Failing the phonics screening

[Falcon1]

I've just been informed by DD's school (because I asked) that she only got 21 out of 40 in her phonics screening in December. The pass mark was 32. She is Year 2 (the test was delayed due to covid). She's below expectations in reading and writing and really hates/struggles with reading. Her spelling seems to suggest a lack of basic phonic knowledge. For instance, she recently spelt favourite as 'fafrt' and colour as 'coley'. My question is, is this score (and her struggles) indicative of something like dyslexia, or could she just be a bit of a late developer? I've been concerned about her progress since reception but I keep being told not to worry, lockdown has had an impact on their learning, she'll get it eventually etc etc. The school said they categorically do not support dyslexia assessments as the council won't fund them. I listen to her read every day (which is like pulling teeth as she hates it so much) and I read to her a different book at bedtime, and always have done. We have a reading chest subscription, play phonics games and do Reading Eggs (which she also hates). It just doesn't seem to be sinking in.

[quote Feenie]www.soundfoundations.co.uk/product-category/dancing-bears/[/quote]
We used these as main home support.

Then did Teach your Monster, and Nessy and Jolly phonics, song brid books, reading chest, and a phoncis readers set with Fat Cat on a Mat- Frog on a log - sold as a set by now gone The book people - as extras.

Also did their spelling program Apple and Pears.

I'd also recheked the hearing - DS failed, just passed, failed for over a year they just kept re-testing - he seemed to grow out of it and his speach improved.

OP, the 'dyslexia screening' that schools use isn't that in depth - I know several children who were assessed by a very experienced SENco and didn't 'score' as dyslexic, but were later diagnosed to be by a comprehensive private Educational Psychologist assessment.

My ds learnt to read very quickly and easily but by Y5, there was a very clear mismatch between his obvious capabilities and what he was producing at school. An Educational Psychologist assessment showed an extremely 'spiky' profile - auditory processing like an adult though visual like a much younger child.

Went to a specialist optometrist, was diagnosed with a visual processing disorder. Two years of eye therapy (10 mins online daily for a few month then teetering off, now 5 mins once every two weeks) and he's flying academically and his self-esteem is so, so much better.

I know that six months sounds like a long time to wait, but it's not really and you may get a cancellation in the meantime.

Ask around to find a recommendation.

Reading must be fun.......

There are a lot of posts here accusing others of poor advice and telling parents don't do this, that or the other, whatever you do. I can see from both sides as I've been a phonics teacher and a parent floundering with a dyslexic child.

There is no one right way and no guarantee you will be successful but you will definitely not make an impact if you do nothing as a parent.

Parents do not necessarily have the wherewithal to educate themselves on best practices. And while it is helpful if they're doing something supported in the research, they cannot fail to be instrumental if they're just involved and supportive. There are so many variations of dyslexia that they can never take the place of specialist interventions anyway. But just being there, building familiarity with narrative and vocabulary, working together, is let to a child's development. I was scared off trying to help my daughter at first because I thought I needed an MA in dyslexia interventions. I was terrified by the charts in toe by toe. Alpha and Omega sounded more like the apocalypse that this felt like then a helpful programme. In the end, and yes it is easier being a phonics teacher but at the same time I lacked any specialist knowledge of dyslexia, we found what worked for her through trial, error, games, shared stories and the odd flush of success. As a parent, I would say - get to know your child as a learner. Try things and be prepared to give up or persevere if you see a glimmer of light. Don't expect gains to what's always stick or necessarily translate into written work. Don't get emotionally invested and pressurising. Take each day as an opportunity to advocate for your child and walk with them on this journey. Dyslexia can be terrifying, soul crushing and bleed into difficulties with maths and anything requiring reading. Just showing up tells your child they're not alone and that you believe in them. Better to show up and do something simple/not wildly effective than not show up because you're scared of getting it wrong.

I was terrified by the charts in toe by toe

I didn't find it or wordwasp very clear - but many of the teachers on here and one of their RL teachers pointed us to Dancing bears - 10 minutes a day which was straight forward structured approach.

Problem is there is a lot of often very expenisve snake oil sold to parents who have worries/concerns about dyslexia so IME it can pay to be aware of what proper research is out there but I agree not to let it put off doing any work at home.

Graphic novels, audio books, barringtonstoke and lovereading4kids do books aimed at dyslexic children so easier reads but age appropiate content and are all useful tools.

Little and often and very long term was our experience of needed support.

Once reading was settling we then had to work on spellings - DS who struggled most with reading had to go to absolute basics with dancing bears and use their shouting technique struggled least with spelling but still needed extra support at home.

callenig

Dancing bears does sound wonderful. It doesn't help if the school is insisting the child is 'fine' just at the age these things would be pitched at. We're resigned to very long term interventions... And lucky to be able to. The most effective thing for us has been whole family involvement.

It doesn't help if the school is insisting the child is 'fine' just at the age these things would be pitched at

We've experienced that as well - worst with DD1 who's struggles often seem to get dismised or ignored or with DS who's every issue was apparently due to him being summer born.

