Child not getting phonics

[Complexcass]

My DD is 5 yo, started reception Sept 23 and have had parents evening this week. She is still not blending her words, she knows the sounds but cannot understand putting them together.
She is under the senco, on waiting list for assessment for ASD and the need for SLT.
Her speech was fine until she started school and has since had a major regression, she stammers and struggles to get her words out whilst also mixing up words now even though she knew them previously.
Teacher was not very reassuring and just kept saying I don’t know, we have tried, but not getting there so I dont know sorry.

Feels like they have given up on her already!!

any advice/ideas or experiences?

Noise cancelling headphones were a game changer for him - he wears them as and when he needs them - he will put them on if he is struggling and takes them off. He sits next to the teacher at school and has his putty and headphones hanging up behind him and he just gets them and puts them back - total game changer.

SALT - contact your GP.

In the meantime you can start your own program mine did Toe by Toe at school. But with me he did the reading lesson https://www.amazon.co.uk/Reading-Lesson-Teach-Child-Lessons/dp/0913063029?nodl=1&dplnkId=703be1a8-6d4b-4c4d-826d-94657caad3ea at home and within 6 months he was reading

spelling and reading go hand in hand and with speech - so they need to be taught the sounds and teach yourself.

I did the reading lesson with both of mine. My daughter could say cat and read cat but could not do the c-a-t and hear it as cat. Within 6 months of the reading lesson she was off on her own. It was amazing. It was harder with him because of the hearing issues I did it aged 6 with him and with her had done aged 4. He loves it now.

have you got a Mrs wordsmith daily word or jolly phonics sound card on display - honestly make your own learning zone mine had daily phonics cards

Thank you honestly so so grateful.
The reading lesson looks good, worth a try!!
I had the mrs wordsmith phonics game on my amazon list to buy anyway! So will go ahead and get that too.

We have flashcards and read every night, she knows all of her tricky words and knows some words (like cat) by sight but like you have said just doesnt understand the blending part of it.

Phonic didn’t work as well for DC, so at home we did basic chapter books like Horrid Henry, Diamond Brothers etc and surged ahead of school books. Year 3, phonic not pushed and DC on chapter books already. Glad we did this.

With the Reading lesson - it is American so they blend m-o-m once or twice but we discussed it and he got in the USA you have a -mom- or mommy not mum we just correctly to English version I loved the way they did the b and d letters and very little pictures all text. Honestly just do 10 minutes a day. It was recommended to me by another mum 13 years ago and did both of mine. We did it slowly and repeated the lesson if needed but just did it slowly and surely and it worked really well.

sight flash cards are good get year 1 and 2 and then 3 and 4 and so on and these are sight words and do the spellings at the same time. They go hand in hand.

Mine don’t watch a lot of tv but when we do we have the text on as well.

honestly do the reading lesson I think I did the first lesson with my daughter over about 3 days and then she got it c-a-t and blended it. Drove me mad before hand she would go c then a then t and then read the word cat and couldn’t link them. The reading lesson does a combination of letters, sounds, blending and sight and ‘just learn it’ words. It was a game changer. If it make you feel better my daughter than couldn’t blend and just read words - got straight 9s at gcse and sat an A level at 15 - A and is currently on 4 A for a level so not being able to blend cat until 3 years after her peers didn’t hold her back too much in the grand scheme !!

@Rocksonabeach wow thank you so much. Very very reassuring. I am definitely going to give it a try!!
Hopefully we can turn it around 🙏🏻

Alphablocks.

We read books as a family for 1h/night in bed and it's worked well for my younger child which has struggled more than my older child.

Children with ASD often to better with look and say. Get hold of some Peter and Jane books.

I think they are going incredibly quickly with sounds now in reception which I suspect can be very overwhelming for 4yos. I’ve got an older one in y3 and I preferred the previous phonics method they had as she seemed secure with a smaller number of sounds at an earlier point in the year. they seemed to really hammer SATPIN and blending on those sounds before starting simple books very quickly and then adding new sounds in a more gradual way.

in contrast, my current reception/aged child seems to have covered many more sounds before she had books home but they’ve moved so fast she’s no-where near as secure. Her reading has clicked this term but only really because I got my own set of phonics books at home to supplement the school ones.

