Phonics mock - please help!

[KevinTheKoala]

My year 1 child had her phonics mock test today, she scored 1. 1 out of 40, the average for this stage is 20 and she only scored 1. I read to her every single night, have done since she was a baby, I read through her school books, she plays phonics games like teach my monster to read, we practice at home I don't know what more I can do and just feel like I'm failing her. Her behaviour isn't great and I've been trying to talk to her teachers about this but not getting much feedback at the moment, last year I was told 'wait and see she might just not be ready for school yet' (she's one of the eldest in the class!) and this year it's 'give her a chance to settle in' which are sensible options I know but when her behaviour is the same at home and things clearly are not improving how long do we have to wait and see for? How much further behind will she fall before finally someone realises and then she can't catch up!

I reckon mine could get a max of 34/40. Also 6yo. However mine isnt a very fluent reader at all.
I would aim for say 3 books a.day.her reading to you. You can buy sets of julia Donaldson phonics books.
Is she not getting the digraphs or the A-Z too?
Or try reading eggs.
If she is playing the apls how is she doing that?

The trouble is it takes about 30 minutes to get through one biff and chip book with her because she loses focus and struggles to pay attention for very long, so trying to get three of those in as well as everything else would be real struggle. When we read together she seems to manage OK apart from the distractions and so the score today was a bit of a shock, I knew she wasn't going to get a high score but I thought it would be more than 1.

The first question is whether she got 1 and she was trying, or she got 1 and was just saying anything to get through the test.

Sound like a concentration issue rather than her ability. Is she very active? If you read a page, she read a page standing up then she did 5 star jumps then repeat ? Would that help? What does she like to do?

Do you suspect any additional needs ?

Some children have a problem processing phonics. This can be diagnosed by specialist testing. Your daughter might be one of them OP, in which case she will need to be taught by a different method.

I should state that I am not a phonics denier! I am generally v keen on phonics but some children DO have phonological processing problems.

What book band is she on?
Mine was on Pink at this stage in Yr1. Couldn't blend at all. She somehow passed by the end of the year... (and went up 4 book bands in that time)

Shes Yr6 now and known to have dyslexia. It was only started to be suspected in Yr1

Phonics is not reading. We all learnt to read without it and we’re doing ok. Can she read?

Just read to her. Point out the odd word and see if she can recognise it elsewhere on the page. Millions of us learnt to read without the dreaded phonics.

@SweetBabyCheeses99 Generally most literate adults read by using phonics without realising they were reading by phonics.

If you see the word “chair” you would see the word “fair” and your brain would recognise the letter string making the “air” sound - even if you didn’t technically know that’s what it was doing.

OP - have school assessed which sounds she does know? The phonics screening check assesses mostly phase 5 sounds so it can miss any progress in the earlier stages.

Year 1 is the year group they teach Phase 5. Although some schools will do it sooner and some children will pick things up quicker (or before they’re technically taught it), I’d see how she’s getting on in a few months.

Try to build up her phonological awareness through listening and speaking separately from reading. Try out questions like 'our of these three words, which one rhymes with rat: bam tap cat?' and 'which of these three words starts with r: race wave tape?'

Sometimes children find it really had to distinguish sounds within words and that can make phonics a real struggle, so the phonological awareness support can help bridge the gap between speech and reading.

Highland Literacy is really good on this and they have an assessment that you can carry out, either at home or ask the teacher to do it at school. You might find this helps you identify where the stumbling block is. highlandliteracy.com/emerging-literacy/phonological-awareness/

If you explore the website, the activities you can do to work on phonological awareness are really easy and quick to do, plus there's a good chance your daughter will be successful quite quickly as they are easy and small scale but build up fast. You could do 5 mins a day and it might well make a difference over a couple of weeks.

There's a book called Sound Linkage that you can get on Amazon full of support activities - it's a proper course you can work through, just doing the activities that fit the issues you identify through the assessment (the assessment only takes about 15-20 mins and you can do it in sections if that's too long). It's about £40 so only worth buying if you do the Highland Literacy assessment and find that there actually is a problem with this - no point in doing it if her phonological awareness is actually fine!

