Worried about DD Year 1 'Below Expectations'

[Falcon1]

Just had a call from my DD's teacher. She is, as was flagged at the last parents' evening, below expectations on her end of year report for reading and writing. She's on 'meets expectations' for maths.

She didn't do brilliantly in reception either and lockdown has made things much worse. She hates reading with a passion and it is a real fight to get her to do it every night. She's on green reading band now which I thought was ok, but apparently not. Her writing has improved - it's quite neat now, but she can't spell. At all.

She is getting extra support at school and sees a tutor once a week, but I asked how she would cope with the hike in year 2 and her teacher just said she didn't know.

I'd like to help her more at home, but honestly, it causes such massive melt downs when I suggest anything even vaguely educational. (She really struggles to manage her emotions and is generally very challenging).

Feeling really stressed. Will she ever catch up? Do I need to just chill about it and hope it resolves itself as she matures? Does it sound like she may have a neurodiversity? (I've asked her teachers and they just say it's too early to tell). Just don't know how best to help her. Her self esteem is very low.

Any advice would be much appreciated.

Try buying a yellow overlay (just Google dyslexia yellow overlay) and putting it over her reading book to see if it helps. For reasons I can’t remember, it helps people with dyslexia to read if the page is yellowed rather than white. My friend’s son found it an absolute game changer.

I do think a tutor in Year 1 is bonkers (ex primary school teacher). They are so little, you sound like you are - with the best motives - applying quite a bit of pressure. It’s the equivalent of having a long
day at work (and if she is not NT, school will
be exhausting) and then when you get home having to do more work, aged 6yrs old! I know when I get back from work I just want to sit down and have a cuppa

My daughter was exactly the same in y1. She’s in y4 now and has largely caught up. English still isn’t her favourite- but she’s getting there. At the start of y2 she was still reading really slowly and struggling over every word and then suddenly….it just clicked and she made sudden really rapid progress. It was very odd- all at once, she just “got it”. She was the same with how she learnt to talk. Nothing for ages….then sentences! Also, she hadn’t had the lockdown stress. Give her a bit more time.

Personally I would ditch the tutor. Lots of opportunities for play based learning. Helping to write shopping lists, recipes, party invites to teddybears picnic etc. Read to her lots and use websites such as phonicsplay for quick phonics games.

A magazine subscription might be a good idea too.

Honestly, when doing my reports this year I’ve had to put many children as “working below” but I know they are absolutely fine and would have been “working at” under normal, non-Covid circumstances and are making excellent progress. Try not to turn it into a battle at home, she’s only Y1. I’ve had children who have seemed like nothing at all is clicking for months and then suddenly, literally overnight, they produce a perfect piece of writing.

The teacher’s “I don’t know” about how she’ll go on in Y2 isn’t hugely helpful. Maybe ask her how your daughter has coped with new concepts/understanding.

A dyslexia assessment isn’t recommended until they are 8ish because so many younger children make similar mistakes, it’s if they don’t move on from those mistakes by the time they are older that it can indicate a problem.

@spotcheck

A tutor!

Crumbs. Is that piling on pressure?

That depends on what the tutor is doing with her. If she’s getting an extra 30 mins phonics, using a multi sensory approach, plus some reading practice then that’s great.

Urrggg that assessment is so wrong! She's a baby, appreciate they have to do it but the label isn't exactly positive and encouraging is it?!
I have 2 dyslexic teens and both were similar to your dd, the assessment might not make any difference to your school but you will know and you will then be able to find solutions to help her. You might find she's actually too young to be assessed now though.
The overlays someone mentioned can be any colour and you dyslexics need to work out which one, if any, help. Coloured paper to write on can also help; my dd had pink pukka pads for work.
Does she like a laptop? I'd encourage computer skills like typing.

My advice would be to always encourage her, praise her & remember if she had a physical disability her limitations would be obvious and some things she just would struggle with. Because issues with spelling & reading aren't so obvious people are disappointed which is unfair

Coloured reading schemes are different in every school so impossible to say where green is in the large scheme.

Specific books for people with dyslexia are available, they tend to have bigger spaces per word, printed navy font on white paper and less words per page. Our local library has some for older children, Harry Potter etc so it's worth asking them or buying one online.

Coloured overlays can help and can be bought from amazon.

It is recommended that if using black font that the paper is buff, look out for older aged books in charity shops instead of the bright white and glossy pages of a new book.

Reading with a child with dyslexia means you need to try and stabilise the letters. Reading rulers work well or just cut a border around an envelope window and use that, that way she can just read the word in the window and not be distracted by all of the other words.

I'm not an expert but no these techniques were for a lot of the children I work with at a seco day school. It's disheartening to see how many children don't receive their diagnosis until they reach our school and have just struggled at Primary.

Also put the subtitles on when she's watching TV, you'll get used to them but then she will have high exposure to words.

*know

oh magazine subscription yes - try getting the Beano delievered every week, my y1 on green level loves it. Do it with no pressure though let her get a joy of reading not pressured to read. Id just let her find it and see if she loves it, have it completely separate from school reading so she can enjoy it.

And yes to always having the subtitles on, always. And if she loves TV go with alphablocks its genius.

My dd in y1 is exactly same. Teacher said they are either good at English or maths. Would not worry as school will put extra input in

Kid develop at different rates and just because she doesn't meet the bench mark now doesn't mean she won't in the future.

Try to make reading fun- don't force her to read to you but read lots to her with you following the word with your finger so she is seeing the words against the sounds.

