6 year old in year 1 reading

[Redredwine2020]

Hello my DD is in year 1 and was 6 in October. Shes still not fully secure on phase 2 sounds in isolation. Gets her P/b/d mixed up. She can't blend or segment at all.

I'm getting really concerned. She isn't writing her name consistently yet either.

Any tips on where to start? I don't think she grasps phonics. Is there a non-phonics way to teach her?

Have you tried teach your monster to read? Some of it may be basic but my 3 grasped all the basic sounds from it and enjoyed playing it.

Do you blend words when talking to her? For example, where is the c a t?

My dd doesn't read phonetically, she has just worked out the rules from being read to and asking what things say. So I would just expose her to a huge variety of literature at home and let her enjoy books even if she can't read them yet

The pandemic has been very disruptive for things like learning phonics. As long as your daughter seems resilient and happy, I'd take a relatively chilled view on phonics for now. Ask her teacher what they'd recommend and read lots of books to her to encourage a joy of reading!

The nessy apps are great in particular hairy letters for letter sounds and hairy phonics for further phases. They helped my child blend without a doubt

I have a DD in year 1. There are definitely children in her class struggling with phonics and not yet writing names independently. I don’t think it’s that unusual given circumstances this year.

In my experience, it should “click” at some point when your child is ready. When they are ready really depends. Just keep persevering with reading at home, you read the book first then ask your child to read it back to you. And as others said, build in blending to your every day speech. It’s time for b-e-d , let’s get in the c-ar , it is h-o-t in here etc etc.

What is her school doing about it? Can you mirror their teaching at home, so it is familiar but with the benefit of 1-2-1?

I second the Teach Your Monster app. It definitely sped up both children's learning, and they love playing it. DD1 is now a pretty fluent reader, but she will still play it from time to time as she enjoys it.

I'm not sure how DD1 finally 'got' phonics as that magic was worked in school, but for DD2 it was hearing her sister's daily video spelling tests during lockdown. 10 mins a day of hearing words broken down into their sounds, with the sounds counted out onto fingers: "Clock. Clock. C-l-o-ck. 4 sounds. Clock." etc. As a PP said, you can mimic this by adding it to your speech rather than a formal lesson - "It's time to leave now, where is your c-oa-t?". DD2 learnt to read before she could form any letters, so we used magnetic letters at first to sound out and 'write' words.

Does she have the strength in her hands for writing? Stuff like scissor skills, playdoh, and Lego is good for building the muscles needed to write. I have found it to be repetition and more repetition that cracked letter formation eventually (unfortunately!). You can mix it up by pretending you have a magic wand and waving the shape in the air.

Thank you. School are still massively pushing the phonics but it just isn't working. We sound out and do lots and lots of robot speaking.

She has reached the point she won't entertain phonics etc at all as she absolutely hates it. Won't enter the classroom if she thinks its phonics time. Won't entertain writing.

We are working on her muscle strength too as writing hurts her.

I have been using something called Easyread with my son, he just wasn't getting phonics and it got to the point where he didn't want to go to school anymore .

Things have got some much better with his reading as they pointed out he was struggling to blend sounds together so they set us some exercises. Honestly the difference in him is amazing, I could sing it from the rooftops! Definitely worth giving it a go.

Hey, good idea to try and build muscle strength, have you tried some therapy putty?

It sounds like this could be dyslexia, my son was exactly the same but the school didn't really help. In year 1 she should really be blending and segmenting. Mixing the b's and d's is definitely very common with dyslexia.

I found that dyslexiagold.co.uk/?ID=DG really helped my boy, just 10/20 mins a day is all you need so she doesn't get too stressed, we just kept at it and it definitely made a difference for my boy. Hoping this helps and hugs as I know it's worrying and frustrating xx

The fact that she is not yet writing her name independently- which is more a rote, muscle and visual memory type of skill - suggests the difficulty is not just with phonics, but a wider delay.
I would also be looking at the possibility of a condition such as dyslexia. How is her coordination? Her organisation? Her ability to follow instructions and join in conversations? What is her speech like?
She may just be a late developer with literacy but it is worth being alert in case there is more to it.