Early reading - advice please

[kennycat]

I was a primary teacher before being a SAHM but just want some advice to help my 4 year old start reading. She knows her letters and can sound out words but then when she tries to blend she will say a word starting with the last letter.
I remember the poorer children in my one and only year one class doing this and I never really found a way to get over it other than practise practice practice.
Any tips please early years experts? Or is it a case of, it will just click. She seems fairly with it.

If she is 4 she has been at school a couple of weeks? I wouldn't worry at all!

I think at this age, if she's doing what you say, then she's just not quite ready for blending. You could play blending games e.g. I spy with my little eye a c-a-t and just get her used to that rather than trying to read words/ books.

It's not uncommon when children first start. It will probably just click at some point soon. As you say it's usually just a case of practicing so I wouldn't worry too much about it at this stage.

You could do a sort of staggered blending but I'm not sure that's necessary at this point.

So funny, I was about to post exactly the same thing. My 4 year old knows all letter sounds but like yours when trying to blend she seems to start the word with the last letter, almost like she's trying to blend backwards.
Is the best approach when blending to segment? Ie if trying to read "cat" getting to "ca" first and then adding the "t". Or would you do "c" then "at"? Sorry if this doesn't make sense.
My elder one did his reception year overseas when they did word families ie cat, hat, mat etc but I believe this isn't used here.

I think what could help here is to focus on writing rather than reading. E.g. Montessori method. For example give her a little treasure chest with a toy cat, a tiny jug, some other things with CVC names. And a set of letters e.g. magnetic ones.
Have her pick one, say the name (e.g. 'cat'), then segment that name into individual sounds ( c, a, t), then pick out the letters that make those sounds, then put down the 'sounds' in the right order. Often children can achieve this before they are able to blend. But I think it trains them into understanding how the sounds work in order, and will then find learning to blend easier.

Thanks for the advise, I'll give some of these ideas a whirl! She's desperate to read. I'm not trying to be pushy. I don't think...

Not an expert, but been through it fairly recently with DC. Something we found a helped was saying the sounds for them, with slight emphasis on the first. C--at. Then faster Ca--t. Keep speeding up till they can hear the word. It's easier for them to hear the blend with you saying it, but also sets up a model for them to do it themselves.

Normal I-spy might help too (but with sounds not letter names), as it focusses on what the first sound is.