Reading problem in reception

[MollieO]

My ds started reception in September. He learnt his phonics and basic reading (cvc words) in nursery. We had some problems when he started school because he pretended he only knew four letters (the ones in his name!). That was resolved following a conversation between his reception teacher and nursery teacher and he made good progress last term.

This term he seems to have gone backwards and I'm not sure why. He has gone from getting reading books with words (which he could read) to picture only books. He did get a series of books that frankly were dull and without a story - eg 'Johnny ran', 'Roger ran', 'Johnny ran after Roger'. So he lost interest and I struggled to get him to do his homework. He also had word boxes with a mix of 3, 4, and 5 letter words which he did easily.

His teacher says that the picture only books are to restore his confidence in reading but I'm not sure really what the problem is. He is very proud of himself to have books without words as reading is either 'tricky' or 'boring'. He enjoyed reading last term so I'm not sure what has changed since and he isn't telling.

We had a book this weekend where even I couldn't follow the 'story' as the pictures made no sense to me or ds. I have tried to find out why he doesn't want to read and when I read to him tonight I got him to read the book to me 'Read at Home' series, which he did perfectly well. So I'm not sure why he is doing less at school than he was doing 18 months ago at nursery. If anyone has any insight I'd be grateful.

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that sounds very strange - I think you need to go back and get the teacher to clarify what they think the problem is and what they are doing about it and when they think word books will be reintroduced - otherwise you and your ds are just going to get more confused.

Is he way ahead of the rest of the class? Have they got something in place if he is?

Has he got friends who can't yet read and he's trying to be like them? Or does he see a group of weaker readers having more fun while he has "proper" work to do?

MollieO, the Reception teacher decided that your ds progressed well in the first term but is now 'demoted' to picture books in the second term because he has lost confidence?

Is it the case that your ds will read well for you at home but will not, for whatever reason, read at school for the teacher?

Not sure the reason why. His teacher did call me to tell me that she was sending home picture only books because he had 'lost confidence' but I was so taken aback that I didn't really question it (was also at work where any discussion of dc doesn't happen - all men!). Haven't had an opportunity to get in and see his teacher although I hope to on Wednesday to try and clarify. My notes in his reading diary are being studiously ignored by the TA (as usual ).

(Bad mummy alert). I work full time and am a single mum so I help ds do his homework but don't do much more than that as far as reading is concerned. We do homework and then I read him bedtime stories. Last night I thought I'd try getting him to read to try and figure out what was going on. He seemed fine to me so obviously I need to tackle his teacher. He has two teachers who job share and the Weds-Fri one seems to take the lead as far as literacy is concerned. He was doing well once we got over the blip at the start of reception so I don't understand the change.

I don't know what level the other children in his class are working at. According to my ds he is the only one with a picture book because "I can't read the words well". Patently not true! He has never been one to follow the crowd, it would be easier sometimes if he did. They do individual reading every day to the TA and I think they go out of the classroom to do their reading so not sure he would be trying to match the others.

Thanks for your comments. It makes me realise that I have some questions to ask his teacher !

My ds1 has sometimes seemed to regress with his reading, usually when he is bored with the stories or demotivated because he has been on a particular reading level for a while (he is in Year 2 now, so perfectly well aware when he has been stuck on one level for ages).

When you go in to see the teacher, I would take in some of the books he has been reading to you at home.

My ds also tries to pretend he doesn't know things which he definitely does as well, BTW. I think he does it to get them off his back IYSWIM. He certainly used to do it in Reception. I suspect he was trying to avoid being given harder work the next time IYSWIM, and also trying to get off to play quicker. I don't think he does it so much now because they don't really get to play any more.

We have hardly been reading school books at all for about a term because he was so demotivated. I got him to read books we'd chosen from the library, or sections of his books from home (it doesn't matter if you've already read them a book, getting them to read a book they already know still helps them learn to read). Apart from that, I have just tried to read to him a lot, and in that time he has really come on a lot.

jellycat that's interesting. Tonight ds said that reading is 'boring'. Have to say I'd agree when we had the last series of 'reading books'. So that might be part of it. I've tried to encourage him as he loves me reading to him. Have also tried to appeal to his competitive streak with his grandma telling him that I could read books by myself at his age .

It sounds to me like your ds is not reading to his ability in front of the teacher, probably during guided reading sessions. This could be either because he's in a group of poorer readers and he wants to fit in or it could be he's with more able readers and he's avoiding the competition.

I think the only solution is to speak to the teacher with him there and get to the bottom of it. If they know he really can read they won't let him get away with it.

[is there even such word as poorer?!]

