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Primary education

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Original poster

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

136 replies

slightlyglitterbrained · 05/02/2017 21:02

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1 &2 books, but as he seems to need more reinforcement, is there anything else at that level that's suitable and not outdated that we can practice on?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.

OP posts:
Original poster
slightlyglitterbrained · 10/02/2017 08:05

mrz - I don't have an iPad, did you have an app you could recommend? I might be able to borrow one.

junebirthdaygirl - yes, he always notices his name. Maybe we can start with fridge letters and just making sentences about him.

OP posts:
NormaSmuff · 10/02/2017 08:10

read everything when you are out and about, signs,
food when shopping.
play games that have words in them

Alfieisnoisy · 10/02/2017 08:23

Excellent suggestions June.

I had a very reluctant reader too...he is autistic but we didn't know that then. He used to cry every time they school asked him to read Sad. It was more shocking because this was a child who had been read to from birth practically. He LOVED books and even now at 14 still really enjoys an audiobook.

Second everyone else who has suggested reading when out and about. DS used to help with the shopping and we used to go over words as we went.

He got there eventually...he was 8 before he mastered reading and that was down to medication for ADHD. Three months of medictaion and sudden,y he could read almost fluently....by Y6 he was a free reader.
Now at 14 he will read for information and look at things like encyclopaedias etc, he will also read gaming books but he never reads for pleasure. Coming from two adults who are utter bookworms it's amazing.

user789653241 · 10/02/2017 08:45

Alfie, I say reading gaming books, information books are still reading for pleasure! And those are full of vocabulary you may not encounter in story books, but enriches you so much as well.

HarveySchlumpfenburger · 10/02/2017 08:45

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.

If it worked like that it would be brilliant, but it doesn't. What you've been taught to do undoes the teaching in the phonics lesson rather than enhances it. Guessing is easier and children who are struggling with reading will fall back on it if they've been taught it's an acceptable thing to do.

nailslikeknives · 10/02/2017 08:57

All the methodology you need is to watch the alphablocks in order. It follows the letters & sounds scheme which most schools use to teach reading/phonics.
Buy the 5 disc boxset. It included a poster of the phonics when I bought mine.
I am not sponsored by Alphablocks (though I should be Grin).

Mehfruittea · 10/02/2017 10:06

Mrz- - no you are mis-reading what I have said. They are following NC. They are asking parents and parent volunteers to consider other approaches outside of phonics. Searchlights includes phonics as one of four ways to support a child. This is specifically for children who are struggling, to build their confidence and is in addition to their phonics lessons.

HarveySchlumpfenburger · 10/02/2017 10:44

No they aren't the NC explicitly states that children are not to be taught those strategies. Not that they should teach phonics as part of a range of other strategies. It is clear on this.

The school cannot be teaching searchlights and be following the NC.
It's a bit woolly on phonics + sight words, but that isn't what your school are doing.

Mehfruittea · 10/02/2017 11:44

To be clear - the school are not teaching Searchlights. It's been recommended as a parent support tool.

Child: ...a r-i-d-e, rid? ride on a........ ........ ?????? donkey?
Parent: that's brilliant well done. Donkey is a really tough word, how did you know? Did you guess?
Child: yes
Parent: you worked it out brilliantly, you could be a detective! How did you manage to guess? What was your clue?
Child: it's in the picture.
Parent: oh I see! I though it was a funny horse. How did you know it was a donkey?
Child: the first letter was d, and so I didn't think horse was right.
Parent: wow, that's brilliant. You are clever. Shall we sound out all the letters?
Child: d-o-n-k-e-y
Parent: and now can you show me how well you blend the sounds together?
Child:er.....do-don-...
Parent: [covers don] now concentrate on the second part of the word. Can you read that?
Child: key
Parent: brilliant! Can you blend the two sounds together now?
Child: donkey!
Parent: wow! You did that so well! You're a proper detective, working out how to read the word from each letter as well as using the pictures. Brilliant.

Painful, probably why a minority of parents don't read with their children.

I don't really see what is wrong with the above scenario when it is used outside of the classroom, in addition to the reading/phonics teaching and by parents to support a child who is struggling.

What's the alternative? Tell the child off for using the clues in front of them? Don't guess, just read? Or remove all pictures from kids books? I'm really struggling to understand the value of restricting a child in such a negative way.

