Advice needed - grandson struggling to read at end Year 1

Thanks Elegran; Minimouseand Vampire Queen, Some very useful information, I shall be googling again tonight. He has been wearing patches over one eye for short periods for his lazy eye and has been seeing the specialist at the hospital since he was a baby, but they say they have done as much as they can now. They say his reading should not be affected by it now he has the glasses, but I will check out scotopic sensitivity. What did we do before Google? Although I must admit sometimes the web just leaves me more confused!

Nelliemoser, he was a Dec baby, and started reception at 4 and 8 months and Year 1 a year later, so he has had 2 years at school, but being an only child and a bit shy, he did seem to take a while to feel confident at the big school (reception was in a quiet side unit across the road from the main school).

Thanks to everyone for responses, I have to go out for a while, so I'm not being rude. I will be back on line tonight.

Your grandson isn't having difficulty learning to read. It's the teachers who haven't found they way he needs to Learn.
I was always telling my daughter that she only had teaches who had not found how to teach her not the she had a learning handicap.

Mu son couldn't read at 10 and now has a masters - decided not to go for a PHD and hasn't a super job so don't despair. Dyslexia if that what it is seems to run in families as my son, his father and grandsons all suffer from it, what his parents have to do is to be extremely vigilant though as they don't always get the proper support from school. My daughter has to pay for extra tuition which always pays off splendidly and we have much happier and high achieving grandchildren who cannot necessarily thank the school.

that should read HAS a super job!!!! GOD

Children learn to read in different ways, phonics are not the be all and end all despite what Gove says. Some reading schemes are boring, especially for children with imaginations. Our children start too young, and are on a treadmill, because of the pressure of SATS and league tables. I taught primary children for nearly 30 years, and saw fads is teaching reading come round several times! Take the pressure off if you can and don't let the school get away with anything you think is not right. You have a right to be consulted when reports are written. How can you help him if you don't know what the problem is. Have you tried the Dr. Seus books My GD was read to from birth, loved stories and books, but wasn't in the slightest bit interested in reading herself. Now, in America where they didn't put any pressure on her, at 9 she is a fluent read.

Well said, brendawymms. I think people too much and too early. My eldest brother struggled with reading until he was about nine. It didn't stop him getting into medical school when he was eighteen and having a successful career as a GP.

I don't think you need to worry yet, lyndylou.

Sorry. People worry too much and too early...

Yes I do agree with the worrying too early but if the child is being labeled as a slow reader etc. they will pick up on that, so my daughter ensured that their confidence was re-built and it worked splendidly. I think that the problem is that there are too large class sizes when it is easy to label a child rather than finding the time to ensure he/she succeeds. Some of the cuts has had a detrimental effect and extra help in various forms have been cut. I am also not convinced that educationalists have all the tools yet to deal with the problems presented.

My son had no interest in reading. He did not like stories and would not try. His teacher was wonderful and sourced some non fiction, At the Airport was one. As soon as he had something he was interested in he was off. He read all the Famous Five books when he was 8 or 9, and had developed a taste for a good story. The school he attended did not teach phonetics but taught word recognition. This seems to have fallen out of favour now.

DD2 has started using the Reading Egg system for DGSs...both have dyslexia. They love using it and are making good progress.

readingeggs.co.uk/

Thank you for all the comments, you have all been very nice. You have have all made me feel much better tonight about the situation.

Brendawymms I think you are correct, the trouble is, school think he is failing the educational system whereas I think the system is failing him.

Notso I have had a look at the Reading Egg it looks very good, I will see if I can get him started on it.

He's only six and children learn at different rates. Perhaps he has also picked up on grown-ups' anxieties and now feels anxious about "failing". It might have been sheer panic that caused him to be unable to answer questions about household objects, etc., and his mind just went "blank".

I'm not an expert - and correct me if I'm wrong teachers on here - but just reading to him and talking about the illustrations together and discussing what might happen next may take the pressure off him and make reading seem like a pleasurable activity.

Although I don't remember, Mum told me that I was slow to pick up reading. They didn't put any pressure on me but we went to the library every week and I picked out the books I liked the look of. By the age of around 12/13 I was reading adult books.

Lindylou my six year old GD has been having the same problem. My daughter has had GD's eyes tested twice and looked into dyslexia. Just in the last week while visiting I noticed she couldn't read on coloured pages. She has been losing confidence and her teacher has said "oh well, that's just her." My GD has an amazing memory and so it has been puzzling that when reading she couldn't remember words she had been helped with in the previous sentence. Then she would read a book quite well and we would think, finally she is getting better at reading. Then the next day she couldn't read very well, it's been very frustrating. She was also squinting when reading and had asked her teacher if she could sit closer if the teacher was writing on the board. She is also learning French and is doing very well and has no trouble reading French words out loud, which we now realise are in black print on white pages.

After doing a search on the Internet I have looked at colour blind children, one in twelve boys are colour blind in red/green alone. (my son can't distinguish between blue and grey). There is probably a child who is colour blind in every class. They have problems reading on coloured paper and teachers seem to be unaware.

I then started reading about children who are coloured sensitive. Then I read about children who are long sighted, I read somewhere that those children have problems reading print on coloured pages. Being long sighted can be inherited. I think this might be my GD's problem. She will have to have her eyes tested again by someone who is more aware of other problems besides being short sighted.

Coloured pages are now widely used because it makes it easier for children with dyslexia to read but is causing problems for other children. I hope more teachers become aware of this.

Faye Here's a link to a company that make reading rulers/overlays etc for helping children (or adults for that matter!) who struggle with black text on white pages, but may also be useful for changing the colour of pages that are the 'wrong' colour for others to be able to read.

www.thedyslexiashop.co.uk/coloured-reading-rulers.html

Also worth checking if your GD has scotopic sensitivity. You need a specialist to test for this, not an optician.