Hello all, I was reading through some of the threads and felt compelled to tell you about my son. He started a new school 5 months ago and I have been told by his teacher that he is at the bottom of his class for reading. This is quite new to me as his old school seemed to think he was doing fine. But then I realised that most of the time when we were reading he was actually guessing the words. He would not recognise words he'd just read 3 or 4 times on the previous page and he'd get really upset if I tried to correct him. We ended up with a lot of tantrums, he would say "I'm such a stupid boy" and he absolutely hated reading. He's in Year 2 by the way. I already felt that there was not much support from the teacher,it was more or less - he's at the bottom of the class and that's that. He gets 3 books per week to read but no writing homework so I had no clue really what he could do so came as a bit of a shock to me. I felt desperate so searched the internet for some fun games for him to try as he loves computer games and that's something he is good at. I found this one program that caters for children who are both dyslexic and non-dyslexic. It focuses on visual references. He tried the free introductory session and absolutely loved it so I booked him onto the mini-course to try a bit more before signing up to the whole course. This lasted about 5 days and by now he was hooked. In this short space of time he transformed from the "stupid boy" to someone beaming with confidence and who actually said "I am good at reading" I just couldn't believe it! I had finally found what worked for him - it was as if someone turned the lights on. Children learn differently and quite often it is really quite intelligent children who end up not being able to read as they manage to figure out a short-cut to reading, they guess words using pictures. This can work up to probably year 2 and then texts get too complicated and they are found out. Teachers are often puzzled by children they thought could read and suddenly they realise they cannot. This program uses visual references above each letter so "a" is ants in pink pants and "b" is bear with long hair. The "a" in "was" is Octopus who knocked a puss as it is the sound they are learning rather than the letter. My son now reads whole pages and blends his words. The program even has incentives as they win prizes that arrive addressed to the child himself. You should have seen him when he got his first prize. He was showing the whole world! Yes, maybe it's bribery - but it works! Anyway, if you think your child might benefit from this, type in the link below and try the free taster course and then with this link you get the mini-course for £5.00 (usually costs £17.00 I think) By this time you will definitely know if this works for your child. It has worked wonders for my boy and that is just worth its weight in gold. Good Luck! www.EasyreadSystem.com/offer/78.html

Thanks so much Bamse. I've just had a look and it will be perfect for my ds. He is very computer literate so I think he will love doing this. I've been looking for something on line and this looks perfect.

Spoke to his teacher today and she said he has been put on picture books because he wasn't concentrating . She said she will take his reading sessions for the rest of this week rather than the TA. The TA is nice but I reckon a bit soft and won't push him to do what he knows easily. Unfortunately I think he is like me. When I was at school I excell in subjects that interested me and do badly on stuff that didn't. It is only this term that he says reading is boring so I wonder if the change in books has backfired.

When he reads with me he sounds out all the letters easily and then says that saying whatever word it is is 'boring'. I assume he has got this word from an older boy as I doubt that a 4.5 yr old is capable of being truly bored!

The way in which English is taught in UK is IMO confusing. My school uses Jolly Phonics scheme but uses it in conjunction with word recognition schemes like Ginn and Oxford Reading Tree which results in bad habits like word guessing.

My solution to counteract the teaching method is simply working with my dd 5 on the Jolly Phonics programme workbooks to get the basics of decoding words right first. Before moving on to the tricky words and word recognition.

interesting you link bad habits with word guessing blueshoes. Our school actively encourages children to look at the pictures for predictive reading as that is part of the fluid reading process and the way the brain naturally works. If, for example a reception class child is reading "Matt has a red button (big pic of matt with a red button on his top) next page Matt has a blue button.. Rather than struggling with every page from scratch, the child is using predictive learning to consolidate the word they have just read "has" and "a" being the key words. The fact that they are guessing colours correctly is not meaning they are not learning them, just gaining confidence by getting it right IYSWIM. Not sure I have explained that as well as my DD?s class teacher when I quizzed her about the sense in repetitive books where my DD was "not learning but just guessing". Lot more to it than pure guesswork - the predictive element speeds up the fluidity which in turn stops the drudge boring slow pace as they struggle over new word after new word, gives confidence while they are learning to really "see" certain words by constant repetition - more likely to remember and re-use.

Sorry - that was a jumbled mess. Need to get back to work. Just think that there is a lot of point behind word recognition schemes and is not such a bad habit if supported and used properly.

lemontart, what you wrote makes a lot of sense. I am not saying there is no place for word recognition and contextual clues in pictures. My belief is that that should only come in after a solid foundation in phonics.

Following a phonics programme can similarly give a novice reader confidence - by presenting them with simple decodable books, like the Jolly Phonics books, Ruth Miskin's or Jelly & Bean series. I think we underestimate how much children feel a sense in confidence in the pure ability to decode a word by itself, just looking at the sounds and blending them together. That to me, is the essence of reading. Not guessing.

Of course, there is little merit in 'barking at print' if the child does not marry that with comprehension. But that is higher learning and comes after they get the phonics basics right and a trust that words are essentially decodable but with a clutch of exceptional tricky words that cannot be sounded out and need to be recognised by sight - such being the English language.

A bit like learning to drive a manual car - you get drilled in the mechanics of clutch control (mechanical skill) and practise in a relatively controlled environment before you get turned loose on a roundabout (judgment + mechanical skill).

