"DS was able to guess some of the words from the pictures"

[drspouse]

Comment back on DS reading record.
He is massively struggling with GPCs that school say he knows but all the books he comes home with have maybe 1 or 2 of the things he can't do plus loads of much harder words (e.g. adventure, science).
I decided not to bother reading school books with him and have got one of the ORT book packs.
I will tell them I'm doing this but given that we forbid him from guessing what do I say to this comment?
He's in Y2 and on band 5, he can decode but struggles with any alternative spellings or split digraphs.

I did have a look at the dancing bears and it has some good tips.
I like the idea of a secret message!

MrsKCastle is definitely an expert , as is Rafa.

Rafal, children with big gaps in their phonics knowledge do not generally pass the screening. The OP herself has said that she's surprised he passed (even if it was a scrape through). She also said he gets the idea just not most of the sounds. The second half of the test in particular will be tricky for any child who doesn't know/has limited knowledge of digraphs, split digraphs etc. I can't believe that a child who doesn't know the Year 1 taught sounds would manage to pass.

Given his issues with the sounds when reading, the fact the OP accepts that he doesn't know many of the sounds taught during Year 1 and he has only just realised that sounds like ea, ee and y can sound the same, as well as the fact that he is struggling with his reading it sounds very much like he shouldn't have passed the screening at all and his struggle with reading is partly to do with his poor phonics knowledge. I think he has been let down horribly.

I'm not very knowledgeable OP but your son sounds a bit like my son so I can tell you what I've been doing.
I think my Ds had got himself in a bit of a pickle by getting a bit behind his peers then feeling crap about it and practicing avoidance, which obviously got him further behind and round and round it went.
I learnt the extent of the problem recently and have been trying to help him catch up.
I have been sitting him down for 10 mins each day and drilling him on phonics.
So I start by writing the phoneme on a piece of paper and telling him what it is. Then I write a bunch of words which contain that letter combination and ask him to draw a circle around it.
Then I help him read those words.
Then I revise over the phonemes he's already learnt to keep him from forgetting them.
Ds has learned 11 letter combinations over the Christmas holiday like this.
Now he's recognising more phonemes I'm mixing it up a bit, getting him to read words and sentences with those letter combinations.
I agree with pp that it's best to give things that are within his current abilities rather than have him slog through books he can't manage.
I've also been talking to him about things I find difficult and how it's best not to worry about who's better than me and just concentrate on trying hard and improving from where I am.
Everytime he learns something I point out that "you didn't know that a week ago" and tell him that his efforts are paying off.
I notice that as he learns that effort can pay off he is getting less "lazy" (actually I think it was fear of failure rather than laziness).
I think the most important thing is just letting him experiance success (however small) and really driving home the message that effort pays off.

Everytime he learns something I point out that "you didn't know that a week ago" and tell him that his efforts are paying off.
That's a good tip. We have a family reward jar and he's getting rewards for sitting nicely and reading but I do need to keep reminding him that he's learning.

I don't actually think DS is lazy - but if something is a tiny bit hard he gives up.

Norestformz yes, but he hasn't done -air sound for -ear endings, so it was a 'try'. He also read 'decision' tonight but hasn't done soft 'c' or -ion ending so I'm just saying some guessing happens along the way; it's not the aim obviously.

"I don't actually think DS is lazy - but if something is a tiny bit hard he gives up."

Yep this is my DS as well. Just very nervous of failing, I think.
Everything's "too hard" or very occasionally he's started saying "Duh! Too easy"
Its like his two settings are abject terror and total complacency!

I’m not an expert so I hope you don’t me replying. A couple of things that worked for us:
Bedtime stories were strictly for fun, no learning at all. I ran my finger under the words as I read them out, so they did scan the words as I read them, but I didn’t ask them to read.
School reading was done in the morning before school if at all possible.
Take him to the library and see what interests him. Our library did have some really good early readers (you might save some money) but you can borrow loads so let him choose whatever sparks his interest as well. For one of my sons it was joke books! He loved reading a joke then making the rest of the family laugh retelling it. Jokes are also short so pretty accessible if he is reluctant to try.
I love the PP’s idea of secret messages and just generally making it fun.
Also, do you have an OH? Does he help at all?

Yes DH does a lot of the school stuff too, we're both going to look at the parent book that comes with the Read At Home pack.
I think DS has forgotten some GPCs since Y1 frankly. His behaviour at school got worse and worse over last school year (hence the 1:1) and if he's not repeating things he won't remember them, and if he's not paying attention in class due to behaviour he won't repeat things enough.
For example he knew ear and air.but does not now.

Depends how big the gaps are. And he wouldn’t necessarily have passed with a different year’s check.

Most schools use letters and sounds and the check doesn’t cover a lot of the phase 5 graphemes. If a child doesn’t get tripped up over the 2 syllable words they can get pretty close to the pass mark just knowing the phase 2 and 3 graphemes. Knowing one pronunciation of a handful of phase 5 graphemes and a bit of luck about which turn up on the test will get them across the line.