Thank you for the link MiniMouse, it was very interesting. It seems a lot of these problems are inherited. You are definitely right regarding my GD seeing a specialist not an optician, I think the sooner the better.

1) Michelangelo was a mirror writer. It sometimes helps to put a faint X on the left at the beginning of a line so that is where to begin writing..
2) there is nothing wrong with telling a child that 'at' says at . Then take a piece of paper ,fold the length the width of a letter write at all the way down the page not on the fold like this.
at
at
at
at
Then put b,c,f,h ,m in front in a different colour if you find that useful
Then with the fold covering those first letters write p,r,s,t,v read the first list
list with him blending b- at ,c- at and so on . Fold and do the second list.
Read it with him or just to him so he hears b-at ,c-at ,and so on ,say it with him and then offer a chocolate button when he can say them ,with or without blending. Being successful is very important .People remember when they are successful. Use little words and if the school uses qu, ch,sh ,th wh use those asif they are one letter so chat ,that,can join in ,but not what because that says whot! You can build paper- fold lists with these words ,in ,on,un ,and ,
etc. then perhaps words ending in ' ite' for bite kite .white ,mite,quite ,rite
Same with ate ,bate date fate etc. use,fuse,muse,ruse . In fact mix saying a whole word and adding letters to it.? The object is to widen the words he knows quickly. Make it so he hears you do it ,he does it with you as many times as he needs it, then alone .Use lots of praise! Very important.
3) my father had a method that made my grand daughter shriek with laughter and teach him how to read . He was awful at reading so with a well known story like The Three Bears he would read it to her and say the porridge was too sweets,too sour and just like concrete so she had to put him right over and over again because his memory was terrible too. He did that with any story she knew particular phrases .Run,run as fast as you can you can't catch me ,l'm the gingerbread man ,that became a gingerbread biscuit of courses. The local library often have the old favourites.
4) a packet of gold stars is less fattening.
5) if he knows some rhymes ,polite or not ,write them down and make some mistakes! Children insist on the correct words . Have fun! A mistake isn't the end of the world and do it for say 10 minutes only and stop when he's succeeded . End on a high note so he'll look forward to it not dread it.

I wrote one but it seems to have got lost

It's popped up now so you may get a repeat .Sorry!

One last point ,begin with words he knows so he succeeds straight away .
He's lost his confidence and grand parents are just the people to put that right. One very famous man didn't even speak until he was seven. The b/ d
muddle .The b has a stick for a body and then a big fat bum which always comes at the back!

Whilst I agree that 6 is not very old many children are reading by the end of year one. If everything else about your DGS is within the expected stage of development then I would suggest he may well have a specific learning difficulty. If he does not find phonics his 'natural' reading skill then go for 'look and say' games to see if that helps, particularly to build up his confidence as well as skills. I would just read lots of lovely picture book stories/ non-fiction to him, full of rhymes and repeated phrases so he can join in and follow with his finger as you read. Above all he needs to want to do it and enjoy it. Lots of fun reading games/activities/books on line too!

The school cannot have involved an outside professional to asses your DGS without parental permission. I am not defending the lateness of the report but suspect the service has been severely cut as Local Authorities are wound down.

Many thanks for all your helpful comments, I would have responded before but I have been away. As it happens, quite a lot has happened over the last week. My DD and I have been in talks with his new Year 2 teacher and the SENCO at last and we now have a much clearer picture. We have been assured that, despite the wording of the report, DGS is not thought to have overall development issues but that he is generally behind in all his learning activities. He is not alone in his class, so 5 children have been allocated a Teaching assistant with lots of one to one work. The strategy has been to take him back to Foundation level work and concentrate on the basics of phonetics.

We have been advised to concentrate on reading to him and not to push him to read for a while, and that is what we have been doing along with single letter flash cards and simple maths games and activities on the computer. I feel we have gone back in time, however I do think it is the best thing for him at the moment. He is much more positive at the moment, has more of a buzz about him when he comes out of school and tells us much more about what he has been doing at school. I said that I was trying to arrange a check for scotopic sensitivity during the half term break and the SENCO said they were also purchasing a whole new kit with coloured filters to see if they help the SEN children.

I know many children are reading by the end of Year 1 but I do think the push to get them through the phonetics test is counter productive for the slower ones. However I am much happier knowing that he has a plan for the way forward and clear goals so we can check his progress in a couple of months. Thanks again to everyone who responded.

It's all sounding very positive, I'm so pleased. Keep us posted

lyndylou I am sure taking away the fear of failing to read might be a very good idea. I hope he stays positive.

Dyslexia is a compendium word that covers all the problems people can have encoding and decoding text. It can take many forms so because a child does not have the same problems as a dyslexic parent doesn't mean that the problem is not dyslexia.

A friend was told her children were not dyslexia by a LA educational psychologist because they had no problem identifying individual letters and short words. Seen by a specialist in dyslexia the children were diagnosed with short term memory problems. The children had problems transferring of information from short to long term memory. They could do simple sums, but when they had to read a problem they had forgotten the start the problem by the time they finished reading the paragraph setting out the whole mathematical problem.

They both had specialist training and tuition at a dyslexia centre and, in their 30s now both have successful careers and one went to university.

So do not exclude dyslexia. Find a local expert or contact The Dyslexia Association www.bdadyslexia.org.uk/ for help and information.

Having taught Dyslexic children for many years I am not going to give any educational advice, as the school do seem to be on top of the situation.. I am sorry for the experiences that you are going through, but please stay positive.

I would say, have you had his hearing thoroughly tested. Poor hearing in children can lead to all sorts of problems, as communication is key at this age.

Also, try to be relaxed and build up his confidence in other ways such as playing games etc.

i wish you well.x