Reading in yr 1 ? Son is being offered extra help

[Hellobell]

Hi,

we received an email today to tell us that our son is going to have extra help with literacy and instead of doing the normal lesson he will go into a smaller group with a different teacher, I’m not going to lie it made me a little sad 😔 I knew he was struggling but I’m not yet sure how bad, he knows all the phonic sounds but he can’t blend or spell out words , he’s just turned 5 so one of the younger ones in his class, any other parents here that have experienced this, looking for tips and ideas on how to best support him at home to help him catch up !

Thank you 🙏

It's OK. My son was like yours. He got extra help in y1. It's great they identified it.

Mine finished school last summer with A*AA. We really focused on rewarding effort not results. And masses of positive praise and reinforcing self belief.

Mine is an August boy. Remember some children will have about 20% more experience than him!

Try not to feel sad about it, be thankful the staff are on it, have noted that he needs some extra support and early intervention is happening, it’ll make all the difference as he gets older. As you say he’s young, children learn at different rates, please don’t think because he needs the extra support that he’s “behind”. He may only need it for a term or two or perhaps until end of yr1. Once a child “gets” the blending they tend to progress well with reading/spelling. At home just keep practising and reading the readers that are sent home, most importantly keep it fun, look for sounds he knows in everyday things, like cereal boxes, tins, post, magazines etc. and practice sounding out and blending them. School may also send home extra things to do with him, but do ask them what you can do.

Find out what phonics system your school uses and become familiar with the sounds. Help with sounding out and blending according to the phonics system…h-a-t hat, etc.
Support the school and ask if they have anything you can do at home.

Thank you all so much, I feel so much better about it, and will be following the tips mentioned, he’s a hard headed learner at the moment so I’ve been trying to sneak it in with fun games or while he’s having a bath 😂 thanks again all 🌸

I remember trying to teach DD to blend. It was a bit frustrating, because I felt like I was making it as obvious as possible, really stretching the sounds into each other and she didn't get it. Then suddenly she did. Good luck with the practising. Also I'm sure you know that reading to children is always really beneficial, even if they are 'just' listening, and even better if they follow the words with you. Can be a good plan for days they don't want to do other activities. Maybe you could also model reading e.g. the cereal packet, the shop sign etc.

Love this and yes I’m really trying to make that extra effort to read as much as possible to him and both him and little sissy really do love the books but like you said I will try to get him to follow the words, he keeps starting the word of with the last letter for example cat, we will read the letters first c-a-t and he then starts the word with the last letter the -t- , I’m assuming with lots of practicing and readying he will get it, I hope it just won’t take super long as I don’t want him to fall behind too much :)

My son had been struggling with blending too, so I ended up downloading this blending guide that had some good tips on, and then bought the course too which really helped and he's mastered blending now!
Blending guide

Another thing you can do at home is to practise oral blending. So, for example:
"Put on your h-a-t."
"Where's your s-c-ar-f?"

You can play games where you ask each other things like:
"Point to your l-e-g."
"Shake your h-ea-d."

Late July baby here. We had similar but then Los supported by reading phonics books with him every single day. Lots of praise for effort, felt slightly like we were hot housing him but it really did work. Now a voracious reader!

I would honestly accept any help and support offered. Like others have said it may just be a temporary thing and give him the boost he needs.
I am a ks1 teacher and would love some of my class to have this small group support.
Like someone also said their son ended up with A*AA . Been teaching for years and especially in yr1 and 2 seen so many need that point where it just clicks into place and they fly with phonics/literacy.
Agree with all strategies for home learning and asking lots and lots of questions about what he has just read. Sounds like he has great parents to support him at home.

This was my DD1 in reception, who is also a summer born. Once the blending clicked, she was flying and progressed very quickly. At her most recent AR assessment a few weeks ago, she had a reading age of 16 at 10yo. She reads to herself daily, loves being read to, and also enjoys listening to audiobooks. That early intervention just gave her the extra leg up she needed to get started.

I do understand well that slight sadness of knowing your DC is struggling or behind (DD1 has various SEND, so is almost always attending an intervention for one thing or another), but be happy the school have picked it up early and are doing something about it. It isn't something to worry about yet, and sometimes they just need somebody different to explain it in another way in a smaller group. Interventions at this age aren't a sure sign of longer term failure, particularly for summer borns.

DD was the same reception all the way to yr2 it felt awful, but early intervention really worked. At 8 she has reading age 11.
We made sure she read minimum 10 mins a day, was read to at bed time. Did sounding out.
Lots and lots of praise when Did well and treats for moving up a book band.

Also try reading eggs and teach your monster to read app. DD loved them.

I think it’s fine to feel sad about this. My DD has dyslexia and read reading her report that there are things she will always find hard!

I hope the interventions help, we all bloom in our own time and his time will come

I also have a summer born who has had some extra help with reading. She’s all caught up now and a fantastic reader. The school made it a ‘reading club’ and she used to really enjoy her extra one-on-one time.

I absolutely understand the disappointment (that was me) but it’s actually a good thing and it’s going to be fine.

At home you can try different types of reading too. At first mine loved cartoons and comics, silly things with jokes and pictures rather than big books.

Our slower to read DD is now the strongest reader in her class at secondary so I agree with general “stay chill” stuff above.

if you do want to really invest time and energy in a more serious intervention at home, the Dancing Bears books are excellent, but you do need to commit!