What can I do? My child child is not making progress in reading?More and more parents are finding their child in this situation. You are far from alone. The teaching of reading has been made so complicated, so that you can be made to feel helpless, unless you have hundreds of pounds (literally) to get your child assessed and help obtained. Sadly, even then, your child may only receive a label with little or no help to actually solve the problem. Help is at hand. I have taught hundreds of children to read over the course of over 30 years - of all ages and abilities. I know that it does not need to be complicated. For many children, they only need more structure to their learning than has been given to them at school - plus a programme that can go at their pace, not one set by a classteacher/school/governmnet department/etc.. On my FREE reading programme, Reading Made Simple, I show you how easy it can be to help your child I do not mean that it will not involve much patience, or learning on your part - learning how your child learns, how best to teach in a way that encourages rather then discourages, and so on, but one that lays out a simple programme that you can use to go at your child's pace and that gives you a simple lesson outline that you can follow each day, for just a few minutes before or after school as as part of your home-school lessons. FREE Reading books for reading interventionAs well as our FREE decodable reading books for children who are just starting out, or who have a special need, I also have a series of books for older children who may need to go back and revisit the early stages to build reading accuracy and fluency. These books were written for my older pupils, some of whom had started secondary school before they cam to me for help. Assess what your child can doBefore we find help for your child, the first thing to do is to assess where the problem has arisen. I do this through a simple testing activity that even you can do. When you know where your child has come unstuck, then you can work to rebuild and strengthen the 'wall'. See learning to read as building a house. First a child must learn the initial sounds - the sounds that each letter of the alphabet stand for. Then they must learn to put those sounds together to make words: c-a-t: cat! Once this skill is mastered, they must be able to blend four sounds - word with a consonant blend, like s-w-i-m. These stages form the foundation for reading and it here, in the foundations that I usually find 'cracks' or even 'holes' in the wall that are causing a child to fail to make reading progress. This post will tell you more. A little daily structured help may be all that your child needs. And you can become the expert - and saver £££££'s! Other may need a little more digging and help is provided here. Decodable reading books for reading interventionI have a growing series of decodable reading books for reading intervention.
What is special about these reading intervention books?In my work with older reading 'delayed' children I find a commons symptom, once the intial foudnations have been checked thoroughly, to ensure for example that a child knows the initial sounds and how to blend them to make words. GUESSING has most often become the child's main strategy. This becomes obvious when you find a child confusing words that look very similar, e.g. tip and trip. These books deliberately include these words multiple times to force the child to think about the whole word, not just a part. In short, these books have been written as I have helped REAL children - not by an academic with a literacy degree, but no real working knowledge of how children learn. CVC Words
Consonant blendsBasic common sounds with 2 or 3 letters togetherThe following books have been written to match Level 2 of Reading Made Simple. If these are too hard for your child - do not fear, simply do Level 1 instead, and find a complete set of reading books for you to use with your child.