My ds started reading at nursery with Letterland, which I loved. At nursery and now at school they use Jolly Phonics. I don't think that has helped him at all as he insists on doing the actions with every letter he sounds out so I think by the time he has spelt out the word he has forgotten what it is. I think he also does a fair amount of guessing, which doesn't matter when there are three words on a page but will matter later on if it continues. Although I'm not sure about this. Some words he says instantly and others he will decode, even if he has had the word on the previous page.

I know I do have to put a lot of trust in his teachers but I am worried about why he seems to have made a massive leap backwards.

DD started at pre-school with letterland and then moved onto JP when she started school.

Her reception teacher said that initially she dual ran, but within a matter of weeks was perfectly au fait with JP. Lots of children start school knowing neither of the schemes.

I would have a chat with the teacher about reverting back to picture books. They are like purgatory. I'm afraid have no experience of why he seems anti. I do think reception and year 1 children seem to go through bursts of development and learning followed by slower periods where they seem to not progress so well (though I suspect they are actually making good on what they already know so it's fully "in" there IYSWIM).

BUt letterland had actions/signs too? Blowing on your palm for "h" and miming eating an apple for annie apple?

I think JP is miles better than letterland.

Yes, I have also read a phonics teacher's opinion on mn that Jolly Phonics is better than Letterland. MollieO, seeing that that is your ds' current scheme, it would make sense to move over to it.

we do read and write inc books at home which ds 1 4.9 loves. Phonics is used at his school but they rely on the old look at the picture cues to gues what's going on, which is utter rubbish.
We 'read' his school books in about 10 seconds as he has memorised it from earlier and mostly doesn't even look at the text so we can then read the more interesting stories.

A typical is

A red car
A blue car
A green car
ZZZZZzzzzzzzzzz

ds I very BORED by these death by repetition books that appear to have him reading but really he's not. Ask him 'Blue' 2 days later and he needs the picture to work it out but he can read the read and write inc (Ruth Miskin) books indepedently and they are a far higher standard than his school books.

Songbirds is a good decodable series also.

Don't not worry too much. My son hated the reading scheme when he was Reception and was progressing v slowly compared with the others, but he found it very dull and uninspiring (it was ORT Biff, Chip etc). He really could not see the point (and to be honest neither could I as they were dull and made reading a chore). I wanted him to enjoy it, so we kept doing the bare minimum on the scheme, BUT he used to read easy ladybird books (the ones designed for children just reading) and board books to his baby sister, and used to read ahead in his bed time story books after I had finished. In y2, although still one of the worse readers according to ORT level - he was reading lots of books at home and by Y3 had a reading age of 14.
Ladybird do good graded fairy tale books (with a story) and you could also try some of the Horrid Henry/Bel Mooney Kitty books to read to him, so he can look with you and maybe recognise some of the words - (also Dr Seuss). This combines bedtime story and reading and is a nice cuddly thing to do - I think anyway.

I have been told that boys have a greater need to be interested in the subject matter before seeing the point of reading. My colleague's experience is that her son only got into books at around Year 2 because of the Horrid Henry series. Suddenly, his reading just took off.

Hi MollieO, I'm back again, sorry have been so busy as we are moving out the country so loads to organise, mainly paperwork... I think it's great that you are already making sure that your child learns to read properly but I also think that Reception is quite early for a child to learn how to read. I'm from Sweden (like someone else on this thread) and I started school aged 7 and now they start children at the age of 6 over there. I really think there is a reason for this: don't think most children are ready for this type of learning before that age. My eldest son "clicked" in Year 1. He's now 8 and has the reading age of a 12 1/2 year old I've been told. He has about 5 books on the go at the same time. Then we have my middle son who learns in a different way and is just about clicking now half-way through Year 2 with the help of the website I already told you about. Of course it's great if you can get your child on to the right path from an early age but I just think that you shouldn't expect too much from them just yet. And by the sounds of it you're a great mum who is willing to go to great lengths to make sure her child grows up into a happy and confident person.

'I struggled to get him to do his homework'

Do they really have homework at 4 years old?!!

I've got all this to look forward to!

I think I will have to be patient and also use the alternatives suggested here to re-spark my ds's interest in reading. I also think that trying to find some easy but factual books might help.

I agree Bamse that other countries seem to have a system that might work better than the way we do it. One of the cleverest people I know is Finnish and it doesn't seem to have affected her by starting formal education so much later than we do it here!

Yes mylifemykids he does get homework at 4. Mind you it takes about 30 seconds to do so not particularly taxing . I also am very careful not to try and force him to do it. It is completely up to him. He is only repeating stuff he has done at school that day so it is never too hard to do.

For something completely different and very relevent to your child as they are created using your own digital photos have a look at these books. All my kids love them and my youngest dd carries the one about her dad around all the time.I believe if you spend time reading lots of different books with your kids and try and get them to want to read they learn quicker. My eldest dd was reading before she started school and she still loves reading.Try lots of different books and find what interests your child..they are all different.