If your child started reception in September do they know the phonic alphabet yet?

[mummyinred]

My DD (4.7) started reception this year. Recently had parents evening and was told that DD struggles to concentrate when doing phonics work. DD knows about half the alphabet and the other half despite repeatedly going over with her she's just not getting. I can show her a letter, get her to repeat it and 10 seconds later she won't have a clue what it is. She also only recognises half of her numbers 1 to 10. She otherwise seems to be a bright child. It seems that the vast majority at her school even those a few months younger know the alphabet and are either reading or about to. I hate to compare and keep thinking she's so young still but I am concerned that others her age are picking it up and she's still struggling despite lots of extra help at home.

DS#2 knows about the same number. I seem to remember that my DD was similar and at 8 she now has amazing reading skills and a reading age of about 9.8 I think. I think that it clicks when the child is ready. Is the teacher concerned?

Thanks Orm you have helped to reassure me a bit because I have been wondering that maybe she's just not ready yet and it will just click at some point. The teacher was running late and cut the conversation short but did say that she needs extra help at home.

Ds2's class are going through the phonics sound at a slower pace and haven't yet covered all the sounds. I would be very surprised if there were more than a few in his class who were able to read yet. Also don't forget that recognising the numbers from 1 to 10 is something that they aim to be able to do by the end of Reception. Your dd has only been in the class for a few weeks.

Mummyinred - I posted similar thread about my dd earlier this week! She is 5 - started P1 in August - and is struggling with remembering phonics. She had a year doing numbers at nursery - and is just starting to recognise them now.
So far she can recognise around 4 letters reliably - the rest is hit and miss. Had a breakthrough last night when she finally remembered "t" !!! Teacher has provided extra work to help.
So I guess it can be normal - and hopefully our dd's will get there eventually!

They all do it at different times - dd is in reception, and does know it, ds1 when he was in reception knew MOST of it, but I have noticed that the reading levels have really evened out in his class (he is Y2 now) - they all get there!

ELC do phonics workbooks which might help her, or dd had a really nice Noddy workbook which goes through all the numbers and letters with different activities.

She'll get there - don't worry! Can you make up some games using the sounds? Or get her to colour in the illustrations and then stick them up and try 'spotting' them. Does she have trouble with any particular ones (eg b,d,p,q) or is it more random? If you're good at art then you could draw funny little cartoons using the letters. Or bath letters to play with.

I think the thing to do is to introduce them in everyday life, rather than having 'reading' time iyswim - so if someone comes round, say 'Dolores is coming round, what sound does Dolores start with, yes a 'd', can you find a 'd' on the paper? Can you draw it?' Also make sure you use the phonic 'sounds' not the names so duh not dee iyswim.

mummyinred - teachers always say they need extra help at home And why not?

I have stopped using the phonics cards mainly because he is just using the pictures to remember. I've taken to showing him the letters in the title of a book for example. And reading to him loads. I truly beleive that as long as the desire to read is firmly in place the skills to get there will develop with time and encouragement.

It sometimes seems to me that every child is reading War and Peace apart from my dd, going on what the mums in the playground say!
Some pick it up straight away, some take a little longer but she's still very young (as you say) so I wouldn't worry too much about it. My dd is in reception too and she struggles with about half of her phonic alphabet.

DS started reception in Sept and only knows about 10 letters at most, he only recognises 1 -5. I missed parents evening this week as we've all been ill, but I too am concerned.

My ds3 is 4.9. They haven't finished going through all the letters yet - they usually do one letter sound a day, apart from Friday, but lately they have done less and are consolidating the sounds they have done so far with a few two or three letter words, eg it, go, no, and, etc.

So I would estimate they have done 19/20 letter sounds. Of those, he can probably remember two thirds. He is doing jolly phonics, so he can remember them better if I remind him of the action that goes with each sound.

That said, his strength is unlikely to be English. Like his two brothers, he is exceptionally good at Maths (knew numbers to 100 and beyond before he started school) but I am not sure he is that good at English. I don't know what the other children in the class can do.

He is not reading yet. I am a bit disgusted by this tbh as my other three children were all giiven reading books very early on in their first term. This school though approaches reading very slowly which I suppose is best for many children, but not all.

