Behind in Y1

[RougeVinEtFromage]

My son is behind in y1 (6 in May) and we have to go in to see his teacher tomorrow night to discuss how we can all support him more. The thing with DS is that his confidence is at rock bottom and if he's not good at something he does not want to know!

I'm just wondering if anyone else is in a similar position because I just feel like he's the only one struggling (my rational head does tell me this is probably not the case)! But it does break my heart a little bit.

We start Beavers soon so I'm really hoping that will help with his confidence.

Oh the poor thing OP. Is he struggling in any particular area or just finding academics difficult across the board? To be honest it's not at all unusual for a Y1 boy especially to still not have got off the ground with reading and writing. How is he at school in general? Does he have friends?

If I were you I'd definitely want to focus on his resilience (www.healthychildren.org/English/healthy-living/emotional-wellness/Building-Resilience/Pages/Building-Resilience-in-Children.aspx) as well as worry about the reading & writing which will probably come in time.

My year 1 son (6 in June) is behind in everything except maths. He has been diagnosed with autism and global development delay though.

@nomnomnom thanks for the link I will take a look. It is especially reading and writing, he doesn't exactly love maths but does seem to be slightly better at it. He has friends and seems to enjoy going to school so that's good. I think I just appreciate the sympathy because it's crushing me having to put on a brave face, everyone's response is "ah, it will come, he's only 5"!

It is difficult not to worry OP! When you say he's not good at reading how far behind is he? Does he have letter recognition? Can he blend simple words? DS could barely write at all in primary - his teacher could make out his letters but I couldn't and the spelling was nonsensical but he's absolutely fine now in Y3 - achieving beyond expectations. It's great that he enjoys school and as long as reading doesn't become a battle it really will most likely just come.

@nomnomnom that's really reassuring thanks. He recognises most of the alphabet but will get confused between t and f etc. He has recently started to blend phonics, will write if he can copy me but like you say I can't read half of it. His latest reading book is chip shop ship etc and he just cried, he had absolutely no idea which was which so I think it's too advanced, I'll mention that tomorrow because I think if he has slightly easier books he might actually want to have a go.

I also think being with his friends in class and the temptation to play is greater than doing work. He has previously gone through phases of being rough and I think that was all a form of distraction to deflect from his work.

Are they properly focussing on phonics or are they using unhelpful sight word books? Though he isn't going to succeed at phonics if he's still rocky on his letters.

To embed the alphabet properly my two (my DD was more reluctant) really liked the Alphablocks app and the Teach your Monster to Read app. My DD still mixes up the odd letter (usually things like a q written with a straight end not a curl) but she's gone up a band or two and now can read quite a few more complex letter pairs e.g. -ow-, -ar- etc. I do get how disheartening it is for you though. In her year there are 10 out of 60 children who aren't able to access the Y1 curriculum (including her, and she can actually read!) and I am 100% certain it's the curriculum that's at fault, not those poor kids!

School used phonic bug books they were good for phonics.
I then used reading chest to get extra books.
I think with phonics many kids can now read more and earlier so leaving behind ones who didnt get phonics.

I agree the curriculum is stretching for the youngest. (Who if months younger might just start recognosing letters in yr r.
Dd got a bit lost in yr 1 maths. Partitioning. But did get back to met by yr 2.
In yr 1 i was spending 30min-45 reading with dd probably every other day. Sometimes reading alternate lines/pages.
once she was orange band we read the real books at each book band (eg gruffalo was maybe band 10?).

Writing they did a lot of at school so naturally improved (though still doesnt join up).
I think having homework does help because the youngest often dont finish the work or maybe fully understand it in a noisy 30+ people classroom