Any early years teachers out there...just had parents' evening- need some opinions. am feeling rather upset.

[noonar]

hi.
dd1 is 5.5. we've just had her first year 1 parents' evening.

dd is a bright, articulate girl with a fantastic vocabulary. she loves school.

she has found it hard to 'click' with her reading. she now knows dozens of key words and can read simple text eg ' This is the dog. We like this dog.' without any hesitation. ( i realize that many of her peers can rwead more fluently)

the thing is, she still hasnt , when assessed, shown that she knows ALL the expected key words for her age. She has failed to recognize about 6 out of 50 odd words when assessed.

i was not at all worried by this. the teacher said that she'd now be on some kind of reading program aimed to boost her sight vocab. i still was not worried.

then she said....'so we're talking mild special needs' (for reading)

i explained that i had a bit of a problem with the label...just because she needs to learn a few words that her peers (mostly)already know, does that mean she has SEN?!

what do you think? am reeling a bit, tbh. do you think that this label of SEN is appropriate?

No! I could not read at all until I was in the equivalent of year 3. My parents tried everything - it was flash card hell! Then suddenly it clicked and I was away. I have a first class degree so it did not hold me back. I think they are being way over the top personally.

RH, thanks

SEN is not appropriate.

On the day that she was tested she didn't get all the words - but she did get 88%.

Children progress at different speeds - just give her a bit time. Some kids are quick readers and for others it takes a bit of time to "click". As I have banged on about on other threads get her reading everything - your shopping list, cereal packets, TV listings. So much that children are given to read is "dry" and not relevant - get her into the stuff she wants to read.

clarice, i'm actually a teacher myself so feel a bit that i have got all the answers myself.

i teach year 5. i wouldnt dream of labelling every child who needed aditionally support eg in maths booster group, as SEN.

to me a child with SEN in this context would need to have a mild learning difficulty.

my dd responds well when we read. she has good book skills. she notices words that rhyme and spots words within words. she loves writing. most of her writing is phonetically plausible. i don't really believe she has SEN.

am wondering if dd would be quite so 'behind' if she was in a different school!

additional

i started a similar thread, dd also 5 in same boat as yours but no mention of special needs.. Will see if I can find link

I just think she needs time.
The skills you mention eg rhyming words etc shows that she has good comprehension.

However, now you say her spelling is phonetically plausible...how is her spelling?? ...you can probably feel where I am going with this

I have DD who has a reading age far beyond her years (not G&T - just bookish) but her spelling has always been shocking. Phonetically you could see where it was going but that is as far as it went.

I reckon that Yr 3 is about where the dyslexia traits begin to show themselves in those children with dyslexia.

My advice - relax, sit back and just watch. It has been flagged up with you - see how things go and then take a view.

oh dear. I agree this seems completely inappropriate. how did the teacher respond when you expressed your thoughts?

here in scotland ds will hardly have started school at 5.5 and will probably be able to read very little if anything

sorry this has spoiled your first parents' evening

Gut reaction is talking about SEN is a bit over the top. 6 out of 50 is fine imo. Especially if they are Year one words. If so, I think she is doing really well.

Hi .

clarice, i meant that trickier words are mostly phonetically plausible. she wanted to practice using some of her key words in a sentence the other day. (very dull, but just want to give you an idea where she's at... )she wrote 'she went to the shops with me' word perfect! then later wrote to her 'Unte sndr' (auntie sandra) so you see, she's a bit of a mixture.

Auntie and Sandra are quite hard to work our phonetically imo.

NAB, tassiss...hi. they said that they were sur that i understood that there were hoops they had to jump throgh. ie, if she doesnt meet certain criteria, they have to classify her in a particular way.

i asked, just a bit tongue in cheek: 'if she learns those words over half term, will she still be SEN?'

was told that she's 'on the cusp', so may need more help again in future (so she still wouldnt be 'off the hook')

its not the help that i object to. its the label.

I agree.

It's probably a bit early to be thinking about SEN. Some schools seem keen to go down that line though. ds was a pain in his first few years at school, and the SENCO did her best to persuade us that he was autistic. He's still on their register which does peeve me (especially as they refuse to recognise his dyslexia) but as it gets him access to a couple of extra activities that he enjoys, I have accepted that that's what they think (and that they are wrong - he's just following in family footsteps!). I'd see how it goes, accept the extra help, and not worry too much.

I think my DS only knew about 6 of the 50 words at this stage in Yr 1! FGS - labelling her as mild SEN is ridiculous.

So tonight she is "mild SEN" because she doesn't know those words. So tomorrow she learns them and suddenly she is fine?

buda, thats exactly what i thought!

thanks fio.

ok, i the word list is almost identical to the reception key words, but is based on a scheme they use for reading.

dd1 just came home and read to me many of the words she 'doesnt know'

WE had a little of this at my son's nursery(hence we moved him)
His group have just moved up -he's left now though- and they have been asssessed in wirting thir name and my friends child didn't perform on that day so they told her he was 'behind in writing' -he's 3.9 fgs!!!

Thank god my son doesn't go there anymore he doesn't 'write' at all let alone colour in.

Also, as a teacher myself I do understand that if they don't perform on the day, you can't give them the mark but she's 5.5!!!!!
Not special needs at all.

How was the assessment performed? Was it a list or in context?
My son was given a list of shapes on a sheet and asked what each one was in turn. He looked at the assistant and, quite frankly took the p*ss. (apparently i a very sarcastic voice -at 3.2) But when we moved a table at home and it left impressions on the carpet he just said, 'oh look, 4 squares on the carpet.'

mupetgirl, it was a list.

dd has just read all the words to me. she hesitated / self corrected with 5 of them, but didnt totally go 'blank'with any of them.

It's most likely got something to do with the school feeling pressurised to meet crap government targets for literacy.
Don't worry.
Great if she gets extra support.
She'll soon show the school what you know already her to be, forget about it

It just strikes me as if we were given 1 ish years to learn 50 (but we're adults so lets make that 100-150) chinese characters and were then confronted by a list and asked 'what's that?' wouldn't we feel a little flumaxed?

Also this is the first time she's ever done anything like this!!

wise words, MG. still dont like the idea of them labelling her

Frankly I would tell them to get lost - what is so important about 'key wods' anyway. Providing she is doing well at her phonics she will be able to decode almost anything when she has full phonic knowledge so 'knowing' 50 key words is ridiculous.

I would keep plugging away at her phonic knowledge, making sure there are no gaps, and one day she will fly and that is such a magical moment too - i am lucky enought to have seen it twice now

Please try and ignore them and not worry, 'mildly SEN for reading' is nonsense at this age