Also, lockdown has hit the lower end of primary school hard across the board so I doubt she is the only one in the position.

Thank you all so much. There are brilliant suggestions here. I'll get some coloured overlays today and really like the idea of a comic subscription and getting her granny to write postcards. I'll look into reading chest too. And subtitles on tv - why did I not think of that?

Thank you all. I feel so much more positive after reading your posts this morning.

Slightly different because my DS has autism and is delayed, but to give you some hope we have suddenly seen him take off in reading recently. He is yr2 but working at R/early year 1 level. It is like something has just clicked because he is ready. Lockdown has had a massive impact on consistency and now he is back at school and receiving regular phonics sessions reading is improving rapidly.

If she is getting stressed I would focus on enjoyment of reading, reading picture books together and for words she might be able to decode ask her to read them for you. Subtitles on TV is great too.

My son's concentration span is limited so shorter sessions of reading 3 pages only more often has helped to build up his tolerance to reading.

Also phonics flashcards, high frequency flashcards, tricky words flashcards and common exception word flashcards as it has helped him have less anxiety around reading because he has greater recognition of the text. These can be done in shorter bursts.

My son also has audiobooks on his Yoto player and we have the corresponding picture book so he can listen and follow in the book at the same time which he now does independently and enjoys.

OP DD was massively behind in (Scotland) Primary 1 and 2 for both literacy and numeracy and I was worried sick, especially as I was working FT during lockdown and a lone parent so she really wasn't getting any kind of schooling during lockdown 1.

She's got a short attention span which meant she really struggled to take things in. We're at the end of Primary 3 now and she's taken a huge leap forward in her literacy. She's slightly behind in maths still but not worryingly so.

Do yourself a favour and try not to worry. School will take the appropriate interventions, do homework with her and read with her. She will get there.

www.facebook.com/fiveminutemumma - exactly like the name. 5 minute games with educational purposes hidden in. Learning should be play based at this age and you can make a lot of difference at home with just 5 minutes a day.

Your description of your daughter reminds me so much of my son at that age. Exactly like you said. He got letters round the wrong way, struggled to read, had no concept of time at all, wouldn't even go near a 2 wheel bike. I was thinking about dyslexia/dyspraxia. We never went down the assessment route (I would have, but wanted to see what happened, he wasn't unhappy in school and as far as he was concerned he wasn't struggling). Now he's year 5 and coming along brilliantly. A year or so ago he picked a bike up and just rode it. He's clicked with time, he can read fluently. Some children just need a bit of time and practice.

I am not an advocate of 'just ignore it' approach, but I also don't agree with measuring children against these ridiculous standards, especially this year. I'm also a qualified teacher and I work specifically with this age group now.

@Falcon1 it might be worth having a visual stress assessment. Dd has pink glasses.

I have no expertise but was child with some physical SN. just concerned about the tv subtitles suggestion. Maybe don’t do it all the time. You are taking her leisure activity that she really enjoys and turning it into a learning opportunity and she may notice that.

I think the comics/associated activities are great. Perhaps she finds tv fun now because it doesn’t involve any reading.

Just to help u feel a bit better, I'm 37 and didn't read until I was 7. Then I didn't stop!!

Also I didn't ride a bike until age 8 and am fine with that now too

Hi op, hand hold!
First it's brilliant that she likes being read too and will go to sleep with a story on! That's a massive advance on my second dc who doesn't even like being read too and can't stand story cds!
Does she know her alphabet have you checked simple stuff like this?
I'd back off the the reading for a short while, does she love anything like Minecraft or roblox you can start to use as leverage? Ie read one page earn 15 mins on it extra..
Can she read or is it very plodding?
Does she know her high frequency words?
Try getting the first 100 high frequency word flash cards and do a few a night. It's less plodding for them than books.
Both my dc really enjoyed the flash cards!
Very causal, nothing serious.. Just a few m
Don't do half hour sessions either just ten mins to begin with. Of anything..
Some dc really don't get phonics it's like a cult out there. My dd doesn't understand or get most of phonics infact it's only after I taught her to read that she understood it more 🤣.
With my first dc you could see it starting to click and building and building but with second dd it was start, stop, regress... Forward.. Back.
It was over lock down when I ordered reading chest books and we did a few pages a day along side hfw that got her going..

• tutors are bloody brilliant, it's pressure to sit in a class and not have the foggiest what's going on, no one to help properly either, getting lost and behind and then realising everyone else can do things you can't.

Tutors plug that gap, help the child advance forwards and keep up with their peers.
They can target your child especially in a way a teacher if 30 simply can't.
I'm a huge fan of tutors!

Keep subtitles on the tv. Some of it sinks in.

This honestly could have been written about my DD from Y1 onwards she is now nearly Y6
She was diagnosed with ADHD in year 4 and it has been so lovely to see her catching up. She still isn't a fan of focussing on reading but we feel that she has come on a lot. She can read chapter books which is something we feared she wouldn't do.
With her there were lots of signs like impulsive behaviour, busyness and lack of focus on tasks unless hyperfocussing.

Dyslexia.org have a 37 signs of dyslexia.

It isn’t just reading. It’s about focus, organization, spelling, shirt term memory,

On the plus side dyslexics tend to be better at an awful lot of things others arnt, she’s needs to find what she’s good at

Well done for reading too her, audio books are good, touch typing - lots of free ones online are wonderful to help her fingers spell the words without engaging the brain (a bit like driving) also try letters and sound games, word games, board games, look up
SNIP it’s a spelling program using games instead puzzles.