Phonics - how to start with my 3.5yo ? Pls recommend a book for parents

[ReceptionMum]

Hello all,
would very much appreciate some guidance on the best reading material for parents on how to start working on phonics/pre-reading technics with my 3.5 yo DD. She is quite advanced in math for her age (due to her own will and curiosity rather than us pushing) but I feel that she is a bit behind (compared to her peers that I know) in terms of letter recognition etc.

I myself is not a native speaker so will need some self education on this subject. DH is a reasonably well educated native speaker, however a product of an "old teaching system" so says he "doesn't have a clue what these phonics are about".

Many thanks in advance.

I'm pleased it worked for irvines child but in twenty plus years teaching I've never met a child who learnt to read by sub titles - once had parent claim her son lad learnt to read Spanish via Sky TV ...he hadn't.

We didn't use subtitles to teach my ds to read on purpose. I always watch TV with subs because I'm non native English speaker, and my DS wanted it on as well. We didn't even realise he can read until he started reading everything at the shops, billboard, anything he sees. And suddenly refused to be read and insisted he wanted to read books by himself. I guess he was lucky.

For pure sounds Mr Thorne on YouTube would be a great watch for parents. If she is asking about letters knowing the pure sound is important to be able to move easily to blending. A good understanding of these would be a great investment of time for any parent. I think your dd is still too young for them but there are some great Mr Thorne apps too.
I am in no way associated with Mr T but wish I'd known about him when I was getting to grips with synthetic phonics. . mrthorne.com

And my ds actually learned to read 1~10 in Spanish from watching "Handy Manny" on Disney Jr.

Mrz
I don't think the option of subtitles has been around for more than a few years. Most people are not aware of it even now. I wasn't until very recently.
I am not suggesting teaching phonics altogether, but i'm sure that for many children it would be extremely helpful.

Learning to read Spanish is dead easy, because Spanish letters don't have irregular sounds, like the ea in 'dead easy'. So it takes hardly any learning. Once u've learned a few dozen words, u can decode all the rest without help from anyone. I taught myself in a couple of weeks at the age of 45.

But lots of children struggle to learn to read English even with phonics. Others get by without any formal phonics teaching. My daughter taught herself mainly by linking the nursery rhymes in her head to their printed versions.

And even phonics uses lots of repetition, going over the same words over and over again. So it's debatable to what extent children learn with decoding or just multiple exposure. Beyond the basics, it all becomes a bit vague.

Subtitles will be frustrating for children who process written information slowly.

Masha where have you been living that you think subtitles are new?

Well I'm afraid the child in question could neither read English Spanish or any other language

Irvine, I think that may be a bit of a red herring, your DS is gifted isn't he? Gifted kids often pick up things without any teaching, but that doesn't really work for the general population.

I taught myself in a couple of weeks at the age of 45.

'sigh'. When will marsha learn that anecdote does not equal evidence.

My son used sub titles in anger between the ages of four and seven has he had severe glue ear. He had already learnt phonics and the subtitles made the programmes more enjoyable. However he often found the subtitles were just too fast to read. I doubt a child could learn to read by subtitles alone.

The subtitles to in the night garden gives lots of practice for nonsense words.

I don't know the effectiveness of subtitles, but it has worked on DCs of non native English speaker friends quite well. Non of them actually used it as a method to teach DC to read. I don't know if they are all gifted or not, but they are all good readers.

I understand what tomatotoad says. But I don't think my DS was actually reading subtitles while watching TV. Just seeing all those words while hearing the words, as a part of screen since he was a baby, and it was only natural that he wanted it on cartoon as well. He still prefers to watch TV with subs on, but I don't think he actually reads it. I don't read it either. It's only a habit. And my DH(English) got used to it now too.

I only suggested it because it is effortless, as long as the child doesn't mind it, and it may work on somebody like it did on my ds.

Thing I really wanted to say to anybody reading this thread is, that subtitles may or may not work for your DC. But there's nothing to lose by doing it. Some child might not like it(especially they are older), then turn it off. Some child doesn't care, or like it. But if it might help one in 10, or 1 in 100 what ever, it does worth it, because you are not actually doing anything, other than turning on some switches.