Have a look at last year’s test - 30 of the words are made up of only phase 2/3 graphemes, just knowing ‘ay’ would have got you 32. And if you knew o_e as well you could get 35.

In practice it won’t work like that but the idea that a child with big gaps in code knowledge rather than with blending/phonological processing issues will fail isn’t true at all.

Has he been tested for dyslexia?
The behaviour
Memory
Phonics
Reading avoidance
Being called Lazy
Zoning out
Work avoidance

All signs

To add

Even guessing the words
Using the initial sounds etc

www.dyslexia.com/about-dyslexia/signs-of-dyslexia/test-for-dyslexia-37-signs/

No, but nobody has called him lazy.
We're on an 84 week wait for an ADHD assessment and it can explain all his problems to my mind if that turns out to be what he has.
But we can't wait till then to fix it.

Exhausting isn’t it Dr? You’re right though.

If you can afford to throw s bit of money at the issue I found Reading Chest invaluable. I got THE most expensive subscription which meant I could sign up DD under various names. That way we got new books to read every day. I had to do some research to work out which were the phonics schemes in RC and to just chose them. It was a bot hit and miss but with so many books coming at us I could afford to not bother with those.

We never read a school reading scheme book ( after the first horrendous hippopotamus book) . This did involve me in some heated discussions in YR. I’m so, so glad I did. DD in year 5 gets phonics. Out of her class of 30 there are at least half who really don’t, they struggle with reading and spelling and self esteem.

Rafa or Feenie said to me that what I’d do at home would be worth much more than what the school does. They were right! The school don’t really do reading, as long as the children can “access the text” they’re not worried how they do it . I just told DD never to guess and always to sound out. I think DD read to a teacher twice a year at most, never to a TA.

I’m sure you can get your child decoding and learning the phonetic sounds because of o can do it anyone can.

I’ve skim read the thread so not sure if anyone has mentioned the Sounds-Write app for the iPad. An absolute must if you’ve got an iPad. Sounds-Write have an Udemy too. That would be worth a watch to hold your hand a bit.

I second trying the book people for cheaper phonic books. I also like the read write inc books (black and white versions cheaper) which have a table in the front of each book with the gpc used in thst book which clearly show ee ea y etc. together. Also my kids have liked the read write inc flash cards and we've played alsorts of 'games' with them.

@drspouse have you had his hearing checked out??

I’ve got some Read-Write inc, some Songbirds and some Sounds-Write readers that I am happy to lend you. I’d like them back eventually, but there would be no rush. I also know books go walkabouts so getting most of them back would be the thing.
Please do Pm me if you are interested.

Also, have you got the Oxford Phonics Spelling Dictionary? ISBN
9780192734136
Defo worth buying that one and keeping it handy at all times.

I just wanted to back up a few PP that for children with some learning difficulties, or with social communication difficulties and associated conditions, and for some children on the Autistic spectrum sight reading is actually recommended.
I went on a course re social comm difficulties last year, which covered this, and DD who has SEN had got to year 3 without being able to apply phonics to words. She knew her phonics, but couldnt sound out even the most basic words. After a lot of professional input school switched to 1-1 sight reading approach and she is now reading. So whilst its important to highlight the benefit of phonics, I just wanted to add that for some children with certain SEN, it is actually ok and beneficial to explore other methods of reading.

Thanks Shadows but he's good at sounding out, even quite quick, WHEN he knows the correspondences. I'm sorry your DD wasn't helped sooner though as Y3 is a bit late to spot a lack of blending IMO!

@Papermover that's really kind, I'll PM you.

Great Dr, MN was the most amazing, supportive, life-changing place when I was having similar issues. It’s nice to be able to pay it back.

I’m afraid it’s a bit of a myth that children with autism can’t use phonics and should use sight reading.

Schools linked to th National Autistic Society certainly don’t have that understanding. Here’s a link from one of them. They use Sounds-Write. I think it’s a brilliant scheme and I think it’s one that Mrz suggests?
www.autism.org.uk/services/nas-schools/helen-allison/learning/reading%20schemes%20and%20how%20we%20teach%20students%20to%20read.aspx

I don’t see why a child with autism, should be denied access to the National Curriculum, which is what teaching by “other methods”, such as sight reading, would be doing.

I’m afraid it’s a bit of a myth that children with autism can’t use phonics and should use sight reading

And your expertise in this area is??

My son has ASD and ADHD and was unable to learn from the phonics system, similarly to many other children with SEN who I work with, I suggested early on that the PP ask the SENCO for advice as they are far better qualified to help in this particular instance than the well-meaning mumsnetters- usual ways of working can not only be unhelpful for children with SEN they can be counter-productive.

PP I have been in your shoes my love and I mean this kindly - with the best will in the world you will not be able to overcome DSs learning problems as a result of his ADHD on sheer keenness and effort alone, you need advice from professionals.

Have a look on the SEN board there is a very supportive community over there.

you need advice from professionals.
Award for stating the bleeding obvious goes to...
You got any up your sleeve that you can ask to see us now? No?

I'm on the SEN board thanks and have been for quite some time.