While some schools do lots on this, others don't do much at all after the first bit of reception so it can be a gap that stays with the child for a long time. Weak phonological awareness is one of the indicators for dyslexia and working on this is one of the good interventions that seem to help.

It's worth a try!

Don’t panic, they’ve had such a disrupted start to school that it’s entirely likely to be within the range of “normal” for this year. Have you had her hearing tested? This can lead to difficulties in school with behaviour and also with teaching and learning. Do you have any other concerns? Can she hear the initial sound in words so “c” in “cat etc? What about segmenting c-a-t? Can she recognise and phonetically use letters a-z?

Could it be a hearing issue? Or an accent one?

She is extremely active, she generally does not like sitting down for any length of time apart from a few things (some games on her tablet, her dollhouse or lego which she will play with endlessly if allowed). I do think it is more of a concentration issue than ability because she does manage to read some words independently when we get a good day and she's focusing. The school haven't said anything to me but I have some suspicions that she may have ADHD but I seem to be the only person in the family who thinks this.

@SweetBabyCheeses99

Phonics is not reading. We all learnt to read without it and we’re doing ok. Can she read?

I haven't had her hearing tested since she was a baby and had all the standard checks so that might be something to ask her doctor about.

Im having the same concentration issue.
There are copies of the phonics check on the gov site. Can she not blend 4 letter words maybe as there are simple ones like splot.
Or did she make them into real words?
I think my dc isnt behind exactly because of the lack of school. It was the lack of books then when they went back they dint move dc onto the phonics they could do. (Air/ou/oi/ai etc) and only just have done despite dc being able to read those last jan. So we are basically loads of books behind where dc1 was.

@KevinTheKoala

I haven't had her hearing tested since she was a baby and had all the standard checks so that might be something to ask her doctor about.

It could explain why she’s not making the connection with the sounds, even congestion can take ages to clear and is really common in little ones.

Aside from that, I’d keep doing what you’re doing. Focus on blending sounds for just now and try to make it fun - labelling things in the house can help them make connections between sound and letter shape. And keep chasing it up with the school, they should have a plan in place for her.

If you're on Facebook then I really really recommend the page phonics family. Set up some little 5 minute games based on the suggestions. I wouldn't say reading more will help, it might even put her off. She probably needs help to spot digraphs in words and things like that. The website phonics play is good, lots of free games to do with putting made up words in the book, that sort of thing.

I meant, putting made up words in the bin.

Can she do the individual phonics sounds?

DD learned with ReadWriteInc. We bought the card sets, made a postbox from a weetabix box and played at home.
We started with a few, if she got them correct she had the fun of posting them in.
When she had mastered the first few, we added in harder ones, and so on.

If she can do the required phonics, then look at the blending.

Again we used to do thing like set up some pictures / toy animals.
Then say - can you show/get me the p i g or the d o g.
Then write the words and ask her to match to pictures
etc.

Or as PP said, perhaps she was just not concentrating and saying any old thing?

You need to know where in the process she is stuck in order to know how to fix.

@SweetBabyCheeses99

Phonics is not reading. We all learnt to read without it and we’re doing ok. Can she read?

Speak for yourself!

Phonics is the centuries old, traditional way, and if you learned to read before the experiments with other methods and mixed methods which began in the 1960/70s you would certainly have been taught phonically.

Those experiments have now been shown to have been a failure, more children learn to read well with a phonics approach than with any other method or combination. And it goes without saying that you can't access higher reading skills if you can't work out what a text is saying!

Yes, some DC do struggle, even with a good phonics approach, but that would be maybe one or two per class, rather than 3 to 5.

As you suspect potential ADHD might be a factor, you really need to ask to the teacher and SENCO

She knows the individual sounds I think it is the blending that is the problem.

Maybe start sounding out words in everyday speech?

Do you want a s n a ck snack
Look there's a b u s bus

I'd speak to her teacher and ask for a list of the sounds she needs to know. Then work on a few at a time using flash cards for short bursts a few times a day. She might also enjoy simple games like writing the sounds on paper then jumping onto the one you say or using chalk to write sounds on the pavement.

Honestly, have as look at phonics family.