My DD is struggling with Phonics

pinkclouds

sassyblue wrote: »

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.

I've told my kids that too, as an aide memoire. However, those are not the phonic sounds. When my daughter makes the phonic noise for them, I assure you it sounds identical. Also, we had a sound/action card home at the start of school that said what the sounds were and the C and K were the same. So if you spell... BRICK, for example, the last two letters will sound the same if you use the noises instead of the names.

pinkclouds

djtonyb wrote: »

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.

Oh dear! That's something else entirely. My daughter's school is very supportive and has no issue with parents using different techniques at home. They've always said the result is the important thing, not the route. Not sure what to suggest...

fluffnutter

djtonyb wrote: »

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.

Yeah, I've heard of this happening before. You're not 'going against the school', you're merely enhancing their methods. Do whatever works for your little girl and don't worry about it.

pmlindyloo

I really wouldn't worry too much at this stage.

Your daughter is obviously a good reader and most children learn to spell by being 'exposed' to words through reading. The brain seems to 'take on board' spelling patterns and the child will often have a visual memory of what we call 'difficult words'. That seems to be why most people learn to read without any formal teaching of phonics.

However, some children do have difficulty in securing the spelling patterns and benefit from some phonic 'training.'

Despite the problem of children who then start spelling entirely phonectically I believe it is worthwhile introducing some basic spelling patterns and learning some basic 'sight words'.

I think the Beat Dyslexia books are a very good source for learning some basic spelling patterns. (You don't have to be dyslexic to use them)

I will try and find the link for some useful 'sight words' that your daughter could also try and learn.

I wonder if your teacher friend could spare an hour a week to help?

It goes without saying that it should all be good fun and not a chore!

As for the writing, I am sure this will improve in time. I am a great believer in learning 'joined up' writing from the start. Looks very messy at first but saves 'relearning' at a later stage. Just try to encourage the gap between the words for now.

Off to find the link for the sight words.

pmlindyloo

Here's the link:

http://www.dolchword.net/dolch-word-list.html

If your daughter can cope with putting things into alphabetical order then later you could print off the list and laminate it.

I do this for my children who are poor spellers and they take it with them to school and refer to it when they are writing. Some children need an aide memoire like this.

thehappybutterfly

I've got to throw in a negative response - my 15YO daughter is a terrible writer and speller. She learned phonetics and I always used to question the teacher at primary school because her writing and spelling were so bad. They told me not to worry as they were concentrating on sentence structure etc. I think it's a terrible way to learn to spell - the cv's I receive from anyone under the age of 25 or so are shocking. She's better than she was but nowhere near good enough. But I don't criticise her as, really, it's not her fault. I do correct her as it's the only way she's going to learn. Plus text speak doesn't help does it? They've never learned where vowels are supposed to go.

Bennifred

Being a good reader does not necessarily mean that she is not dyslexic. My youngest son is dyslexic, cannot spell a word the same way twice, has illegible writing and can read very well indeed. He was tested and diagnosed by Educational Psychologists at age 8 and again at age 18.

If it is any comfort - he is now studying History at university.

My main recommendations would be to get your daughter tested for any learning difficulties and also get her taught to touch type (whether she has a diagnosis or not)!

freda

Sorry, typed out a long reply then it vanished! The crux of it though was to work through it all again, but quickly, at home. Start by looking up the jolly phonics songs on youtube and writing as many words as you can think of that use the sound. Maybe do 3 per day or so. They cover all the basic letter phonics as well as a lot of common digraphs (blended sounds) like ch and th. Then go on to google 'key words' and again, do 2-3 per day. Make it a game, chop up the letters and do a memory game to make the words, or hide them around the room. Then write the daftest and silliest sentence you can think of that uses them. Then google 'spelling lists' and learn a couple of spellings a day for a 'Sunday challenge' where 10 spellings = chocolate bar prize or similar.

Ask the school re. screening for dyslexia as well. Can she use scissors, a needle, can she tie her laces? How is her logical reasoning and can she do things in a logical order? There are a lot of associated difficulties (dyspraxia, dyscalcula) that may affect her ability to write clearly and the earlier they are discovered the more you can work at overcoming them .

kezlou

hi just id post and say your dd is not the only one, my son who its also in year3 is also behind with phonics. He gets so far then it's,like he hits a brick wall. It's because phonics isn't logical which it's my son has so many problems with it. The school my youngest son attends have completely changed they approach with and now use flash cards and different visual aids. since they adopted hits phonics training his spelling and reading have massively improved . If your daughter is dyslexic phonics will confuse her, I would suggest using flash cards at home. Ask your daughters teacher for,a list of current words she ness to know by the end of year 3 and slowly work them. Start off with doing the flash cards for five minutes at a time, any longer and she will get frustrated. I did this with my now 12 year old son and he was a level
1 in year 4 and level 5 In all his subjects. He literally went through twenty levels in two years. It's hard work but spending five mins every day can make such a difference. if you a need a hand just message me and try and help anyway I can.

freda

I found the spelling lists on this website quite useful when I was helping a friend's daughter with similar spelling difficulties:

http://www.spellanywhere.co.uk/spellings.php?view=1&id=247