My DD is struggling with Phonics

djtonyb

Hi Folks

After a bit of advise...

My DD is in year 3 and is struggling badly with her handwriting and spelling.

School don't seem to be too bothered ( although she attends extra lessons called sound right and handwriting club).

We've had her eyes checked and she is slightly long sighted but doesn't need glasses.

We read with her every day and practice her spellings every night but she can't write or spell for toffee.

A teacher friend has assessed her at the weekend and her reading age is 10.5 yrs (shes 8 ) but her spelling age is 5 :eek:

How can I help my DD. I have asked for a phonics workshop at school since she started but all the staff are still being trained to teach it and the school is unwilling to hold a parents workshop until all the staff have been taught!!.

I've tried googling phonics but there is so many different ways to teach it I'm confused and I don't really understand it.

pinkclouds

I can't stand phonics but I accept they are very popular. I never learnt to read with phonics but my kids use them at school. (I use "look and say" at home.) The important thing is that your daughter learns to read and spell, not what method she uses to learn these things. She already has an advanced reading ability so you just need to focus on spelling practice. Phonics are a hindrance there - the sounds for C and K are the same!

A teacher friend of mine suggested "rainbow writing" as a good method for learning to spell - particularly for girls, due to the attractive result. You write the word out once and the child goes over it, many times, using different coloured pencils. It looks pretty and repeated writing helps drill the letters into the child's mind. Alternatively, tracing letters to form words is similar but not so pretty. There are lots of free worksheets on the internet or you can make your own. These methods have the added advantage of writing practice!

Try this fab website to create your own free tracing word sheets: http://www.handwritingworksheets.com/

pinkclouds

If you're really keen on phonics at home, I believe two very popular schemes are Jolly Phonics and Oxford Reading Tree. You can find them on Amazon - just make sure you buy the right age/level for your child because they obviously start from kindergarten level.

DVardysShadow

pinkclouds wrote: »

.... A teacher friend of mine suggested "rainbow writing" as a good method for learning to spell - particularly for girls, due to the attractive result.

Different people learn in different ways and it is good to see professionals appreciating that.

OP, I would suggest that rathr than just trying to get to grips with phonics, you look at all the methods available and see if there are any which are particularly strong for any aspects of your daughter's problems.

fluffnutter

Is she struggling with phonics or is she struggling with reading and writing? Phonics is merely a method (a very good one as it happens) for teaching reading and writing but it doesn't work for everyone and ironically the English language doesn't lend itself particularly well to a solely phonics based teaching method because we have so many irregular spellings and pronunciations. Perhaps she's happier with the whole word approach, i.e. she learns to recognise words, not word components.

Personally I'd ask her GP for a referral to a child education specialist and get her tested for dyslexia. The sooner any problems are identified the earlier a teaching method that suits her can be put in place and the quicker she'll catch up.

If she's not dyslexic, then I'd research alternative methods, as phonics clearly isn't working for her.

fluffnutter

pinkclouds wrote: »

I can't stand phonics but I accept they are very popular. I never learnt to read with phonics but my kids use them at school.

I didn't learn with phonics either. I think it depends on how old you are - these things go in and out of fashion don't they?

I simply learnt by being exposed to a lot of writing day in, day out. I'd look at the words whilst my mum, dad, whomever, read them out. Books, products in the supermarket, the destination on buses, street names, wherever you look there are words and every day is an opportunity to read them out loud to your kids.

You simply start to recognise words and build up a lexicon. I don't ever remember being 'taught'; I just absorbed it.

sassyblue

pinkclouds wrote: »

Phonics are a hindrance there - the sounds for C and K are the same!

I don't remember how l learnt those but my younger siblings learnt them as a 'curly c' and a kicking k' which l tell my 5 year old.

OP, it must be hard but l say just keep trying, she'll get there eventually.

pinkclouds

fluffnutter wrote: »

I didn't learn with phonics either. I think it depends on how old you are - these things go in and out of fashion don't they?

My mom taught me to read before I started school. The school was perfectly happy with that and did not force me to learn their phonic method. I don't think it disadvantaged me in any way - although I still cannot do the phonic sounds, at my advanced age! My mom used flash cards at home and, later on, story books. I happen to think my mom's method is the best because (a) I am biased and (b) she can spell almost everything even if she hasn't heard the word before. God, playing scrabble in my childhood used to be awful - she'd always win by a massive lead...

tyllwyd

I'm a mum, not a professional in any way, but I'd say that if your daughter can already read to a good standard, then she's already mastered the stage that phonics is useful for - it helps the kids recognise the letters and the way that they are said, so that they can look at a written word and break it down into the sounds so that they can read it out. When it comes to spelling, my daughters needed to move on from phonics because that can easily lead them into mistakes ('taught' would be 'tort' etc).

What kind of mistakes is your DD making? What do you think she is struggling with most?

djtonyb

Hi Guys

I don't think (although I'm not a professional) that she is dyslexic. I just don't think phonics is working for her. My issue is that the lower school will only use phonics and as parents we have 'been told off' for going against the schools teaching techniques by teaching her to spell differently.

Her mistakes are with words like chair, she will write char, left will have a d at the end e.g lefd although she can spell BECAUSE (by remembering Big Elephants Can't Always Use Small Elevators!!!!) . She still writes like shes in reception with giant words and no finger spaces. They are concentrating on joined writing at the moment - don't see how she can master this if she hasn't mastered the basics of handwriting

fluffnutter

I used to have flashcards too! I loved them. I do think that a non-phonics based approach actually makes you a better speller, because you know the whole word. Phonics is totally useless for a lot of words. When I look at my niece's spelling, or that of my friend's little girl, I can really see the influence of phonics - my niece spelt 'patient' 'payshunt' the other day!