5YO significantly delayed in YR

[13MAPARTHELL]

My 5 year old has; autism & PDA profile

Otis is now in term 3, and is the only ASD child in his class.

Hes language is very good, he is very witty, sarcastic & talks for england, with no delays in this area, just for some context.

He is very behind, and it’s quite upsetting, on parents evening (previous) seeing all the other childrens sheets on the table, and his. He has made no progress, and he does not understand phonics, he is unable to blend words & recognise letters / sounds outside of the alphabet, even if shown immediately after, he seems to be able to recognise 7-8 sounds from a list of letters but via memory only, and therefore cannot sound these in any other format.

if i say, C-A-T & tell him the C sound, and then ask him what that sound makes, he is unable to relay this.

he also struggles to count on fingers, has no concept of time, does opposites the wrong way round etc.

i truly believe he will learn best likely through applying meaning to full words and essentially memorising the word through associations?

hes school wont do this, I work full time & ultimately he has PDA, even when reading to him at bed time, he will refuse this if I try to sound a word out, or point to a word he immediately shuts down and clocks on.

i cant get a tutor, as that is such a demand and one i know he will not participate with.

he cannot recognise ‘a’ ‘the’ ‘if’ ‘it’ at all, even if told, and then asked, he cannot relay this.

im constantly worried he dosent get the support he needs from the school, he is highly perceptive and anxious and he will hide it at school, everyday if I ask him how was school he gets really upset and angry, i believe he knows that he is very behind

any suggestions please?

If DS is in reception, then he has only just started the second term rather than being in term 3.

Have you spoken to the SENCO? What support is the school providing? Does DS have an EHCP? Has DS had an EP assessment? And a proper SALT assessment (SALT is about more than the physical ability to speak)? Has anyone considered auditory processing disorder?

Sight reading/whole-word approach can have a lot of problems in the longer term. There are only so many words someone can remember as a whole. It means DC struggle when they come across unknown words. Phonics is also about more than reading. I think it is too early to give up on phonics.

My ASD child didn’t understand phonics well into reception year. Sometimes you need to accept as a parent that they go at a different pace and that’s okay.