How to practice reading with reception age child who's behind?

[slightlyglitterbrained]

Didn't want to derail this thread www.mumsnet.com/Talk/primary/2844011-learning-to-read-books-4yo which had some useful info on it but seemed to be turning into a bit of a debate on phonics vs whatever. I'm quite happy to stick with phonics.

What I'm not so sure about is what will be most productive to help DS with reading. He's apparently in a group getting extra help at school - which isn't a big surprise as he's the youngest in class, and his speech was borderline for referral to SALT when he started school (it's come on a lot since then). He knows a lot of sounds and can sometimes decode words with sounds he knows, and can also read some of the "tricky words" with unfamiliar sounds.

School have asked us to do more reading with him, but I'm finding he's often reluctant to read his "school" book at home. We try to encourage him to sound out some words in the books we read to him, but he tends to know them off by heart as he'll tell us w/o looking at the page.

I'd like some advice on the actual mechanics of reading with him - we prompt him to look at the initial sound, and look at the picture. When he sounds out all the letters, but doesn't put them together - are we supposed to tell him the word? Or just say that's good, move on and maybe next time he'll get it? I don't know if reading it to him is a big no-no or okay. Will it end up in him just memorising the word instead of practicing decoding? I don't know.

We have the Songbirds Level 1 &2 books, but as he seems to need more reinforcement, is there anything else at that level that's suitable and not outdated that we can practice on? We're rapidly going to get to the point where he's memorised everything at this rate.

You mean guessing?

The problem is it isn't a pragmatic approach. Not only that, but it actually causes reading problems in some children.

In a mainstream school the number of children you will come across ho don't get phonics is incredibly small. You may have a handful over your entire teaching career. It's likely to be less than 1%, so in a 1 form intake school you may get a child every couple of years.

If it's more than that, then how you teach children to read is likely to be an issue.

There are more children that are slower to pick phonics up. But the worst thing schools can do for those children is to dilute the teaching with other methods. It actually makes it more difficult for them to develop the essential skills needed for reading and spelling.

Context helps when reading homographs and when spelling homophones but pretty useless unless you can decode in their statements place ...(obviously context helps once you've decoded accurately to extract meaning)

" in their statements place" was accurately in the first place" before predictive text took over

I found at this age reading everything and anything - street signs, menus, books if all sorts to get them excited and reading without realising they are doing it. We used the reading chest too as the books are banded but there is such a good selection.

My DD is an august baby.

She was showing little interest in the book provided by school, as she had read it a couple of times each week.

We signed up to reading chest and the difference is amazing! I know the books are at the right level and she can choose between 4-5 books including the school book.

Personally I ask DD to sound out a word she doesn't know and then I tell her how it should sound.

She has almost overnight developed a thirst for reading and has never turned down the oppprtunity to read to me. We now read almost everyday even when she is tired at 6pm she wants to read.

I'm careful not to push and if she doesn't want to, I would leave it and read less often.

The variety of books had kept her interested and she loves receiving the new books in the post and adding stickers to the sticker chart.

She is now much more confident at sounding out words and connecting the sounds with a full word.

Hope that helps x

Ok, this is going to sound like really bonkers advice. Do you have a dog? Or even a cat? My child was the best reader in her reception class, end of Aug birthday as well, very little intervention from me. I would go through her reading book each evening, as expected and instructed by the school. She would then go through it with the dog, showing the dog all the words, explaining the letter sounds, and 'teaching ' the dog to read. I swear it brought her on in leaps with no pressure or stress or hard work.

Dog still can't read though. :)

My DC school does Oxford reading tree and Songbirds.
I remember the reception years well. Reading was a constant battle with both of my DS. Eldest is a June baby, youngest is one of the oldest in his class.
Eldest wanted to read, and got competitive because his friends were moving up the stages. He "clicked" towards the end of reception. His year 3 teacher told me the only problem with his reading was there weren't any age appropriate books at his reading level in the library.
Ds2 now year 1, I set out the rules of ten minutes every day and a bribe reward when he had new books/ went up a stage.
I also pointed out key words in his bedtime story books, which boosted his confidence.
He's not the best in his class, but he's happy and I know with practise and encouragement he will get there.
With both of them it was like a switch had been switched on and they suddenly got it.

There's every need when a school is recommending a failed methodology that doesn't match the new curriculum at all. That's not pragmatic - it's bloody irresponsible.

I'm really sorry, Mehfruittea, but the school has given you really poor information. The Searchlights Strategy was abandoned over 10 years ago. It was abandoned because it was faulty and implementing it was causing a great deal of underachievement in children who failed to learn to read or who were barely literate. I worked with many of them when they got to Secondary school.