Just to add my now 6yo loathed phonics. He loved being read to, and trying to spot where a word was on a page, or catch me out if I missed one. But as soon as I tried phonics exercises, he just switched off. (We're overseas so he isn't taught in English, this was me at home.) Honestly we just kept reading and him following my finger on the page, then him trying to read just a chapter title, just a sentence, then a comic book page ... and he just organically got it, by age 6 or so. Now he's almost 7 and reads very well.

I am obviously no expert and our situation isn't necessarily typical but I think that phonics just don't work for some kids. My son is bright but found it utterly boring and pointless.

Awww, she's only 5. She might just not be ready or interested in learning it yet. Brain development plays a massive role at this age, hopefully it will click in time but you are doing all the right things!

Thank you everyone 😊 have found each reply/experience so valuable to read.

No experience of phonics but the same experience with maths and with general reading. DD went into primary as quite a 'mathsy' child and within a year couldn't understand a single thing, however simple. Also went into primary really advanced in reading and within a couple of years was distinctly average.
Two things. One is that kids don't all go on a constantly upward trajectory when they're learning. But secondly, and I think more importantly, school really doesn't suit some children in some subjects.
My DD turned out to have ADHD and perhaps that is why she struggled. But I actually think that the across the board, a lot of kids, even NT ones, struggle, especially when they go in at quite a high level. It's super hard when you're little and you just 'get' something to then unpick everything you already know and rebuild it.
I'm so sorry she's struggling and I don't really have any solutions other than to say to keep trying to bolster confidence as much as possible.

I didn't get phonics until year 2. I remember the moment I got it. I was reading Lord of the Rings, and it was the names that were foxing me. Before then I was reading by whole word recognition, and was far ahead of not just the rest of the class, but several classes above me.

Interestingly from what someone said upthread, I am fairly ambidextrous. I'd now normally write with my right hand, but dm always reckoned I'd have been left handed in a left handed world. I'll swap the mouse from side to side depending on what's easiest at the time, for example, and I will write left handed if there's a reason it's easier. (eg tight space/holding something in right hand etc). I don't think about swapping, something I just do automatically.

I'd have a go with flash cards with her. Start with three simple (I used "mummy", "daddy" and their name) for the first three and if she gets that easily, then add one or two every day.
You can play games like pairs with flash cards, or something I did with mine was treasure hunts. You have single words "window" then they go to the window and find the card "bed" on it etc until they reach the "treat" at the end. Mine loved doing that.
Place the right flash card on the right item is another good one.

Don't forget the non-noun words too. And Jane and Peter books may look boring to an adult but mine loved them. They had such a sense of achievement being able to read a whole book.
The ones mine really loved at whole word level were the Bunny and Bee books, which were a lot of repetition, and they read them quite easily.

See if she can get that. Yes, phonics has its advantages, especially with new words, but if she's not getting that then whole word will still get her reading. I don't think I would have understood phonics until I was reading well, because it really didn't make sense in my head.

My son didn’t get phonics at all, he “failed”
his phonics screening in year 1 and scraped though in year 2.

he is 14 now (autistic and has full 1-1 in mainstream just to set a bit of a picture) and is a fluent reader who spends a big chunk of his time reading non fiction for fun.

I kept reading to him, and still read to him every night. By year 3 I had school
agree that the school reading scheme didn’t work for him so we picked his reading books based on his likes. He learnt through rote more than anything I think but he got there.

phonics may work for most children but not for all.

The school gave to offer learning appropriate for each child's needs and yes that includes not necessarily teaching phonics to each child

some neurodivergent children don't get phonics and they work better with a more old fashioned approach to reading and then once they get the word in total they work backwards to the phonic structure

don't be afraid to ask for them to try and point to the fact they have to cater for different learning styles etc

but also it's early days in the school career and phonics can take time to click for some children so don't loose heart

She is probably a bit stressed and it’s making it harder for her to grasp this. Learning to read is tough, it does take time. Are you working with her at home? She will get it, but may take longer and need more repetition.