Phonics & reading

[TheCrochetingMummy]

Morning everyone.
After a bit of advice from other parents. My DS is in year 1 and he is really struggling with phonics and reading. He has a speech sound disorder which hasn’t helped, as he struggles to say the words sometimes as well.

He is still reading at a phase 2 level (reception level when they first start) I’m just looking for ways to help him at home develop a bit more of a love of reading and make it more enjoyable for all of us.

He just seems to really struggle with blending a word and decoding it to understand what the word is.

he does speech and language sessions 3
times a week and I believe he is doing phonics catch up at school as well. I’m just looking for how to make it fun at home.

We’ve tried turning phonics cards into a nerf gun target where he shoots the gun at a card and then says the sound and we’ve tried a dice game but he’s not into either as as soon as he realises it phonics he refuses to do it so not sure what else to do. He loves Lego if anyone has any ideas?

if you have read this far thank you! I’m rambling a bit and at a bit of a loss.

SENCo and currently EYFS teacher here. Honestly, my advice would be to forget trying to force more phonics into his day at home and instead just read nice story books with him. This will help him develop a love of stories, listening to the words as you're reading them. He sounds like he has some tricky needs that school is dealing with.

You can help him to blend by sounding out lots of your daily routine. Get your c-oa-t. Put on the l-i-d. Put it in the b-i-n. If he's able to follow the instruction, he can hear the word.

Play lots of games like this too. Simon says touch your h-ea-d, pat your b-a-ck etc. Make the noise of a d-og, d-u-ck, c-a-t etc.

Once he's more confident hearing oral blends, it should boost his confidence to gear the words when he sounds out when he's reading. You could sound out for him to begin with, to take that pressure away. If he can hear the words you are sounding out, the next step is to hear it when he sounds out for himself.

Thanks. We do read lots of books at home as he loves having a story read to him.

school are really good with him and he has an EHCP in place for his speech and school have been great at implementing it.

I am tempted to forget about phonics at home. I just feel bad when he gets sent home his reading books and it’s just a battle to get him to even try and read them.

Thanks. We have tried that but he’s gets annoyed and tells us to stop! 😂

when we read his books together if an adult sounds out the word for him he can usually work it out, he just doesn’t quite grasp how to do it himself. He also struggles when a word is similar so like pop and top he doesn’t get that the initial sound has changed but the op stays the same.

I know he’ll get there eventually but just wish we could support him more at home.

OUP have new phonics books out called Word Sparks partner texts - the adult reads one page and the child reads the other.

Our reluctant reader loves them. Might be worth a try?

I echo the advice to forget phonics at home. I think we actually set our DS back and delayed reading by all our attempts at exposing him to this (however fun). Reading and sharing stories in a way they can see the words and getting him to think of books positively helps.

If he has a speech sound disorder it's possible phonics may not be the best method for learning to read for him.

Phonics was introduced into primary schools because of research showing that 95% of children learnt to read well with this method.

However there are children who don't - most obviously deaf children who cannot hear. What is the speech/sound disorder? You may need to get specialist advice on this.

Have you tried Teach your Monster how to Read or Reading Eggs? They are brilliant apps/games and so engaging.
Also, I second the suggestion of reading one page of his reading book each. We have done this a lot last year in Reception. Sometime I would also read the whole book myself first, very slowly and pointing at the words and then ask him to read it again. It was enough to build his confidence.

My son found phonics really hard as he has auditory processing disorder and speech impediment so he wasn’t able to blend. We struggled through reception with phonics but in year 1 he started sessions at a local literacy charity and learned to sight read simple words. Between sight reading simple sentences and gradually learning what how to decode at school, he started reading. by the end of year 1 he was on low level readers (before this he had special picture based readers) and midway through Y2 he was reading well. He was motivated to read because he has always loved books and I would read to him daily and we are big fans of audiobooks as well.

Try working on learning to recognise whole words. Try googling high frequency words. This will build his sight vocabulary. Old fashioned but phonics doesn't work for every child.

Would he watch alphablocks?

If he has s&l issues could he be autistic? As they can struggle with phonics

I have very dyslexic DD who is now 17. I remember many, many tears at homework. I did lots of phonics games - matching pictures and sounds; teach your monster to read which we all loved; specialist dyslexia tutor from Y3.