I think you're saying that your friends children practised reading with sub titles rather than learnt to read from sub titles?

I don't know mrz! I'm not the expert. Only thing I know is that we didn't put a lot efforts in teaching to him to read, but he got it anyway. And it was same with mums who are not non native English speakers. They watch TV with subs, so children did it too.

We never practiced reading words while ds was watching TV. It was just there all the time, and I think it helped him to get familiar with words in general. I'm not saying it would be a good way to teach children to read, it's just easy thing that you can do to possibly help children to learn to read, or get familiar with words without pushing to teach toddlers to read.

If the OP spends ten minutes a day working with her child on pen control or basic phonics, there is still plenty of time left for play. There are lots of games that can be played to make learning phonics or blending fun. It neednt' be formal learning sitting down at table.

Its is quincessentially British that parents never admit to pushing their children in any shape or form. They will pretend that their little darling is self taught with reading when they have had plenty of parental input.

Provided the OP little one gets a good balance between work, rest and play she will be fine.

My DD was reading her first few numbers & letters at 20 months, could recognise full alphabet around 2. However she's now 3.7 & has not progressed any further as we've not pushed, although we do read to her lots, several books per day at least. So we're getting a first reading set. Aside from anything, she enjoys the stories. It can't hurt & we're still not going to push her.

Sorry, "pushing to teach toddlers to read" was wrong wording. I'm all for teaching anything if they want it.
That has nothing to do with this thread or others, I just wanted to express that sub thing was nothing extra, just everyday life..

Hi there Reception Mum, teacher here. Make the sounds really short eg "t" rather than "tuh" also refer to them as letters and that groups of letters make words. You would amazed how many children are not sure of the difference.
The alphabet song tends to make "klmno" sound like one long sound and in my area we are encouraged to sung a different one which sings them separately so it might be an idea to just concentrate on sounds.
Please message me if there is anything else about phonics you would like help with. I dont usually post on phonics threads as I get too cross with some regular posters who derail the thread with "discussions" which are not helpful to posters like yourself.

Please, please don't refer to sounds as letters! they really aren't the same thing at all. Letters are the written symbols we use to write words they don't make words just as letters don't make sounds.
Leave the alphabet /letter names until your child is secure with sounds and how they are spelt in English..

Telephone - I think left to their own devices they often go in spurts. DD learned phonics around 2 when DS was in reception and could sound out words at 2.3. She then didn't do anything new for a year on that front. So we thought, ah, that was the party trick then. Then at 3.3 she realised she could read books, was hugely enthusiastic, and went through all the reading scheme books we had in a few weeks. Now she can read any picture books she wants, not interested in reading anything wordier, so just ticking over again.

ReallyTired, I know what you mean about parental input. A friend who also has a bright DD is a bit funny about us teaching DD to read pre school. The way I see it we support them at the level they're working at irrespective of age, whether that's reading Harry Potter or looking for things beginning with Ssss. In fun, part of everyday life sorts of ways.

DS is my alibi - we provided the same support to him, but he wasn't interested in doing much of anything academic pre school. So he didn't. The only point we did anything that might be described as pushing was when DS was in school and falling behind badly on handwriting.

I hope this isn't another derailing discussion...

I agree with those who found Alphablocks a good first step. Not only gets children interested in the basics but as a parent it shows how differently it's taught compared to when we learned to read! I wouldn't have a clue how to pronounce letter sounds without Alphablocks

The sounds represented by the spellings can vary dependent on accent

interestingly subtitles have been around for almost 30 years (UK )

Mrz, I'd guess VN meant more in terms of how to avoid saying muh nuh tuh the way we were taught in the old days.

pls can I urge you to leave phonics to the school and focus on just reading with your child, asking questions about stories, about illustrations, feelings of the characters. You will be doing much more supportive work with them in doing so. If you are so desperate to know about phonics, then watch a video on how to pronounce them. But you need to also know the order in which they are taught and why. Hence my initial suggestion to leave it to the school to teach them.

Also, do not neglect your child's mathmatical brain! I did! You need to talk about maths in relation to daily life from a young age. Reading will get them far but maths is very important in life. So, rhythms, clapping, patterns, counting steps, odd and even, sorting into groups.

These things are brilliantly useful.