Reading - ds is struggling

[rainbowshoes]

DS started in reception this September and is struggling with phonics.

The teacher has identified the problem areas as being unable to hear rhyme and unable to blend.

I know the general advice is not to worry and to read a lot with your child but I’ve always read a lot with him, which is why I’m a bit worried. Wondering if any reception teachers are around to give me pointers?

He's unable to blend a hear rhyme a MONTH into reception?????
This is a complete non problem! He's only just started!

Read him some dr Seuss books and enjoy the rhymes together. Keep practising the blending as he learns new sounds. Genuinely don't worry.
Lots of kids find rhymes hard to hear honestly.

Do you agree he can’t hear rhymes? E.g if you asked him to name something that rhymes with tin could he do it? Even with multiple choice?

He can’t rhyme - I’m surprised because I’ve read loads of Dr Seuss and Julia Donaldson books with him.

@Bigearringsbigsmile i know, I’m probably worrying over nothing but I really don’t want him falling behind with reading and although the teacher is lovely she did say the others have mostly got these skills now, especially the rhyming.

It’s a dyslexic trait.

Look it up - 37 signs of dyslexia

Are you in an extremely high achieving area? Children being unable to rhyme at the start of reception isn’t a problem, nor is not being able to blend. If you look up the expected progression through most phonic schemes, children aren’t expected to blend until at least Christmas. I’ve taught reception for upwards of 10 years and neither of those things would concern me.

It is quite high achieving. I’m not panicking yet though, just wanting to support him as much as possible.

Practice blending with him e.g Timmy, go and get your /c/oa/t/. Do you want the /r/e/d/ cup or the /b/l/ue/ cup? So he hears the words in context. If he recognises the graphemes, lots of oral blending in every day life will help and once he picks up this skill, he will take off quickly

This is exactly what I came to say. Focus on real life oral blending. Look at the parents section of the Little Wandle website. I’m a phonics lead. I agree with not panicking but also being proactive in helping. Look for very simple rhyming books. Julia Donaldson rhymes but the sentences are long in the rhyming couplets.

Hi I am not a primary teacher but my daughter struggled with phonics massively, and did fall behind so I understand your concern. She could not blend or understand the concept of blending, she only learnt (and continues) to read by sight/memory. We have read every day to her since she was a baby. I tried all the five minute mum games and the blah blah blah phonics games.
She caught up to everyone and reading at the same level now in Y2. However blending still blows her mind and she did unfortunately fail the phonics screening in Y1.
She is potentially dyslexic too as someone else mentioned.

This is a great point about Julia Donaldson. Just jumping on to see if you have any recommendations for books with shorter rhymes?

Julia Donaldson titles like Toddle Waddle, Goat goes to play group and The Acorn Wood ones are better than ones like The Snail and the Whale

Thank you.

DS’s school do Little Wandle. Interestingly he does well with sight recognition - he has had two ‘tricky words’ to learn thus far (I and is) and he likes identifying them in books we read together.

We’ve always done such a lot of reading I kind of thought he’d have an advantage so I do think I need to be proactive as where ‘just’ exposure to book obviously helps some children it hasn’t with DS yet. He enjoyed Acorn Wood when he was a toddler but hasn’t really been into them since he was about two.

My son has been slow to read. He is a July summer born and it took until middle of year 2 too he able to read. He is year 3 now and still a bit behind but improving all the time.

Don't worry and try and not get frustrated (I found it so hard!!) and it will come.

There’s lots on the Wandle website including nursery rhymes designed to help with rhyming. There’s also a video about how blending is taught.
Oral blending is definitely the best approach alongside simple rhymes and rhyming strings.

Nursery rhymes?

Jack and Jill
Went up the hill....etc

And aren't the Rupert Bear stories told in rhyme?

Presumably there's nothing wrong with his hearing? Neither of my boys read til Y3 - one was August birthday the other had glue ear! Now as young adults are avid readers with good jobs.

Short rhyme stories with great illustrations such as Shark in the Park or Frog on a Log.

DS was similar at this point in Reception, but caught right up by the end of the year. We also did a lot of reading at home already, but his teacher recommended adding in some poetry aimed at children, which provided far more opportunities to recognise rhyme. It worked.

I am planning to get him a hearing test. I’m a bit worried about his hearing.

He does know all the nursery rhymes I can think of; I haven’t done any ‘formal’ learning as such with him but he has been exposed to what you’d typically expect a child of his age to have been if you follow me. Oi Frog and Shark in the Park are favourites but I don’t know if he understands the concept of rhyme. So eg if I say ‘hey Mark, sit in the park’ he might say ‘hey Mummy sit on your bottom’ which misses the point of course!

Honestly it seems ridiculously early in the school term for the teacher to identify problem areas with phonics.

I really wouldn’t be concerned at this stage at all, just carry on with what you’ve been doing and take a look at the Little Wandle parent’s resources.

I wouldn't worry, mine only learnt to rhyme until after they starting reading!

Start blending short words out loud and have them guess, what am I saying?
'c-a-t'
'd-o-g'
Once they can do simple words can then go to larger words like monkey, rainbow etc.

Ger some magnetic letters and a board you can use at the breakfast table. Take out s a t p i n and spell words with them, sounding the individual sounds before smooshing them together on the board and blending it.

s. i. t. Smooosh- sit

And alphablocks of course.

This sounds like the teacher is talking about phonological awareness - if you look at the original Letters and Sounds from 2007 (on gov.uk) there are lots of activities for children to do to promote phonological awareness (being able to recognise & manipulate sounds in spoken language) including a section on rhyme. Although it’s focussed on teaching, some of the activities you can do at home.

The best way I can describe phonological awareness is it is a stage before formal phonics teaching as you need the skills from it to learn phonics.

I wouldn’t panic, but I would start to learn about phonics teaching so you can help your son as some children (like my DC) need a lot more practice than others. (I found it was much easier to support DS once I understood how good phonics teaching was meant to work - the old phonics threads on MN were invaluable).

Thank you.

Unfortunately, I cannot interest DS in alphablocks at all, or number blocks! I have tried … he just isn’t interested!

I have been trying to research phonics and I’m finding it really hard myself so no wonder DS is lost! I will persevere!

What are you finding hard op? Ask questions and there’s many of us who are knowledgable and can help. It can seem overwhelming with some big words but it’s taught in a slowly scaffolded and repetitive way to children that makes it very accessible.