No primary school where the teachers understood the teaching of phonics would use the Searchlights at all because just about all their children learn to read competently with systematic phonics instruction. Children who can apply their phonic knowledge to decoding and blending unfamiliar words don't need to guess words from pictures, context or initial letters.

Be subversive, forget the Searchlights and stick with phonics when you're listening to children read...

fakenamefornow
I don't think you idea is bonkers at all; it's brilliant! Children love being 'teacher'. Failing a family cat or dog they could 'teach' their favourite toys.

I recommend reading 'reading magic' by mem fox.

Hadn't come across that book.before so I looked at the reviews on Amazon.com.

Not a phonics fan, is she?

To say Mem Fox is not a phonics fan would be putting it mildly

I'm sure there's a blog post or two somewhere.

Stop worrying and learn to love narrative! Don't add to what they're doing - if ho with encouraging engagement with any story. My DCs were all 'behind' a little alter on, but I wouldn't say you should call any reception child 'behind'.

For instance try engaging with a story in different media - for instance Matilda is available as a film, audiobook, even a musical. My DCs found that loving a particular narrative meant they were ahead when it came to 'reading' that story in a book.

Nutcracker, Christmas Carol, Gruffalo,Beatrix Potter, even Horrid Henry. Those are foundations of enjoyment of narrative you can be laying down rather than forcing phonics at this stage.

fakenamefornow love the image of your DD patiently coaching the dog

Is there a non-wacko up-to-date book I can read about phonics Feenie/mrz? I would normally read up on stuff, but phonics/teaching reading seems to be one of those highly politicised topics where it's hard to find something reliable amongst the crazed rantings. I mean even my colleague has a fully blown ranting anti-phonics conspiracy theory spiel, and he doesn't even have kids. (He does have a dog though. Maybe he's bitter because his dog isn't reading yet? )

I totally agree phonics needs to be the predominant method taught in schools. But as an untrained parent reading with a child, who is struggling, I believe the school is right to support searchlights as a model to help those children in a 'whatever works' scenario. For 10 mins a day with a parent volunteer and hopefully with their own parent. On top of the phonics work taught in class. Not instead of. If a child guesses a word due to context, the picture they see and the first letter - and that builds their confidence then bloody brilliant. Job done - over to the teacher to continue working with a slightly happier, slightly more confident child who is more open to learning in the next lessson because they've had some praise and sucess.

This is what I thought this thread was about? Not how teachers should be teaching reading but what parents can be doing to support.

I'm dyslexic, diagnosed in University, and know only to well what using different learning strategies can do, and how failure comes about when only one strategy is utilised.

Hi, my youngest son has learning disabilities so we are coming from a different situation than you, but maybe these tips could be useful.

We live in the US and DS goes to a specialist school. They use the Orton Gillingham approach for reading. They also use other strategies as appropriate.

One technique that is used currently which i feel is fun and appeals to him is a thing called "race car reading". We aren't that far along with our reading and we are focused on words ending in either "at"
Or "ap".

So they have put together a sheet that has each letter in a square and then a road drawn under it. To encourage blending initially each letter is sounded out. C -A-T and the car is driven to each letter and sounded out and then that is repeated until the sounds are blended. The idea is that there is a physical cue to the visual letters. It seems to be somewhat effective. It's a slow process, however it's a fun way to encourage blending and deciding.

My son has many delays but it is helping him.

We also play games with words in similar word groups, we have a few bingo games and also are rhyming board games.

I read to my son a lot as well when he is open to it.

That sounds like it might be quite helpful for reinforcing stuff and helping to avoid DS guessing based on just the first letter/picture, humble.

I mean the race car reading! I can also see him enjoying the driving along roads aspect.

Orton Gillingham was widely used in the 1930s and has survived despite research evidence. It uses many elements such as the techniques in race car reading that are less effective than current methods. I've seen children spend the whole of primary working on the track and still unable to read when they move to secondary so I'd strongly advise against it.

Problem is I don't know what current methods are. So I have no way to evaluate stuff - a quick chat before school doesn't really give me a lot more than "don't say "buh".

Sorry, that sounds a bit ungrateful mrz! Thanks for the steer away from it. Thing is, stuff might well have worked okay for posters' DC but if they fail for a lot of children when looking across the whole group, then my DS might be one of the fails. And I don't want that.

Do you have an iPad?

I have found as an experienced teacher that children who experience difficulties are motivated to read if their own name is there. So we make our own books using a copy whatever and make up stories where every word can be decoded but child's name is there. They get very excited. Eg George has a dog. George has a pig. George can get a pup.They are more interested in finding out what George has and it's like a game. Also second getting magnetic letters or an alphabet board ( small letters). Short bursts. Worst thing you can do is go on and on.