Should I worry about my 5 yo?

[angelicanto]

He is in reception, the oldest in the year as he has a Sept birthday. After a first half term of phonics he is showing no interest in reading whatsoever....unlike his older brother who could read bits and pieces before he started school and would sit and draw and write. Ds2 loves stories and being read to but his teacher says they have done 15 sounds so far and he only knows 9 of them and he isn't great at blending eg when I was trying to get him to sound out m-i-l-k the other day he was saying "kick" . It's worrying me as I am an English teacher for gods sake, he has a houseful of books and I see the I'll effects of poor literacy everyday in older children in my job. He's just not getting it atm. Any advice??

If he doesn't know all the initial sounds he will really struggle with blending so keep practising those and work on blending CVC words that have sounds he knows. You could stick to satipn words at first. Try and make blending fun by writing the word and driving a toy car along it, stretching the sounds as you go. Or play slide the sounds, by touching shoulder, elbow wrist and saying each sound and then sliding your arm (or a small soft toy) down, blending the sounds aloud. It's a new skill and it's tricky but I'm sure he will get it with support at school and home, particularly as he already knows a good number of the sounds taught.

Oh and keep reading aloud to him every night. Show him that reading has purpose and enjoyment.

Can u do a bit of joint reading with him? Is there anything he finds interesting where reading could help him find out more? My little one became obsessed by cars and knew all the logos then wanted to know the models - so I used it to get him to read (Polo, Golf, civic etc). Traffic signs and road names are helpful when walking around.