Phonics Test - Year 1 (DD likely dyslexic)

[OneMellowLemonExpert]

I have 6 year old twins.

DT1 absolutely smashing school, good at everything.

DT2 is on the path for being tested for dyslexia. Highly likely at this stage but understand cannot be formally tested until they are 7.

The 2nd week in June they are having a phonics test. There has been many emails, texts home from teachers with links to practice.

DT2 has been sent home with flashcards to "practice every single day". I feel so bad for her, she gets very upset at the thought of doing it, but she does her best and remembers the rhymes to each sounds and understands what a split diagraph is 😂

I just feel so uncomfortable with the level of pressure they are putting on a 6 year old. If it was just DT1 I probably wouldn't think twice about it, but with DT2 struggling so much my heart hurts for her.

anyone else's child with diagnosed or undiagnosed dyslexia found this?

I think it’s insane that 6 year olds are being formally tested, full stop.

I think it’s better to fail than scrap a pass due to hot housing. Children who fail will be given more support and will re do the test in yr2.

Explain to her its just to find those who next extra help.
Its ridiculous the schools making a big deal of it really.

If it is causing real upset I would dial back how often you’re practicing.
Any chance you can reframe it for her - the end goal is to make her a better reader not to pass a test.
I teach this age range so I sort of understand where school are coming from but they shouldn’t be making her worry about it.
Has she any chance of passing?

I'm always supportive of schools but when DS was in year 1 this was something I didn't get on board with. We didn't do any prep at home besides the usual reading and phonics bits. Thankfully the school didn't present the test as a big scary thing you had to do really well in, and it had drawings of aliens on for the alien words which DS liked.

Ex-teacher/Specialist Dyslexia Teacher here. You clearly know your daughter well. The Phonics Check is a check on how well your daughter has been taught. If she fails then it is a signal that she needs intervention. Please don’t put her under too much pressure with the additional practice if she still isn’t getting it. If she passes then it may well be considered that she doesn’t need extra support going forward.

And although you didn’t ask this, many dyslexia assessors feel that 8 is a better age to assess than 7.

so yes she has a good chance of passing, but only because they are going to do 10 per day (40 in total and she needs 32 to pass) - she really struggles with concentration.

thank you that's really good to know. She's already in the intervention groups for extra support, ear defenders are helping her to concentrate a little. The teacher is being good and is totally on board with giving her extra support, I still feel though that there is a lot of pressure on her.

A lot of people feel this way but IMHO the Phonics Screening Test has brought up early years standards enormously.

Same is true for the Year 4 Times Tables Test - teaching Year 6 is much simpler because they now know all their times tables.

The OP's problem is the (very likely) dyslexia and no matter how many times the DfE say that the national curriculum is "dyslexic-friendly", it isn't. Getting a diagnosis isn't really going to help DT2 either as schools are basically broke and SEN is appallingly funded.

My advice is to find a local dyslexia school or tutor that can provide them with 30-45 minutes of tuition a week. There's a great one in Bristol if you're local to there.

I’m also supportive of school but actually didn’t get on board with phonics full stop.

I don’t think it’s the right method for all Dc.

Digraph not diagraph (whatever the teacher says, it’s digraph). Your poor dd. Agree it’s a lot of pressure on her (I’m an ex-primary teacher) and dyslexia support would be helpful as sherbsy advises.

It's so heartbreaking, I really do try and not compare, but because they are twins there's just no hiding it from DT2. DT1 can read a book independently, rarely needs our help in reading, she's probably totally the other end of the scale and is very advanced for her age.

It takes DT2 a good 10 minutes to read just 2 pages, but she tries so so hard. We have had instances where she just has a meltdown and says I can't do it etc. In fact at home I 100% took the pressure off her to read. She absolutely loves us reading books to her and I didn't want that love to be tainted by her getting upset. The school know this and are largely supportive but there has definitely been a push in the last couple of weeks. She also attends an after school phonics session which has been put on for those that need help in the lead up to this test.

Also just to follow up, she's unbelievably curious about the world. She'll ask me every day "mummy what is the biggest llama in the world or mummy what is the smallest whale in the world" I'll show her on my phone, she's such a visual learner. We're doing a book about dinosaurs at bedtime at the moment and she's fascinated about all of the facts.

oops that's probably my mistake not the teachers 😳

It’s the right method for most. Some children need alternatives.

You need to speak to school to see what they are doing to support literacy. What strategies are they using? No need for a diagnosis to have strategies that work. I wouldn’t push her to pass the screening - they will need to put things in place other than ‘practice to pass the test’, she needs more support from school that can be replicated at home.

One of mine wouldn’t engage at all until the teacher wearily admitted they could already read whole words so she thought they would never bother to get along with the phonics.

But they weren’t hyperlexic, they obviously just learned to read words by being taught in school generally and being read to. I think for some children that comes more naturally. Was then moved to read with the year above but I was so relieved in hindsight the teacher grasped what was going on … or we’d probably still be stuck on phonics several years on! But I do think for some children it’s an utter waste of breath.

The only help DD ever got for her severe dyslexia was when she was going to fail the phonics test.

Primary gave her 1:1 support every day for 6 months. She got 100% in the test but couldn't read till she was in Y3.

Once she'd passed the test that was the end of any support.

It makes the school look good if she passes, it does nothing to help your child access support.

Does she have any strategies? Marking sound buttons under each word for example?

Not sure if question was for me, but not really.
She just avoids reading unless she has to, writes using grammarly and spell check and manages to get by.

Your twins sound like my (non-twin) dc. DC1 we had lots of frustration and push back re reading. Despite this very bright and curious.
DC2 found reading and writing a breeze.
Interestingly DC1 is the much more academic v high achieving teen.

What helped?
Going to the optician and getting a diagnosis of convergence insufficiency and tracking problems. This was fixed by prism lenses and exercises. This got rid of the anger and frustration.
Then we had to play catch up. Used dyslexia gold resources to get them back on track.
I would absolutely agree that your dc should not be stressed out by the phonics test. However, supporting a dyslexic child requires daily work together at home which can be a slog. So although you may not be keen for her to have to revise for this test (quite rightly), you need to be doing this sort of stuff at home daily anyway.

try different colour overlays and see if there is one which works/helps with the reading. I am dyslexic and worked with someone who needed everything written on yellow but it gives me a headache and makes everything go funny

It sounds like this test is for the benefit of the school not your DD.

With my dyslexic DD, I generally ignore the homework set by the school. It's designed for kids that learn differently and it isn't a good use of her (limited) time.

Instead we do Peter and Jane, so she can recognise whole words rather than be held back by her poor phonological awareness.

And we're circling back to phonics with Touch Type Read Spell.

As she's at a Gaelic school, we're also doing the Gaelic version of Toe by Toe. I was initially a bit skeptical of this but I have to say it's brought her blending skills on no end, with positive knock on effects for her English reading.

Last school report said DD is "inconsistent" with home work. No shit. She's doing dyslexia interventions in two languages because your curriculum doesn't work for her.

It’s good that your dd is getting extra support but because she needs it, not because she needs to ‘pass’ the phonics screening. I wouldn’t do any more than normal reading practice. It is better for the screening to give an accurate representation of the child’s knowledge otherwise support that is needed could be stopped. Most children get the right result in year 2 when they retake it and it’s not a problem.

Sorry, for the OP. Specifically as a strategy for the phonics screening check