In retrospect I think main thing is to let go of the timetable on all of this. You have to learn phonics in Y1, you have to be on green level readers in Y2, you have to pass SATs on Y6.

Trust me they will internalise all of this from school anyway and feel like shit, I think one of the best things you can do for them is not make them feel like that at home too. I was not always good at this, it's hard not to feel you are failing them if you aren't pushing.

If they don't want to do a thing listen to them. Make all the resources available to them so explore teach your monster to read; look at having phonics or reading games; point out words when you are out. But try not to make everything a learning opportunity or a test they can fail.

And yes read books to them. Don't let the reading barrier deprive them of joy of stories and literature. Which I know you are not - but that and your relationship with them is the important bit. Phonics not so much.

This.

I'm a Teacher of the Deaf. Some of our children struggle with blending and don't learn to read that way. They do much better with learning to sight read words, using something like ERT.

Good old fashioned flash cards, basically!

This too.

As a SENCo I’m surprised you’re advocating for school to get on with it. Parents are very much part of the ‘little and often’ approach.

OP- try little games like sounding out for him to blend eg can you find your s-o-ck-s? Look under your b-e-d. Use magnetic letters on the fridge, bath crayons to write out the word for
a picture he drew - eg you write s-u-n (sound it out as you write it)

I do think reading stories will help too! Try Julia Donaldson - emphasise the rhyme and the rhythm and the repeat grammar structure.

If he really struggles to blend I’d suggest dynamic blending - this is what we
do as adults when we are reading a long and unfamiliar word. with the word bed you blend b-e first and then say be-d adding on the final sound.

I think this is probably the best advice. You need a diagnosis and skilled interventions fast. Your job is to push for these, research and fund them if you can, stay calm and make sure his love for stories and critical thinking skills are able to develop independently. He can make predictions about the plot, tell you about the characters, discuss his preferences, evaluate the illustrations and remember details without having to read a word. Nessy is very good but it's very obviously phonics.

I did ask this when he started school, as he was learning phonetic sounds through speech and language and didn't want him to get confused. The school didn't seem concerned at that point.
He has been assessed as having a moderate to severe speech sound disorder and is under the NHS speech and language team as part of his EHCP. He can miss the sounds in certain words, generally the first part of the words sometimes the middle and doesn't use his quiet and loud sounds properly. So "city" would become "cidy" and "fish" would be "ish".
Speech and language see him twice a year for 5 or six sessions and then school do the intervention / activities suggest 3 x a week.

He has a formal speech sounds disorder diagnosis, and school have accepted this very well and he is taken out of class to work on his speech and language 3x a week.
He loves having stories read to him, and as he can remember the plot he will "read" them back to us, using his own words, we discuss the pictures and talk to him about what's happening.
It is just the actual act of reading or anything obviously phonics we struggle with.
We took the approach of taking a step back with reading at home in reception after the advice of his teacher as we didn't want to force it and put him off.
He will read books he knows, but the moment the words get harder he stops and won't do any more.

he does teach your monster to read, but like reading the minute it gets harder, he won't want to play.

Thank you for this, we have let go of the timetable and very much believe he will get there in his own time, we just want to look at how we can support him the best way we can at home.

Thanks everyone for your advice, lots to try and think about 😊

This brings me back to what I and others have posted. He needs to be taught through sight words not through phonics. Many schools don't have much understanding of this unfortunately.

I’m a SALT and speech sound disorders in kids are often phonological in nature, and they struggle to distinguish these sounds in a similar way to how they struggle to say them. I’d try getting him doing some simple sight words at home (partly to help his confidence when reading as he’ll start to recognise words). Some kids with SSDs aren’t able to learn to read phonetically and he may be one of them.
Unfortunately due to the way the system is set up primary schools aren’t meant to use any alternative reading strategies, even if a kid is still struggling with phonics in year 6. If he takes to sight words advocate for alternative strategies to phonics to be included in his EHCP or talk to SALT about what other strategies might work for him given his SSD.

Thanks, I will speak to the SENCO and his teacher about this approach.

As you said he loves Lego you could stick/write letters on to duplo blocks and practise building words together.