How to get son to sound out in head rather than aloud? Year 1 reading issue :(

[Mumofaboy123]

My son has just entered year 1 and after reading with his teacher has been put on pink reading books.
At the end of reception he was on red and " exceeding " on his report for reading.
He was still blending aloud in those books the majority of the time however this teacher has said until he can read simple books without the need to sound out he shouldn't be on any higher - is this correct?
And how do I encourage him to sound out silently as he keeps saying that's too hard and often forgets the first letter / sound when he does it in his head even if it's only a 3/4 letter word but when doing it aloud can blend a 7 letter word easily. Help!

If he isn't ready to be on the higher level then why rush him?

I'm not trying to rush him but I am confused to why he's gone down 2 levels in 6 weeks.

Lots of my year one class still sound out aloud. Sometimes they just need to be able to hear themselves say the sounds aloud so I wouldn't rush him. If he's not reading without sounding words out on red then he's not ready to move up.

Speaking as a teacher, it's perfectly fine for him to be blending out loud. It will all work out in time.

Also, just because he's reading pink books at school doesn't mean he can't also enjoy a wide variety of quality (non reading scheme) texts with you at home. Please relax and just concentrate on keeping reading fun for him.

My daughter is in year 1 and on yellow. She sounds out almost every word in the books. But give her a red level book and she'll read every word without sounding out, even the words that she would sound out in a yellow level. It's so frustrating but I know eventually she'll get there and so will your ds. I remember with my older ds it was like something just clicked and he could read.

I think the key is lots of practice. I also got my daughter to do secret sounding out. Ie. The the letter sound is in her head but she doesn't say it. Make it a game. For example take 6 letters, s, a, t, i, p, n and write each letter on a small card. Put the cards on the floor. There are lots of three letter cv can words that can be made with letters I have suggested. For example "sat" point to each letter in turn and ask your child to say the letter sound in his head. Tell him it's secret blending. See if he can work out the word you are spelling.

Practicing blending with word boxes will help his blending. Practicing blending while reading a story is a lot harder as he would be thinking about the story. I would use simple 3 letter words to build confidence.

As I said on the other thread, it's perfectly normal for children to still be sounding out at this age and shouldn't be a barrier to the level he's reading as long as the decoding is accurate and the texts he's given are within his phonic knowledge.

Don't force the silent blending if he's not ready. If you or the school want him to read the text more fluently, then you can just as him to reread the sentence he's just read.

Are his reading books decodable books which integrate with the phonics he is learning?

The fact that you're referring to colour banding makes me suspect that they're not.

Is he able to read some words 'at sight' (i.e he has decoded and blended them so often that they are in long term memory and he recognises them instantly)

I'm curious about Luckster's statement. Why would needing to sound out and blend words preclude a child from moving up through 'levels' if they are perfectly able to comprehend what they read? (which is something OP didn't mention. Is he understanding what he is reading?)

and often forgets the first letter / sound when he does it in his head even if it's only a 3/4 letter word but when doing it aloud can blend a 7 letter word easily.

OP, I'd suggest that you get your son to do 'progressive blending' for sounding and blending in his head. In this technique the child sounds out and blends as they go through the word rather than 'saving' all the decoded sounds to blend at the end. It would go like this: take the word 'happy' ; sound out and blend /h/ and /a/ to get the chunk /ha/, when that is secure sound out the 'pp' to get /p/ and add that to the /ha/ chunk to get /hap/, then do the same with 'y' (/ee/) and add it to /hap/. Now you have /happy/ and it's been impossible to 'forget' the first sound. He needn't use this technique all the time, once he's got the idea he could just use it for sounding and blending in his head.

Oh, and I'd also reiterate what everyone else said, don't worry and don't try to rush it!

Good question, Maizie. I had assumed phonically decodeable, because in the OP on her other thread the reason given for moving him down was that he was sounding out all the words out loud. That would be difficult with the non-decodeable ones.

Depending on the scheme a lot of publishers have 'helpfully' colour banded their books. I don't think banding necessarily means that books aren't decodeable.

Also dropping a level over 6 weeks (if he has done no guided reading in that time) is probably not unusual at this age. Use it or lose it! He should make it up again, but different teachers have different priorities. Some good suggestions on here...

Id expect a child on red band books to need to sound out loud is there any reason you think he shouldn't?

"why he's gone down 2 levels in 6 weeks" simple answer is he hasn't pink is the first band and red the second. The teacher may think that after six weeks he needs a little reinforcement of previous learning.

Sorry, I've checked his previous reading record and he was on yellow for the 6 weeks before breaking up in July.
So had done lilac,pink,red and was quite settled on yellow
So he gas gone down 2 groups.

Reading aloud is quite difficult skill, I think.
My ds was good reader and hated reading aloud. So we stopped for while when he was reading aloud fluently. After a few months, I asked him to read aloud again, and it was terrible. Now we still do it regularly even he is in YR4.
Has your ds been reading aloud regularly during summer? If not, it may explain why he was put down the level, but hopefully he will catch up again soon enough.

I find it surprising he is exceeding for reading and on yellow level. I'd have thought that was bang on expected. I don't think there's any problem with the teacher consolidating what he knows. I'm sure he'll move again soon with practice.

I'm also surprised that he was exceeding on Yellow. I would think that would be within the expected range finishing Reception.

I agree. I didn't think he was exceeding being on yellow either, expected and making good progress but I never thought he was exceeding but this is what it was marked at, even though his writing is perfect, joined up words so on and still only got expected in that! So maybe the reception teacher wasn't very good at identifying correct levels

Yes, yellow to me is picking it up nicely rather than exceeding. Maybe his comprehension is fantastic :)

Don't worry, he's doing well. If he's still on pink in a few weeks and finding it too easy ask if the teacher can re-assess him.

So nobody would recommend a tutor at this point

What, no!

Mumofboy123 the things you've described - blending aloud, not in his head, are minor technical skills that he's not mastered, and he's still at an age where not mastering them is common. So no, spending time on that intervention outside of school doesn't make a lot of sense. The time could be better spent in areas that are more general intelligence than early acquisition of a skill he's likely to learn anyway.

For the teacher ...yes

Why on earth would a year 1 child need a tutor?!

Another thread about this? Ffs chill out and enjoy your son. Stop obsessing.

I'm surprised he was on exceeding. My son finished on level 5 green and was on expected - I had expected that green might just about make its way in to exceeding but didn't care either way. I wouldn't worry about it. Just read with him at home what you think and also, read the books that they think. They'll put him up eventually and presumably they have their reasons.