This is where there was a problem with the original Letters and Sounds Phase 1 (DfE, 2007). Pre-phonics progressionįor Ben, and millions of children like him, it’s a case of knowing what a pre-phonic progression should look like, in order to diagnose what’s making blending such an issue. I find it fascinating that, rather than ‘just doing more’ of the thing which is so challenging, the conversation rarely seems to consider the deeper learning processes which may be holding children like Ben back.Īfter all, if I asked you to run a marathon, and you could only walk to the front door, the solution wouldn’t be to keep making you run marathons! The developmental steps, or gaps in experience, which make learning to blend so challenging for children like Ben, have somehow been erased from the conversation. The advice given in almost all validated phonics programmes is for children to ‘do’ more and more blending until they catch on. We’ve all taught children like Ben I bet you can picture somebody as you’re reading this. His class teacher told me that phonics just didn’t seem to ‘stick’ for Ben, no matter how many times he practised. I watched Ben struggle through his reading book, persevering through the school’s validated phonics programme ‘keep up’ sessions. Try as he might to blend those sounds together, he just couldn’t do it. At five years old, Ben was at the beginning of his early reading journey but he hated it.Īfter just one term in Reception, he already knew he found it hard.
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