Boiled7Up · 10/02/2017 11:52

If a child can read 'ride' they can read 'donkey'....

You're relying on a child knowing the difference between a picture of a donkey and a horse. Many children wouldn't know and would plough on with horse.

Pun not intended.

Don't guess, just read?
Yes. That's the best way to do it. It doesn't need to be a punishment or the end of the world, just a gentle (and more importantly) constant reminder to look at the words.

user789653241 · 10/02/2017 12:00

Mehfruittea, I think it's up to you how you teach your own child. And many parents in your school may not know what they are advised to do could be wrong.
But you are helping other children at school. And many experienced teachers on MN said what you are advised to do is wrong. So, you do have a choice. If I was in your position, I would question about method school use, or resign, before I do damage to other children's learning.

HarveySchlumpfenburger · 10/02/2017 13:26

Exactly, Irvine. They should be helping parents to support reading In the correct way rather than in a way that will cause issues.

I might dig out the parent support guide from DNiece's school when I get home. At no point does it encourage parents to use those strategies.

catkind · 10/02/2017 15:33

Aargh, our school hand out advice that includes guessing from the pictures. I also volunteer in year 1 and have to spend half the time some weeks saying "hey no guessing, what does it start with?". I presume a good proportion of the rest was also guessed but happened to be guessed right. Some children give a brilliant impression of reading at levels 1-2, then fall to pieces when they hit level 4-5 and it's no longer guessable or memorisable. (The other strategy they over-use is re-reading the same book over and over.)

TeenAndTween · 10/02/2017 15:43

cat When I listened, if I thought a child had memorised the book I used to open at a random page and cover up the pictures. I hope it reinforced that they needed to decode rather than anything else.

mrz · 10/02/2017 17:33

"Child: ...a r-i-d-e, rid? ride on a........ ........ ?????? donkey?
Parent: that's brilliant well done"

Alternatively :- Child: ...a r-i-d-e, rid? ride on a........ ........ ?????? donkey?
Parent: don't guess lets read the word d-o-n don k-ey kee don keen yes well done donkey

mrz · 10/02/2017 17:55

If you can borrow an iPad just to see how to approach teaching blending and segmenting I would recommend the Sounds Write app (first unit is free and would show you what to do)

How to practice reading with reception age child who's behind?
mrz · 10/02/2017 17:57

"What's the alternative? Tell the child off for using the clues in front of them"

IMHE children don't use guessing strategies unless an adult encourages them to ...they know it isn't Reading

mrz · 10/02/2017 17:58

"They are following NC. They are asking parents and parent volunteers to consider other approaches outside of phonics. " then they aren't following the NC

humblebumble · 11/02/2017 03:34

MrsZ which approach do you recommend?

Also could you post a link to discrediting the orton gillingham approach, i would love to get an understanding of why.

My son has global learning delays, so any advice on good support on any level would be beneficial.

mrz · 11/02/2017 05:41

Why is ORTon Gillingham flawed? Because it's heavy on learning words as wholes (dolch words) it uses onset and rime (as in the race game - b+ at bat c+ at cat h+ at hat e + at oh! it doesn't work) it uses letter names and sounds see ay tee doesn't help anyone to hear the word cat ....neither does see ay t ...k ay tee ~Katy? ...k a tee Confused ?.....when it teaches letter sounds (not going to comment Confused) it does so in isolation not in context ...it teaches blends (bl, pl, str, nd) which places a huge extra load on the working memory which is often weak in struggling readers rather than teaching to blend sounds together etc etc.
Many U K schools use programmes based on OG without even knowing as it's being sold here as synthetic phonics ...it isn't!

mrz · 11/02/2017 05:47

Personally I prefer linguistic phonics because it starts from the spoken word rather than the written. So children are taught to listen to the sounds they can hear when they say the word and the symbols (letters) are linked to those sounds.

mrz · 11/02/2017 06:08

http://www.ldonline.org/article/6394/

ohlittlepea · 11/02/2017 06:17

What are his interests? Would he prefer sounding out words from a sports game programme, news paper or toy catalogue? School books can be pretty boring, you can use natural settings and sound out a couple of words from a sign at the park or a menu in a cafe, and lots of you just reading books to him without any pressure for him to read :)