Not much progress with reading - any tips please?

[emy72]

My DD1 is in reception (but a winter child and very able & mature for her age or so the teacher tells me), and she seems to be stuck with her reading, ie progress seems to be achingly slow. She is hot on comprehension as she is quick witted, but the reading part is really painful.

She has been stuck on level 2 all year, the school has put her through all the book schemes going and I guess the reason she is not progressing to level 3 (she is currently on ORT) is that she is actually still not that confident with her current level.(talked to the school about it but they say she is fine and doing very well, so I guess didn't want to make a huge deal about it?)

I am surprised though at the lack of progress as I do read with her most days and have done all year. We've done flash cards and she recognises words but then forgets them, or when she then sees them on paper starts blending...

She can segment and blend but seems to do it with loads of words, which by now she ought to remember...she has made a little bit of progress but very little considering how much practice she's had!

Her writing on the other hand is very good, I'd say it's better than her reading (odd I know). Does anyone have any tips? do I just keep going and hope it clicks eventually??

It sounds more a confidence issue than ability.
When she blends a word she clearly knows or has just read on the previous page remind her (not while she is blending wait until she has decoded the word) "can you remember you read that word before? you don't have to sound it out if you can remember"
sometimes children just need permission to stop blending I'm afraid.

that's very useful Mrz, thanks, I will try it tomorrow!!! )

Agree with mrz re: confidence. Lots of reading and lots of high-fiving and wow you got a ten letter word and all that kind of stuff. Also I think the school is wrong to keep her on Level 2. She needs to move up to get a bit of extra zing and it's not that much harder, it won't do her any harm. Buy Level 3 ORT yourself if necessary.

In fact once she's on harder books and needs to blend the harder words she could forget about doing it on the easy words. Reading L3 will give her extra confidence and she will be able to read most of it.

She is stuck in a rut and you can jolt her out of it I think!

excuse the "lots of reading" -- I know you are doing that already

With longer words cover parts with your thumb as she reads
A compound word like ladybird cover bird then cover lady and get her to put the two parts together to make the word do the same with syllables in multi syllable words You will be amazed at the jump in confidence when a child discovers they have the skills to read "big" words.

thanks both so much! x

Also if she's blending words that you think she really knows, try asking her to do the 'sounding out' in her head (or first whispering it, then in her head). I've found that that can sometimes help the children who aren't quite willing to risk attempting a known word by memory.

A similar situation happened with our dd, in the end we dug out some old ladybird books, the Peter and Jane ones...started her off on the first level of those, and worked up through the levels. She flew on those...it was as if the penny dropped and she got it. (Was delightful to have a change from biff and co as well). Maybe a change would help? hth.

Your child is in reception and you are worried already! My advice is to relax a bit and let her do things in her own time.

A couple of things to remember:

a) We have no genes for reading and we have to use the genes we were given for pattern recognition instead. In some people these will give better and faster results than in others, but unless she has special needs (and from what you have said that seems unlikely) she will get there in her own time. Keep going with what you are doing and limit the amount of TV you let her watch.

b) Our spelling system is absolutely ridiculous and it holds children up no end. Here's just one example:

How many ways can you spell the 'oo' sound?

Well, here's a few....

o as in to
oo as in too
wo as in two
ue as in blue
ew as in blew
ough as in through
ou as in youth

Not only that, but many of these letter combinations also have other sounds. For example, 'ough' has about nine different pronunciations (if I can remember them all):

through
though
cough
tough
plough
thought
thorough
hiccough
lough

Is it any wonder our children have problems?

Relax and let your daughter enjoy her reading. She'll move on when she is ready. That's not to say you can't introduce her to higher level books, but don't apply pressure.

Good luck.