Junior Infant learning to read

LegacyUser · 10-01-2019 10:03pm #1

I was going to post this in the education forum but it seems to get no traffic whereas most people here have or had small kids so I'll ask here if it's ok...

So just to preface this, my daughter has dyspraxia and is reasonably delayed in lots of areas but does not have an intellectual delay.

They started their jolly phonics at halloween and have been working their way through the alphabet. She has learned all the songs and can sound out individual letters in words such as H-A-T but not for the life of her can she come to the conclusion that the word is actually HAT. She will guess anything and everything and cannot grasp that the word started with a H sound so will guess words beginning with B, S...anything basically. How long does it take for a child to make this click? I have a feeling that the class are moving forward and she is lagging behind and I'm beginning to fret. I am beginning to put a few words on her bedroom wall and do them with her whenever we're up there in the hope that repetition will reinforce the sound and word.
I'm just wondering what it was like for your kids? Especially anyone who has a junior infant right now. thanks

2xj3hplqgsbkym · 11-01-2019 12:55am

My daughter is in senior infants and still can’t read. I don’t think she has dyslexia or any learning difficulty.
I remember when my son was doing the jollyphonics I thought it was taking forever for him to learn and then all of a sudden one day he just read a book.
I think you can expect another year of jolly phonics before any actual reading.

threescompany · 11-01-2019 1:37am

Have you the jolly phonics app on your phone? It’s brilliant. Really reinforces their learning. The first six sounds are free & then a few euro for the remaining sounds. I highly recommend.
I would maybe speak to teacher to see what she thinks & if has she suggestions. However It’s great if she recognizes the JP sounds on their own, and I would think the blending will come , sometimes just takes longer for others.
I would use my finger reading the 3 letter words (CVC) words such as hat / sat/ mat etc. I’m sure you do already but if not, its important to put your finger slowly under each sound as she blends & focus on her saying the first sound in each word. Soon she will remember the word is making the “h” sound and as that’s the first sound. Hope that helps

jlm29 · 11-01-2019 6:52am

My little boy is in first class, and it’s only this year that I really see his reading taking off. Before now I worried that his reading might be a problem, but his teachers never highlighted anything in parent teacher meetings or school reports. Have a quick chat to his teacher some day when you’re dropping or collecting him. They’ll be quick enough to tell you if there’s anything out of the ordinary

Brian? · 11-01-2019 6:58am

I'd be guided by your child's teacher. I was worried about my son not picking up reading and his teacher reassured me several times that it was normal. He's in 2nd now and flys through books.

I was taught by my parents to read before I went to school and my abiding memories of primary school were boredom. So i purposefully didn't push him ahead of the curriculum. Now we're out the other side of it I'm glad I stuck the course, even though it killed me.

I would keep an eye on your kid, but teachers should be aware of how your child compares to their peers. If they see an issue it's time to worry.

Cash_Q · 11-01-2019 7:21am

It's really great that you are so involved with your childs education, but it's important to discuss this with the teacher and ensure that
a) there is/isn't cause for concern
b) you are using the same strategies as the teacher when helping your child

I'd be wary of putting up words in her bedroom etc unless there's a real concern. At junior infants the children can only tolerate so much, hence they're not given hours of homework. Your child needs an opportunity to process the information informally, and she also needs rest time. I'm certain she gets plenty of rest and play time, but a few minutes of reading homework is plenty, you don't want to overdo it and tire her out and you certainly don't want to make her sick of looking at these words.

It's very early in the school year. By this term the children will have settled well socially and will be adapting to class rules better, so there will be more progress made with academics. Your child's teacher will be providing plenty of opportunity to transfer the skills acquired in formal Jolly Phonics lessons, so try to relax and allow the process to develop naturally.

meeeeh · 11-01-2019 1:00pm

Ours didn't properly blend words till she got into Senior Infants and she is performing very well in just about everything according to her teachers.

Talk to the teacher if you are worried but I don't think this is unusual at all.

shesty · 11-01-2019 2:51pm

Does she go to learning resource or whatever they may call it?
It is only Jan in Senior Infants though....there's a way to go yet.

LegacyUser · 11-01-2019 3:50pm

Thanks for all the replies. She has resource 3 times per week for 30 mins. She is delayed across the board but has made great progress since starting school. School want to run Belfield Infant assessment on her which freaks me out a little but I know she is behind. I'm trying to latch onto the fact that she loves school and is making slow and steady progress (as I said there is no cognitive delay). I was just curious if she was well behind in her blending. She is trying but just hasn't twigged that the first letter sound indicates the first sound in the word if that makes sense.
The words on her wall are a gentle thing. I never force it upon her. Sometimes she likes to doodle on her black board and the words are beside it so she might blend them without me asking her to do so. I'm trying to gently immerse her in words.

