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Primary education

Join our Primary Education forum to discuss starting school and helping your child get the most out of it.

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Original poster

Reading issues - Advice please

26 replies

WillSomebodyThinkOfStefan · 01/12/2015 15:42

DS3 in 6.3 (nearly) - so one of the oldest in year 1. He has never taken to reading and it has become a daily battle with him still sounding out every letter of every word.

He does have some speech delay which may be impacting on his reading (He has a private SALT going in to school and a TA who works on exercises with him a couple of times a week - The SALT was happy to discharge him before the summer holidays, but we are carrying on for now with extra phonic work).

I am not sure if I should be concerned - DS1 has mild dyslexia, but was reading at the same level as DS3 at the end of nursery and DS2 has moderate dyslexia and is a whole other story!

School (small private prep) haven't been all that great identifying issues and we have parents evening coming up soon - Any advice on what questions to ask and how concerned we should be would be very welcome.

Thank you.

OP posts:

HarveySchlumpfenburger · 01/12/2015 18:17

Does he know that he doesn't have to sound out every word if he already knows what it is? Some children miss this message and think that sounding out is what they are supposed to do.

Personally, lack of fluency or sounding everything out wouldn't worry me too much at this stage. I would be looking more at accuracy first. I would ask the school whether there are any obvious gaps in his phonic knowledge.Is he where they would expect yr 1 children to be at this point or do they think he is behind?

Original poster

WillSomebodyThinkOfStefan · 02/12/2015 06:02

I've explained it to him many times Rafa and he will try for a minute or two and then he's back to sounding out- all his reading record says everyday is something along the lines of "Good sounding out, trying hard - Well done!'

OP posts:

barefootcook · 02/12/2015 07:25

I think I would ask the teacher if there is any way he could be assessed, given your family history and DS's reluctance to read.

user789653241 · 02/12/2015 11:07

I 'm sorry if it's completely irrelevant, but my ds had a phase when he sounded out all the words, even he knew how to pronounce it. It was when he was learning phonics and all the children were doing it, I think.
I didn't stop him, he hated reading aloud anyway so didn't want to discourage him. It disappeared soon enough.

Witchend · 02/12/2015 11:59

I know it's deeply unfashionable, but maybe he's a child that would be helped by whole word recognition. You could try some flash cards.

lostInTheWash · 02/12/2015 12:49

You could try telling him to sound out under his breath.

Seemed to help my youngest.

She'd start out reading then meet a few words she needed to sounded out then everything would be sounded out. She was yr 2 though so bit older.

amarmai · 03/12/2015 15:29

Try the chime in method with him at home -read aloud with finger running along and not stopping , while he reads along with you , maybe a beat or 2 behind . NO CORRECTING IF THERE IS A 'MISTAKE' .

Feenie · 03/12/2015 18:32

What?????!!!

amarmai · 03/12/2015 18:43

Continue the chime in method with the same books for as long as they interest the child. You are reading along with the c and s/he will hear as s/he chimes in. I successfully used this method along with others during the 8 years i taught special education students and I held specialist qualifications in this area. F, what are your qualifications and experience in teaching reading?

HarveySchlumpfenburger · 03/12/2015 18:53

I'm slightly confused about exactly what reading sub-skills the chime in method is supposed to be developing an how exactly it develops them. Could you elaborate a bit more.

Feenie · 03/12/2015 18:59

Oh, you know - just twenty odd years teaching actual reading.

amarmai · 03/12/2015 21:25

Suggesting to a parent that this is a helpful way to read at home with a child and stay clear of the phonics method being taught at school was not intended to start a pissing contest re who knows more about 'exactly what reading sub-skills'? And as i am long retired after 40+ years teaching , I have no desire to get into an academic debate with those who have already demonstrated many times how much they excel at such. So have at it guys- without me!

Karoleann · 03/12/2015 21:42

Both my boys didn't "get" reading until the end of year 1 and then it just came naturally. I thought that was the case with most children?

HarveySchlumpfenburger · 03/12/2015 22:06

I was asking because I'd never heard of it and was interested but if you don't want to explain then fine.

OP have you tried getting him to re-read the sentence he's just read but faster. That might work and get him used to reading a bit more fluently.

How accurate do you think his decoding is?

Feenie · 03/12/2015 22:14

Your advice had nothing to do with helping this child to learn to read, i'm afraid - learning a story by heart has nothing to do with decoding, and ignoring mistakes is never going to help any child.

Rafa's suggestion is a good one.

amarmai · 03/12/2015 22:54

so glad i did not take the bait. Op, try the chime in method and see what you and your son feel about it.

Feenie · 03/12/2015 23:02

Get a grip, anaemia, this thread isn't about you.

'Chiming in' can't teach the decoding skills this child needs to be able to read - not chant.

Feenie · 03/12/2015 23:03

Amarmai.

Interesting autocorrect!

amarmai · 03/12/2015 23:23

wow i really missed a bullet!

catkind · 03/12/2015 23:39

If the school I volunteer at aren't screwing up reading in some way, still sounding out every letter at this stage in year 1 is quite normal.

I think at some point they can just click. At least that's how it worked for my DC, they went from sounding out everything to sounding out next to nothing over a couple of weeks. Don't think we did anything different, just all the practice accumulated.

Original poster

WillSomebodyThinkOfStefan · 09/12/2015 19:18

Sorry I haven't been back to this sooner - it's a busy time of year and DS2 is being challenging at the moment.

Thank you for all the reassurance and input (and disagreements!). We've had parents evening and his teacher is a little concerned that DS3 isn't blending yet, especially with the family history, but he is too young to be assessed. So basically we carry on as we are for now.

I've been ploughing through toe by toe with DS2 and am thinking of starting now with DS3 - but I'm not sure if he's too young? Have any of you any experience of toe by toe with younger children?

OP posts:

catkind · 09/12/2015 20:02

Hang on a sec, you say he's sounding out but he's not blending? By sounding out normally I'd understand they were saying the separate letters and then blending it to a word.
If he actually can't blend after saying the letters I think you might get different advice.
Sorry not familiar with toe by toe but perhaps the teachers here can help.

Original poster

WillSomebodyThinkOfStefan · 09/12/2015 20:39

Sorry, he can blend after sounding out - he just has to sound out first w-e-n-t - went for example.

OP posts:

catkind · 09/12/2015 21:49

As you were then :)

mrz · 10/12/2015 05:58

I certainly wouldn't be worried if some children continued to sound out all or nearly all words in Y1. I'd much rather they did that than made random guesses.

I'm with feenie the chime in method won't improve reading (but might be entertaining)

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