Keep moving through the Reading Made Simple programme and your child will make progress. Purchase the bundle for a low price: click belowWhen our children first begin to learn to read we may take care to use phonics. Maybe your child's school uses phonics. Phonics is the proven, best method to teach all children to read and spell well. So your child starts to learn by phonics and you expect all to be well. For some, that is the end of the story. The child does well, learns to read fluently and the parent thinks no more about it. For others, the tale is some what different. Their child fails to make progress. They are told "Maybe s/he is late starter". "Don't worry, it will come!" Precious time passes and still the child cannot read. "What is wrong with my child?" Thinks the parent, and starts to have big concerns. For those children at school, the misery increases. The teacher does not seem to know how to help. The curriculum says the teacher must move on and the child has to go too - and while others can read the questions and the books, for those that cannot, there is little help. They fall behind in all subjects and their time at school is pretty much wasted. By the time the child reaches secondary school, s/he is often disillusioned and may have given up wanting to read, long before. What can a parent in these circumstances do, or do to prevent the case getting worse than it already is? Help is at hand. Reading Made Simple has been written just for such children and the good news is that it is 100% free. You can become your child's teacher and with a road map in front of you, and some guidance, and some determination to succeed, you can help your child, without needing to spend lots of money. Should I get a dyslexia assessment? These are very expensive to do privately and will only get a label without necessarily the help to go with it. A school may provide your child with a dyslexia friendly keyboard, headset and audio equipment, but if s/he cannot read, this may be of little help. If you suspect that your child may have symptoms of dyslexia, you can ask the school to pay for an assessment, though such an assessment is hard to get now. The Government's latest advice is that as the schools teach phonics, all children's needs should now be catered for - even those with potential dyslexia and that the school will provide what is necessary. The other problem is that there are many children needing help and there is probably going to be a long wait for help which may mean more time is wasted. You can help your child NOW. As a teacher of children who need help with reading and the author of Reading Made Simple, I work with such children. As part of my work , I have devised a series of simple tests that you can use to find out where to start your child on Reading Made Simple. This will make it easier for you to pin-point precisely where your child is having difficulties. Having identified the difficulties you can take action to help your child to learn the necessary skills, through the information contained, for FREE, on the website. The test assesses a child's ability to recognise the letter sounds and then to put them together and pull them apart to read and spell words such as cat, do, and frog. This may seem very simplistic, but experience shows me, time and time, again that a child struggling to make progress in reading or spelling has got left behind somewhere at this stage and is then relying on guess work. Many programmes tell the teacher which days to teach which lesson. Sadly not all children fall into this structure. Some needed more time on a skill and didn't get it. The programme moved on and the child was left with a handicap which then holds them back from their true potential. I have produced this simple test to find that place where your child got left behind
This kit is like having me there to assess your child. Your child need not even know it is a test. The instructions are easy to follow and the results easy to interpret and all the information you need is included in the Diagnostic Phonic Assessment Tool Kit. If you do the test and then have trouble interpreting it, despite the guidance, please contact me. Reading Made Simple is easy to use and as many parents say, it is so easy that you could be forgiven for thinking that your child is not learning until you see the progress that has been made. It structures the learning process so carefully so that all can succeed, given support from a parent who has read the programme and has followed it closely. Success* is built into the programme. Your child need not fail any longer! There are many resources, also for FREE, that you can use if they are helpful. *Reading Made Simple has helped many children of varying degrees of difficulty, from profound to no known difficulties, to learn to read successfully, however I cannot guarantee success as there are too many factors outside of my control. The programme is simple, but because it is so simple, every component of the programme is essential - none can be missed out. Please do read the teaching notes carefully. There are many resources, also for FREE, that you can use if they are helpful. Reading Made Simple. Once children have learnt to hear initial sounds, they need to then hear middle and final sounds. Some children have difficulty hearing final sounds. This may be because they have poor phonological awareness. These children may also have indistinct speech. But these children can still learn to read and write, and we can help their speech as well. What is needed is a fun way to help the child to do something that is intrinsically boring - lots of practice hearing the final sound. I designed this game to do just that, to help one of my pupils. He loved it, even though he is ten! He took it home and the whole family played it, which made him feel less 'behind'. Better still - he is now hearing the final sound of words easily. It worked better than a hundred worksheets, as his writing is not good, having poor pencil control too due to low muscle tone. Final Sounds Games PackTo make the final sounds gameChoose either black and white (for economy or to use the colouring of the sheets while talking about the sounds as an added activity) or colour. Choose a baseboard: either Build a Castle or Race Track. Print as many baseboards as you have players. I suggest an adult with a child initially, but once the child is confident then more players could be invited to play. Four would be a good maximum number. Print and cut up the picture cards with the ending sounds you wish to practice. Print the sound cards also (with the flag). You will need 1 sound for each player. To play:Talk about each of the picture cards ending with sounds you have chosen to practice in this game with your pupil before starting the game. Talk about the beginning sound and the ending sound. Tell your child that in this game we will be listening for the sound at the end of each word.