I know I need to relax, I worry so much. The dyspraxia kind of throws complications into the works. Her lack of concentration and focus and her poor speech belie how much she really knows.

Thanks again.

meeeeh · 11-01-2019 4:09pm

shesty wrote: »

Does she go to learning resource or whatever they may call it?
It is only Jan in Senior Infants though....there's a way to go yet.

Oh no she is fine, she is well able to blend her words now but at the beginning of the year she wasn't great. I was just trying to point out that there is no need to worry in middle of the year in JI.

I can understand op's worries because my older one was behind in his development at 3 and I used to spend most of parent teacher meetings worrying he is behind others despite all his reports being good and above average results in Drumcondra tests. Eventually we realised that he might not be star pupil but he is doing perfectly fine. I know the younger one is a smart little chicken and we worry a lot less. So not overly blending words at the end of Junior Infants didn't really worry us.

shesty · 11-01-2019 5:31pm

Sorry, only half-read posts, thought OP's child was in SI!!
Sorry OP if your child is only in JI, ignore my comment on learning support.It is probably quite early to worry about that yet.At least you have the dyspraxia diagnosis already, so support can be put in place in the future relatively quickly if needed.

Dravokivich · 12-01-2019 2:35am

A part of my son's homework guided familiarity with sounds through alliteration. Might be something to try out?

The Wordress · 13-01-2019 10:42am

Teacher here with a child in Junior Infants also.

My advice is...

Read to your child every single night. Invaluable for language development and sight vocabulary recognition etc.

Get a copy of Jolly Phonics My First Sound Book and revise sounds using this. Also use it to get your child to give you other words starting with that sound. Flashcard would help too.

Get picture books which have pictures of objects starting with each letter of the alphabet. Again use this promote language development and give you other words which start with the same sounds.

Get The Osborne Phonics Readers and read the same book for a few days. Ask your child for words which rhyme with cat, bat etc.

When you’re sure your child knows her sounds. Get a game like Orchard Mix and Spell which helps with blending. This game definitely helped my daughter to blend.

I got magnetic letters with the tricky words from Amazon. I put a few words on the fridge every week.

Go to your local library and ask for readers for beginner readers. Read these to her initially and ask her to read words when she can.

My child has an excellent teacher but all of the above have definitely helped my child to blend and read.

iamwhoiam · 22-01-2019 1:22pm

If anyone is interested Lidl have magnetic letters ( upper case and lower case in the pack ) for €3:99
Grandaughter ( 5 ) is loving playing making words

byhookorbycrook · 01-02-2019 6:32pm

SEN teacher here, blending wouldn't be expected yet, some children get it sooner, some later. She's only in JI, if concerns persist
into the middle of senior infants, I'd talk to the teacher then. Please don't make reading a chore. She will learn to hate it.
In many other countries , they don't start reading until age 7 or beyond.
Let her see you read for fun!Yes, read to her, discuss the pictures, title and cover and then read the book to her, but don't obsess on sounds etc.

LegacyUser · 03-05-2019 12:26pm

Hi, just to update this post. We've made progress with reading but i think she's mostly sight learning the words. Sometimes she might get the blended word but sometimes she'll say something so random that it's clear she doesn't understand that if the first phonic she reads is a 'p' then the word starts with a 'P' sound. I try not to worry and the teacher said she's making progress but I happened to be there early this week for something else and saw all the kids getting their readers and bar another one or two kids whose first language would not have been english, all the kids got red or blue readers so she clearly is well behind ( we have about 10 more yellow readers to get through so she'd be lucky to see a red reader by end of school year). I know I can't/shouldn't compare kids but I can't help it. What else can i do? We do alot eye-spy, I say the phonics to objects during the course of the day, we play word games, we got the usborne books. I am the worst parent to sit patiently and given that she has dyspraxia, I think that is the life we have to adjust to.

And lastly for reassurance, have your late -reader kids adequately caught up in later years?
thanks

shesty · 04-05-2019 9:42pm

Has the teacher given you specific pointers on how to help her?Does she get any one on one help during the week?

