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.

Really?! In your head, maybe.

Such a strange thing to say. Do you police all the education boards, or just this one?

Gosh.

Your child hasn’t been taught to read. If I we’re you I’d do it myself. DC may be dyslexic but that’s a moot point. People who are dyslexic learn to read and need to learn to read.

I would start with this and see how you get on.

www.sounds-write.co.uk/page-82-app-for-ipad.aspx

Do you police all the education boards, or just this one?

So funny, considering the policing that happens in every board where phonics are mentioned.

Very very very few children leave school unable to read and write.

There is a difference between functional illiteracy and not being able to read and write.

They've scampnned DP brains whilst reading, and found that the parts which 'light up' are those used to decide. What is happening is that the princess is so fast, fluent readers are unaware that's what they are doing. Until the brain activity evidence was available, people often thought that they were recognising the whole word.

Guessing the meaning (even if you call it 'prediction') is a notoriously poor strategy

Weirdly, I know what you meant to say despite the typos.

Predicting what a word is in a sentence as a means of reading according to shape of the word is not 'guessing the meaning'.

@Choppingonions

I just hope you find some gentleness and humility with your RL students and parents as this smart alec brusqueness is the last thing they need.

Yep!

I also agree Feenie you derail every thread where parents are trying to support each other about reading with often off topic diatribes on phonics, which virtually everyone accepts as the best teaching approach.

Your tone isn’t supportive and it would better if threads could remain on topic. You’ve stayed your position. Let other people have space to discuss their points respectfully.

I haven’t said anything I can’t back up and I’ve challenged the myths that surround the excuses for poor teaching - and also backed up. Nothing I’ve said isn’t evidenced. Whether or not people choose to read the links, or indeed this thread, is a personal choice.

It will also be obvious to some posters when and why some posts are unnecessarily personal. I think that every child reading is more important than that.

@mathanxiety

Very very very few children leave school unable to read and write.

There is a difference between functional illiteracy and not being able to read and write.

Being functionally illiterate means that you do not possess the reading and/or writing skills to be able to operate within the requirements of day to day life. I stand by the point that very very very few children leave primary school without those skills. They may not 'pass' their KS2 assessments but those aren't set as a test of functional literacy.

And of course that has nothing to do with my rl teaching persona and is nothing to do with either of you. To suggest it does is both ridiculous and unpleasant. I am known for leading the school in a rich culture of both enjoyment in reading and ensuring all children read fluently at an early stage, unless they are recent arrivals from either overseas or crappy schools. But we unlock bad habits and get them reading very quickly. We also have a brilliant record with dyslexic children and only yesterday I met with a child’s parents who thought we had worked magic (we hadn’t) and were anxious as to how to continue their child’s success at high school. They were worried about lack of support.

I don’t tend to meet any professionals in rl who talk the nonsense I’ve seen here, thankfully. Nor have I seen it on these boards for quite some time. I hope anyone searching for support on how to help their child to read, dyslexic or otherwise, finds help through the links to useful websites.

Iamnotthe1 is absolutely correct re KS2 assessments. They are a very poor measure of reading, ironically.

Article for anyone who may be interested 😉:

www.teach-well.com/is-the-reading-sat-testing-reading/

The problem is that we know how to teach children to read, all children. And when a parent makes a thread to say their child can’t read we come on and say, no problem, your child can learn to read if they are taught in this way - job done, child reads, everyone happy.
But then someone comes on and says ‘Why not try this, or this, or this’ and it’s not a matter of opinions, or different approaches. They are simply wrong, and the poor parent ends up not knowing who to listen to.
It is so, so frustrating to have people who are educational professionals still not understanding the basics of how children learn to read, and still recommending outdated and debunked methods, and backing up their thinking with ‘Every child learns differently’ and ‘You have to find what works’.
Parents shouldn’t have to read research, they should be able to have confidence that their child’s school know what they are doing, but many schools don’t, and because they don’t understand how children read they don’t know what to do when they can’t.

I'm not sure I would be much clearer after reading this thread tbh.maybe instead of a million links and dark warnings of what not to do, a bullet point list of exactly what to do could be a sticky job or whatever it's called. I can tell you, this isn't working.

@choppingonions You do know that’s the second time on this thread that you’ve basically called parents thick? But I’m the one who needs to learn how to speak to parents? Right.

It’s also about the 4th personal attack. Thankfully, some are deleted because of that. I suggest you sort your own posts out.

Hear, hear, Elisheva.

@Iamnotthe1, the fact that a large portion of the UK population is functionally illiterate has been well documented.

The problem extends even to UK universities.

@Iamnotthe1 as of 2018, 20% (one fifth) of UK children left primary school unable to read or write to the required standard. This is according to HM Government figures.

We know. But, as we explained, not passing the reading test does not mean a child is functionally illiterate.

Interesting explanation here of how the reading test relies on background, vocabulary and inference:

primarytimery.com/2017/05/01/infernal-inference/

[quote mathanxiety]@Iamnotthe1 as of 2018, 20% (one fifth) of UK children left primary school unable to read or write to the required standard. This is according to HM Government figures.
[/quote]
The "expected standarded" at the end of KS2 is not the same as functual literacy. It is significantly higher.

Functional*

Posted mid-typing

The requirements for writing in particular far outstrip what the majority of adults would require in their daily lives or even within the workplace.