Though TBF some teahcers like her Y2 teacher did put her forward for extra support only to be told be SENCO she wasn't bad enough - that teacher was one who suggested Dancing bears.

I do think that school did genuinely belive many children just got over issues - and I assume some did - but when you spoke to parents who's children had there was always some kind of extra home support either parents/family/friend or paid lessons.

I just don’t understand these schools who don’t do anything until a child’s learning is so far behind their peers or until they get an actual diagnosis. Why don’t they treat the symptoms instead of the cause? According the National Curriculum, children falling behind must receive rapid phonics catch up intervention. Why isn’t this happening?

Many of the schools I work in get hung up on a diagnosis too. I tend to tell them that if they think a child is dyslexic then they probably are, and to proceed as if they have the diagnosis. Nothing you put in place for a dyslexic child is going to disadvantage or in any way negatively affect a non-dyslexic child. There is literally nothing to lose by giving any child extra support.

See if your school offer a wave 3 phonics programme such as this one: literacy.fischertrust.org/overview/wave-3/
It's designed for children in year 1 (or 2, due to lockdown) as a targeted 1:1 intervention to close the gap and help them catch up with their peers

I don't think there are enough staff for interventions and catch-ups if my own school is anything to go by. Especially something like FFT which is intensive 1 to 1 every day. Any class TA worth their salt is teaching on a daily basis covering long term sickness, any extra support in class are 1 to 1s who are there for their child only. So children who get behind are on the radar but not getting as much help as they should.

My Ds1 has dyslexia. He had intermittent hearing loss when younger which was not always picked up on hearing tests. He also had a speech disorder.

We found that reading to him every night for as many years as possible was really important so he did not miss the 'love of stories' and still experience the 'language of stories'

We did toe by toe which really helped

We found phonic based reading books without much of a story were awful. He spent so much time decoding them that he had not got a clue what was going on.

I would take it in turns with him to read sentences / paragraphs / pages to help keep the story going and model how to decode words

Nessy has good apps

He is now taking GCSEs has extra time and a scribe and is predicted good grades. His spelling is still awful and he can read well enough

FFT is Reading Recovery under a different name - thrown out in Australia, New Zealand and the US. No evidence of progress whatsoever and very expensive.

Wave I teaching should be much better - explicit alphabetic code teaching harms no one, helps most and is crucial for some.

Hear hear

Sorry I haven't read the full thread but wanted to suggest getting eyes checked for tracking correctly rather than just focusing on dyslexia/language processing (have a look at convergence insufficiency).

I assumed DS was dyslexic around the age of 4 years because when he used to read he'd get stuck on words and lose the fluency in his reading. It wasn't even difficult words or anything to do with phonics in most cases. He'd randomly stop at words like 'to' or 'in' and other short/easy words and keep rubbing his eyes and moving the book closer to his face. Turned out to be problems to do with visual tracking rather than language processing/dyslexia. He was given varifocal lenses which have helped massively.

For parents interested on some independent evidenced based information on Reading Recovery please see the link below.

www.evidence4impact.org.uk/interventions/979#

It isn’t phonic based, so immediately interferes with the orthographic mapping built so far.

It has been shown in several peer reviewed studies to not help the very students it targets at all ie the lowest achieving.

www.wrightslaw.com/info/read.rr.ltr.experts.htm

One of several international studies:

iferi.org/wp-content/uploads/2018/07/Reading_Recovery_unrecovered-learners_Chapman_Tunmer2018-2.pdf op

The Reading Wars and Reading Recovery: What Educators, Families, and Taxpayers Should Know:
debbiehepplewhite.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/09/RR-Article-Sagamore-Final-8391-28428-2-PB.pdf

A good summary of what happens in Reading Recovery and why some results are skewed:

www.spelfabet.com.au/2015/03/reading-recovery-revisited/

www.wrightslaw.com/blog/needless-to-say-i-have-no-use-for-reading-recovery/

This a lawsuit by the parent of a dyslexic child subjected to reading recovery! He most damning statement reads:

20.Research conducted over the past several years has shown that Reading Recovery is not successful in teaching dyslexic children how to read and write.

Parents can look at the evidence and the credibility of the sites for themselves and make an informed decision.

All, I'll say is Evidence 4 Impact is well known and does a full peer review of all the research not just one or two selected papers before synthesising the information into an impact rating and does this across a variety of topics (i.e. isn't a single issue site).

Everyone should judge the information for themselves and agree a plan with their schools based on what they think is right for their children's specific needs (which may not be dyslexia) regarding struggling to read.

Parents can look at the evidence and the credibility of the sites for themselves and make an informed decision.

Oh absolutely- hence the wealth of peer reviewed research posted, plus the caveat that Reading Recovery tends to bin the lowest achieving children which skews the data somewhat.

There is also quite a lot of controversy re the EEF and it’s efficacy re phonics research, but that’s another story.

its! Autocorrect strikes again.

@ThirdElephant, some are very frequently encountered words, some are words like 'one', 'once', 'to', or 'do', which are both frequently encountered and not accessible using phonics or which contradict phonic strategies.