My advice mummyinred, would be to trust in your dd's seeming intelligence and try not to worry about what she can do compared to others. She is in the younger half of the class and that makes a huge difference at this age. My eldest son is a June baby and it took him until Year 2 before he was in the top groups for English/Maths.

I have got lots of Jolly Phonics resources and some Letts books. Like Orm's son with the Jolly Phonics poster I find that she's guessing the letters based on the pictures rather than looking at the letter. She does love books and is great at making up stories which is partly why I'm concerned that she's not picking up the letters as well as the others in her class.

My DD has hers and is onto simple books BUT she is already five and is one of the older ones. And she can get muddled very quickly if she is tired.
All kids get these things at a different pace and i think age within a class has a huge impact - noy just because the older ones are ahead in the areas directly related to reading but also because if you are smaller you get tired more easily, you can ge distracted more quickly.
Some evenings DD wants to practice her sounds ( weird child) but often she doesn't and i never sit her down to do them. If she is supposed to be doing some after school but is too tired I just let her play instead and markthat in her contact book. having fun with it is by far the best motivator.
I also think that children develop in different areas at differnt times by which i mean that if you are progressing physicaly ( having a growth spurt etc) then the 'academic' stuff goes off the boil a bit.
so what i am saying in a long winded way is that they just get there at different stages so I wouldn't worry at all

yes she did but is v bright, I dont think dd1 did but we struggled with her reading until year 3 tbh

I would concentrate on writing rather than reading at home tbh (a la France)

Children learn in different ways - my dd learnt pretty much from the Jolly Phonics actions whereas ds remembered the sounds much better from the CD which we used to play in the car on the way to and from school.

Foam letters used in the bath were also a great hit, and we used to play lots of games - phonics 'I spy' was a favourite, and useful to model blending too.

Maybe you need to try lots of things and see how best she absorbs the sounds - the JP DVD is another excellent thing to use.

Even if she only knows a few sounds try and work on the 'blending' of those sounds to make words - that way she will see the use for the sounds, get a real sense of achievement when she can read simple words by herself and hopefully that will be the encouragement she needs to learn the rest. It must be hard just to learn them in isolation with no real 'end result'

Crieky pressure
DD could read already
But her class now are up to letter sound 10 in Jolly phonics and lots are not getting it yet.
perfectly normal IMO

good suggestion Carbonel but she can't blend at all. I've got the JP CD which she likes maybe I'll try the DVD too.

I ama parent helper in a reception class.It is not unusual for some children to not know the phonics alphabet yet.
But I would also recommend some extra help at home,how about playing pairs with some letters,or doing letters in sand and practising the sound, making play-dough letters.
Get used to talking about letter sounds in everyday life and it will eventually click.
I'm sure she'll be getting lots of help in school but as someone else pointed out it can be a very distracting place for young ones and difficult for them to take it in.

Teachers should be doing blending at the same time as the sounds - once thay have done the first 6 in week 1 they already have the ability to make lots of words. What is the point of learning a string of sounds if childen are not taught WHY they are learning those sounds - she has my utmost sympathy, I could never learn anything unless I understood the reason for it!

I would really focus on the blending - it is tricky but with lots of 'phonic speak' eg look there is a d-o-g, or 'I spy' a c-a-t etc she will suddently click, and then the whole thing will make sense.

it makes me so to see teachers dabbling in it this way when it could be so straightforward. My ds is 5 (today )and he is reading very well BECAUSE he was taught phonics quickly and properly. Dd (6.5)also taught the same way is a 'free reader' and has been for over a year.

sorry - rant over

My school has started a great way to teach phonics, with a sound picture and action for each letter.

So 't' is t,t,t, the children all move their heads side to side like they are watching tennis.

'A' is a,a,a and they crawl their fingers up their arms like ants.

ALL the children have really clicked with this scheme.

And rather than learning the letters in the order of the shape they are when written, eg, o,a,c,(all the roundy ones) they learn letters that will make words, like c.a.t.

They havent done the whole alphabet tho.

That's what we do doubletop.

Ds2 4.8 started in September and has his Jolly Phonics action for most of the alphabet, and has started to blend them together to get words. Learns 6-7 new words a week, and has a simple book to do together every night.

Doubletop - thats jolly phonics.

And don't you hate the bleeding songs !

I don't have any songs

No, we don't have songs either.....I'm relieved, frankly!