As you say, you will have to try not to compare. Celebrate her successes instead of focusing on how much more she seems to have to do compared to others?

bee06 · 04-05-2019 9:50pm

hurler1 wrote: »

And lastly for reassurance, have your late -reader kids adequately caught up in later years?
thanks

My sister was in a remedial reading class in primary school because she was behind. She’s now 30 with a first degree undergrad and masters degree and is a computer developer. Needless to say, she has no issues with reading or anything else.

byhookorbycrook · 04-05-2019 10:13pm

hurler1 wrote: »

Hi, just to update this post. We've made progress with reading but i think she's mostly sight learning the words. Sometimes she might get the blended word but sometimes she'll say something so random that it's clear she doesn't understand that if the first phonic she reads is a 'p' then the word starts with a 'P' sound. I try not to worry and the teacher said she's making progress but I happened to be there early this week for something else and saw all the kids getting their readers and bar another one or two kids whose first language would not have been english, all the kids got red or blue readers so she clearly is well behind ( we have about 10 more yellow readers to get through so she'd be lucky to see a red reader by end of school year). I know I can't/shouldn't compare kids but I can't help it. What else can i do? We do alot eye-spy, I say the phonics to objects during the course of the day, we play word games, we got the usborne books. I am the worst parent to sit patiently and given that she has dyspraxia, I think that is the life we have to adjust to.

And lastly for reassurance, have your late -reader kids adequately caught up in later years?
thanks

I really wouldn't pay too much attention to what the other children are doing at this stage. I once had a senior infant with dyspraxia, who was reading Oxford Reading Stage 1 books, by the end of the year, they were reading O'Brien's Panda books. Reading Eggs is a great site/app as is "Teach your Monster to Read." It will happen for her. It's been proven that the use of positive affirmations can improve significantly improve literacy, so don't settle for " the life we have to adjust to." She will pick up on your anxiety so try to relax a bit.

https://www.education.ie/en/Education-Staff/Information/NEPS-Literacy-Resource/NEPS-Resource-Guidance-on-the-Use-of-Positive-Declarations.pdf

cyning · 04-05-2019 10:53pm

My little girl has been assessed for dyspraxia: her gross motor skills are massively behind but her fine motor are “good” enough that it’s not at a diagnosable level, but she has sensory issues too, and she probably needs a NEPS assessment not that we will get one as she is not “bad” enough. She’s in senior infants.

There is absolutely no comparison between her last year and this year. None. She could not blend at all coming into senior infants. She couldn’t read different font styles: so if for example she knew the word “the” in her school book, in a different book with slightly different font she couldn’t read it at all. She was way behind on the Oxford Reading Tree books. Now she’s reading Horrid Henry Easy Reader books, and she’s trying a Worst Witch one. She’s being getting group resource all year. And will next year too.

So honestly for now try not to worry: you would be so surprised at what they can do once it clicks. Which it did here around February! She knows she’s not at the same level as her friends, and I’m honest with her about that. But she’s ok with that: we focus on what she can do, not what she can’t: like she struggles with writing as she has a large degree of hyper mobility, but that also makes her excellent at doing the splits.

gogo · 07-05-2019 12:00am

cyning wrote: »

But she’s ok with that: we focus on what she can do, not what she can’t: like she struggles with writing as she has a large degree of hyper mobility, but that also makes her excellent at doing the splits.

Love, love this!! My older son has adhd.. he has a high IQ, but just can’t work out to get what’s in his head onto a piece of paper.. it’s slows him down too much to write properly/slowly... but my god the child is the fastest child on any pitch he’s put on and he can multitask like no one I know.

Our kids are different so it’s a case of teaching them differently and celebrating what they do excel at. Your daughter is ok with it because you clearly are.. Mammy Power.. kudos to you!

07-05-2019 11:56am

hurler1 wrote: »

And lastly for reassurance, have your late -reader kids adequately caught up in later years?
thanks

Dyslexia and dyspraxia run in my family. Two of my brothers needed a lot of extra help and were very late to read (don't remember all the details but one still couldn't read letters at 6 or 7, so well beyond JI). In their 20s & 30s now and both have postgraduate degrees. One is an IT Manager, the other is a researcher at Oxford. To be honest, I think all the extra work they had to put in at school left them more hardworking than any of the rest of us in the family.

LegacyUser · 07-05-2019 12:54pm

Thank you all so much for the replies. The reassurance is so helpful as I'm a natural born worrier in life and I'm still trying to wrap my head around some her difficulties.
Cyning, I think we're possibly the opposite end of the spectrum to you. Her gross and fine motor skills are ok; she's still clumsy but not half as much as she used to be and although her colouring is truly awful, her handwriting is pretty good. Her biggest difficulty is concentration and filtering out other 'noise' and also her processing speed. Oh and her speech. She's a bright little thing but can take an age to find the words to answer you. She's also quite immature relative to her peers but she has made massive strides forward in all these domains. Her best quality is that she is good natured and keeps ploughing on even though she knows she's not as good as some of the other kids. I hope this trait alone will stand to her in life.

We have taken most if not all of the recommendations mentioned here and build them into our daily life. The teach your monster to read is a lovely app and she likes that alot.

Thanks again for taking the time to reply.

todolist · 09-05-2019 5:37pm

Read to your children.The Cat in the hat books are brilliant.Best way to teach children.

Junior Infant learning to read

Comments