Should I be concerned about DS's reading level ?

[jodee]

DS is in Y2, will be 7 in March. His reading is below the level it should be for his age, in fact he seems to have regressed, if anything.

Sat with DS after tea while he read some of his school book, and he struggled with what I would think are basic cvc words, e.g. can, got, hat. He was sounding out each letter to me, which is fine, but shouldn't he know these words?

He is, and has been since before Reception, having SALT, and when he started in Reception he struggled with many sounds, too many to list, but has come on in leaps and bounds (we have worked hard with him at home and he has had good support at school, to give them some credit). He now needs to just master 's' and 'k'.

is the delay in reading connected to his speech problems? is it a 'boy' thing? or will it improve as he develops? Feel I should be using flash cards to help him memorise words, but don't want to push him so he loses interest.

All thoughts appreciated.

Talk to his teacher and if s/he's not helpful and you don't want to involve the school, contact a professional through your health visitor. It probably is a boy thing, maybe even just rebellion, but it could just as easily be an early sign of dyslexia, so it's worth getting him checked by someone who knows what they're doing (remember schools were hopeless at spotting this until very recently and some teachers believe it doesn't exist). Good luck.

hi, i am teacher so can help. I taught Y2 for 5 years, (reception for three and now year 6 for 2 years. I was also early years/ KS1 manager for 4 years) and consider the demands of the curriculum to be so intense for children now that what we expect of 7 year old now, we expected of 9-10 year olds 10 years ago.

The point I am trying to make is that every child comes on at their own pace. As long as he is making progress year on year, this is all that matters. You say he regressed. Children cannot progress at a continuous pace for their whole education. Sometimes their ability will soar, then plateau then regress, then soar etc etc. This can be put down to anything and everything and blame has been placed on so much over the years but experience has told me this is sometimes simply just down to human nature.

All that matters is the big picture shows progress year on year. For example, you wouldn't expect him to grow exactly they same amount in Cm every month for 12 years would you? Learning is the same.

He will have been taught to learn some words by sight. For example lots of children know the word 'dad' within weeks of entering reception but would not know what a d was. It is because these have been taught by flash cards. These are called high frequency words and they enable children to access books. For example the early oxford reading tree books are generated from the reception high frequency word lists and children love it when they can suddenly 'read a book' even thought they only recognise 5 words. This is all about confidence. They then rush for the next book and read it to the class so proudly that you can almost visibly see their confidence grow.

once your son has been taught all the letter sounds, he would have then been told to sound out the letters in all of the other words that he doesn't know by sight. So that is exactly what he is doing. It's not on his list of words so he sounds it out because that's what miss said to do.
As he matures, he will start to recognise the words, when he is ready. If you are concerned with his fluency when reading CVC words, use flashcards. I always advise parents to choose 2/3 words per week and put them all over house. On back of toilet door etc..

the most important point is to keep an eye on him and speak to the school if you are concerned. As we have such large classes, i always appreciate it if a parent comes to me with a concern. If it has slipped my attention, i am grateful for them to bring it up. whatever you do, avoid letting your ds know you are concerned or that his reading worries/ stresses you. he will most certainly pick up on this and that will only make the matter worse. it is also important to remember that these kids work so hard all day, that come hometime they are shattered. Asking him to read CVC words at 7 pm is like someone asking you to do simultaneous equations at 11pm after a full day at work!!!!
Good luck. if i can help any more let me know.

jodee

My ds is also in Y2. He has recently been discharged from SALT (although he still struggles with /s/).

When he was in Reception I found out that children with SAL problems often have difficulty learning to read. To cut a long story short, I learned how to teach reading and taught him to read. He reads well now.

It all started when I read some posts on this site by "Catflap". She pointed me in the right direction. If you do a search on her name, I'm sure you will find them. They are full of good advice.

Basically, I read a book she recommended called "Why Children Can't Read" by Diane McGuinness. I also bought lots of Jolly Phonics stuff, partly because the SALT was also using Jolly Phonics with my ds. By observing her sessions with him, I realised that he was learning to read words as well as pronounce them. Perhaps you have noticed this too if your ds's SALT is doing the same work ours was doing: mastering initial sound, then sequence (e.g. /f/ /oo/), syllable, word, etc?

I continued to follow the steps of Jolly Phonics (these appear on the message board on the Jolly Phonics website) and, by the time I'd finished, ds had jumped up a couple of reading levels at school. He was reading above an age appropriate level.

This website is very helpful if you want advice on teaching your child to read:
www.rrf.org.uk. (Apolgies if the link doesn't work, I can never get them to work!)

Feel free to CAT me if you want to know anything else about what I did with my son. I don't post on here often so probably won't revisit the thread.

all best wishes to you

One more thing to add to all the brillant advice so far. Never stop reading exciting and wonderful stories to your child . It is all too easy to forget about the joy of reading and the purpose of it when we get bogged down in the mechanics of it. Do not underestimate his ability to understand what you are reading to him. Go for quite challenging stuff.

just checking in before going to bed, thanks so much for posting, will read properly and post again tomorrow.