Hopefully, your pupil will have had much fun playing these game and will want to repeat them using different sounds! Speech therapyThe game can also be used within speech therapy to help children distinguish between sounds which are produced in a like manner: k/g; p/b; t/d. Many children have difficulty with sounds that are produced using the same part of the mouth/voice/tongue. If this is true of your pupil then I suggest that you start by playing the game with two sounds which are not at all similar. Once the child can confidently hear the final sound of a word, then the game can be played with sounds which are similar to help the child’s speech development and the ability to carefully discriminate between like sounds. Find the Final Sounds Game Pack on TPT here for a small price.
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A spring phonics game to help children
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A first reader that your child can read for him/her self once this game has been played
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Make sure your pupil has been introduced to the necessary phonics sounds before playing this game
My Spring Phonics Game is suggested for those readers who have completed Stage 7 of Reading Made Simple.
So that you can work out if this Spring Phonics Game is appropriate for your child, I have listed the words contained in the game, with their phonics sounds marked, below:
nest
eggs frog bud blossom catkins |
Tulip
Crocus Daffodil |
chicks
Bluebells Primrose frogspawn tadpole |
flowers
butterfly |
The Spring Phonics Game...
and easy to play - like all of our games!
Click the picture to download!
If you like our games, please tell us and your friends!
If something is wrong, tell us before you tell your friends!
'ie' - Eye-EE
'ur' = You Are
'er' = EE ARE
This phonic ir/ur/er game helps spelling no end!
ur
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er
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ir
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Hop to the Pond Game
This game is suitable for children at Stage 5 of Letters and Sounds who have learnt 'ch', 'sh' and 'ay' already.
How to play:
The pupil takes a letter card (ur/er/ir) from the feely bag and then has to select a picture from the pool of picture cards that pictures a word from the chosen family .
The pupil will then have to see if it is correct by checking against the Word Bank Card. The teacher can help with this.
If correct, the picture card is taken and put by the player. If not it is returned to the table, face up.
The winner has the most picture cards once one player has reached the pond.
Full instructions are given in this FREE download (see below).
You will need:
2 counters
A feely bag, or small box to put the letter cards in.
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Playing Tips:
- Remind the pupil that 'er' most usually occurs at the end of a word: it's that sound that we make at the end of words such as 'jump - er'. Help the pupil to speak 'posh' and sound the 'er' correctly.
- Talk about the words represented by the pictures before you start to play the game. If you are not sure, check with the Word Bank first, by finding the picture for each word as it is read.
- If the pupil chooses the wrong word for a sound, refer to the Word Bank Card and reinforce the correct spelling.
- Have fun! As the pupil's mind will be taken up with the game - s/he will forget the learning that is taking place quietly underneath!
- Afetr the game, ask the pupil to say the word for each picture and tell you which family it belongs to. E.g. bird - 'ir'.
Other resources you might find helpful:
A printer to print your game
Card to print it on
Alaminator to protect it and make it last longer
Afolder to keep all the pieces safe.
If you like our games, please tell us others and us!
Download your FREE game by clicking on the picture.
The ai/oa phonics game
'ai' makes an 'ay' sound in words, listen:
tr ai n
b oa t
boat: loaf toast, coat, road, toad
train: tail, drain, nail, rain, maid
OR
You could use the game as an individual activity, for which it is great for assessing a child's ability in phonics.
This game involves listening and reading to give practice in hearing the ai/oa sounds and recognising them in words. there are no complicated rules - so you can be ready to play in no time at all!
Easy to make!
- Just download and print the game pages - card is good but not essential.
- Cut out the necessary cards.
- Laminate the games to make them last longer (optional)
- Find a small box/bag or purchase a blank die.
- And you are ready to go!
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Find worksheets to support teaching and learning here:
Other games you may like:
Download your FREE ai/oa game here:
Welcome
Hello, I'm Lilibette, qualified teacher (B.Ed Hons). I have taught phonics in mainstream education, followed by have home-educated my two sons to 18, and am now a private tutor.
Reading Made Simple (a completely free systematic phonic reading programme) and Sound-it-out are the results!
I aim to bring advice and resources aimed at enabling parents and teachers to EASILY teach phonics effectively. That is: to help children become life-long readers, forming a bedrock on which all further education can be built. My mother helps to draw the pictures and between us we have many years experience of teaching KS1, special needs and ESL. We hope you enjoy browsing our site!
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