the Look Say method as she is unable to blend a word at any level. For example, if we wanted to read "hit", I would ask her to say the letters which she does and then says the word is "ten". She guesses the word based on the last letter she sounds out. Has anyone any similar experience with Look Say method and how far a child can go with only this method. I am in my 40's so pretty sure I was taught by look say and turned out ok. Thanks

My questions are can she rhyme? So if you say "cat", can she come up with pat, sat, hat etc?

Can she follow two- and three- part instructions or does she get lost or use other strategies - watches everyone else?
And lastly, has she made the connection between what we say and the letters used for writing it down?

There are loads and loads of ways of getting all children to read but the most efficient will need to work round anything else going on.

Can you remind everyone how many reception classes you gave worked in where your approach has been successful Masha?

Isn't it true you gave only taught your in family to read and have constantly posted how difficult English made learning to read and spell?

Have you considered that it might be you that makes it more difficult than necessary?

Whole primary classes i only taught on supply, when my children were young.

More recently, i have helped slow readers, one to one, in local primaries as a voluntary assistant, identifying individual weakness and addressing those.

That's what parents can also do, because they deal with their children one-to-one.

I don't think that a few primary classes taught on supply 30 years ago really counts as teaching reception age children to read. Nor does it suggest any likelihood of a thorough working knowledge of a modern synthetic phonics programme.

I think that the OP has abandoned this thread. I hope her DD thrives.

Primary schools don't let volunteers loose to identify and address reading problems.

They are grateful for volunteers who hear children read, and will usually train them to ensure they don't give children outdated advice related to multi-strategy practice.

They don't call children 'slow readers' either.

I didn't ask that Masha I asked how many reception classes you had taught (and I'll add - for a whole year not just odd days supply)

No primary school would allow you to walk in as a volunteer and begin diagnosing reading problems unless they want to leave themselves open to legal action.

One way of getting children to pay proper attention to letters is to ask them to read several words in which only one letter is different:
it, hit, sit, bit, fit, kit, git....

Git????

Well there was a post in AIBU where 'quim' has appeared on a list of alien words sent home with a year 1 child. 'Git' seems rather tame in comparison.

Is 'quim' a rude/derogatory word, like 'git' then, Rafa?

Think rude words for female parts

It doesn't seem to be as widely recognised as the c word but it is reasonably well known. Not something I'd be happy to hear coming out of the mouth of a 6 year old but better as a 'non-word' than appearing as a real word I suppose. The same list had 'thigh' as a non word as well.

I wouldn't be happy with a hearing a 6 year old saying 'git', either. And any reading volunteer asking a child to read it would not be returning.

Goodness, nothing like mumsnet for an education. I'd never heard of it; presumably neither had the teacher who set it as a 'non-word'.

OP, I see your point.

I have a conversation going with my mom. She says:
"Fuck phonics" (actually she doesn't, she just means this) "I learned to read entirely through word recognition."
Me-"so that means you are unable to pronounce any word (let's say, a name) that you have not previously encountered?"
Her: (supercilious sneer).

But back in the real world, yes, of course you can teach your dd to read through word recognition - people learned like this for ages. Am limping through phonics teaching with my own dd, and yes, she does enjoy it (in fact she's boringly obsessed with spelling out words to us at the mo.) but I remain entirely convinced that she can read loads of words through self-taught word recognition - she just realises it's not fashionable to let on!

OP, trust your instincts, and good luck!

Reading words through self-taught word recognition is not a problem, many children do and it's perfectly fine to admit that. What is a problem is not having the reading skills to go alongside that will allow her to read words she hasn't come across before. Your dd has that, the OP's doesn't. And she will need to develop those skills in order to become a very competent reader.

The aim of teaching phonics is to provide children with the most effective strategy for reading words which is why children aren't taught whole words. Having said that the ultimate aim is for children to read words automatically without needing to sound out every word. Some lucky children may only have to decode a word once for it to enter their long term memory, others may have to decode the same word ten, twenty, a hundred times before it becomes automatic.

"People learned like this for ages" ... In the history of reading instruction whole word learning is something new and short lived and unfortunately many didn't learn at all.