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1 &2 books, but as he seems to need more reinforcement, is there anything else at that level that's suitable and not outdated that we can practice on?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

I've scanned some of the tread so sorry if repeating but I would recommend teachyourmonstertoread.com - free game on computer/laptop think the app costs but is a phonics game which is very nice and kids love it - it has multiple levels and reinforces sounds, blending and tricky words.
I've used it with older children as a catch up (y2+ teacher) but I'm sure a reception child could use it.

I've found the parent info I was looking for. The advice the school give to parents is:

praise
use as few words as possible to correct or help - give them just enough info so that they can work it out for themselves.

tap with a finger or pencil if a child ignores a mistake
point to the part they are finding difficult and give the sound
sound out together, pointing as you sound

Of course they are sending home books that are closely matched to the children's knowledge, which helps.

If the school are teaching phonics as the only method to decode an unknown word then it's madness to suggest parents do anything else.

In a school that is using phonics as the prime approach then your conversation might look more like:

Child: r-ie-d ride on a... d-o-n-k...donk...
Adult: This is 'ee'
Child: donk-ee, donkey.
Adult: Yes, well done, it's donkey.

My goodness, he is only in reception and one of the youngest. Reading is a lifelong skill in which he has just begun. What ever has happened to letting the child go at their own pace! Sounds like he is doing very well already.

Takes his cue, if he doesent want to read, don't, try later. Let him pick books that interest him, or he likes. Get him to sound out the 3/4 letter words and try and blend. You can get some good apps for the I pad. Ds who is also in reception is using Reading Raven on the I pad, it is free and fantastic. It has different levels, children progress through the levels. Read signs outside. Make reading fun not a chore.

Please no!

Mrz, it will be a lot more helpful for us parents if you say why "no".
Most of parents give advice from goodness of their heart and true belief it is good.
I was one of them, and I was wrong, and you corrected me. Now I understand why because you and others explained to me in details!

I found just "please no!" confusing. Just want to say why? what is no?

It teaches letter names and the sounds they make it teaches ball and stick letter formation ...rime ...it's based on US methods not those used in England avoid!

Well it helped dd who is 9 who has ASD to read. AT her special school, they were not fussed whatever method was used, phonetics or sounding whole words, if it helped them to read, than that was good. She is a free reader now.

MrsZ what apps can you recommend for the i pad then!

Perhaps they should have been fussed and taught her well rather than leaving parents to supplement with less effective methods

I'd recommend avoiding anything with an American accent as they will usually involve "balanced literacy" mixed methods and letter names

MrsZ my dd is a free reader for your information, and her specialist school do a fantastic job. You sound very unhelpful, and a bit of a know it all tbh.

aeroflot,

mrz is saying what she knows from experience of teaching many, many children to read, and using evidence from good research.

the point is that most people have a sample size of 1-3 (their own children) and assume that whatever helped them is the 'best' way to learn to read - without considering the 10-20% of children it will fail compared with the 1-5% who will fail using the best known methods consistently.

When I had a sample size of 1 (DS), I could have said 'just read to them a lot, they'll teach themselves aged around 3-4' ... but that would obviously fail many more than 20% if applied at a population level!

For dd that did work, and it is different when you have children who do have special needs like ASD, and learning difficulties, who need more than one method to help. The teachers in dds specialist ASD school are highly trained professionals, for dd she used a mixture of phonetics and reading whole words. I am ecstatic that is is able to read, considering that we never expected her to be able to.

Yes and what may be right for one child, might not be for the majority. I am glad that dds school was flexible, they need to be when working with children on the moderate to severe end of the spectrum, that traditional methods of teaching do not always work with that type of child.

Aeroflot,

The question i would be interested in is how long pure, systematic phonics was used as the sole method for learning to read for your DD?

My view would be that there is a huge difference between saying 'we have taught systematic phonics, in the best way possible, supported by appropriate books, and even after a significant period of this and extra interventions, there is no progress, so we should look at alternative methods' and reaching for mixed methods very early on in the teaching process.

It's that "flexibility" that damages many of those children

I am not sure, but I am not really fussed as she is a free reader now, reading a variety of books. In a special school, the teaching methods differ, to that in mainstream, as it has to work for the child that is at the school. Though my daughter is good at reading, sometimes her comprehension is not as good, hopefully in time that will improve, as it has.

TBH though for DS I really would prefer to stick to just phonics. Being the youngest in year masks it, but he is less articulate than other children of his age. He's more adept at e.g. making complicated things with Lego so it doesn't apply to everything, but speech and language is something we need to focus on with him. I would rather just stick to one approach - reading the scenarios of example conversations has been really helpful.

mrz recommended the Sounds Write app for iPad a page or so back - first unit is free apparently? Will need to borrow my mother's so haven't looked at it yet.

MrsZ are you a teacher? Do you have experience of working with children who have complex needs and profound special needs? or is your experience just within the mainstream setting. I can't understand how it is damaging, as my daughter is able to read! That she enjoys reading, that is the main thing is it not!

The fact that that school as got my dd reading, when a mainstream could not and she was struggling to even attend there, is a miracle. DD has complex and significant needs, and whatever they did, I am thankful that she has made such fantastic progress with her academics, including reading.

Yes I'm a teacher and a SENDCO and the mother of an ASD child who was failed by the system

I was lucky as my dds head teacher at her mainstream school was a parent of a child with ASD, my daughter was not even coping there, and the HT fought to get my daughter into the ASD school, which is the only ASD government school, in several counties. We are in Milton Keynes and her school is in Milton Keynes, and some kids from Bedford and Northampton go to the school. I am sorry that your child was failed by the system, we were lucky, and I am glad that the HT was totally on the ball.

DD is happy, settled and achieving in her specialist school. As you can tell, I am not and educational expert, but a parent who is so happy that dd is in a happy place, and doing things we never thought she would do 5 years ago. My ds just 5 is developmentally delayed, speech and language delayed, but loves his mainstream school and is making progress along his own lines. School are looking to get an EHCP for him as he is behind is peers with regards to the academics. I have downloaded that app you suggested for him, to help him to read, hope that it helps.

I am sounding out words with ds, and helping him with recognising whole words, when sounding out does not make sense, like ICE. I think they are doing read write Inc in ds school they used to do Jolly Phonics.

Apologies for further derailing the thread, but it is important to say that phonics categorically does NOT work for all children. When well-taught, it does, however, work for the majority. This is why it is a good plan to teach phonics to all children in the first instance. If, after a few years of high quality phonics teaching (including intensive interventions), the child is not making progress then other approaches should be tried. Many children who have difficulty learning to read have poor short term auditory and working memory. If you can only recall 4 pieces of information then you struggle read words with more than 4 discrete sounds. If you have to laboriously decode every word then comprehension of longer sentences suffers, especially for those with memory issues. Other children have auditory processing difficulties as well, which makes it even tougher. I have seen other methods work for these kids eg sight vocabulary. Phonics is better and quicker for most, but there are other ways if children don't respond.

OP I would concentrate on making sure your DS is absolutely fluent with his sounds (can recognise them instantly and every time). Play sound related games eg I Spy and odd one out (fur, fire, tree, fox; cat, mat, cap, hat) and lots of silly rhymes. Ladybird phonics is a good app in that it supports UK teaching methods and is in an English accent (agree with pp, this is important). It's buggy as hell on my android tablet though, guess you can't have everything