Reply to Raising third grader can’t identify vowels and consonants

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[quote=Anonymous]Just a few things peering in on this conversation. I am a reading tutor (orton gillingham certified) who works with kids who have learning disabilities as well as those who don't. Including advanced readers.

The reason being able to identify consonants and vowels (and consonant) blends is important is that it allows kids to decode words with which they are unfamiliar. For young readers this could include a huge range of words they will encounter in academic texts fiction because most children are not having conversations or consuming media with a very large vocabulary (this is a separate issue but it's generally true).

Until the return to phonics over the last few years many kids were being taught with a method that emphasized memorization and guessing using context. This method has now been broadly debunked but it's very likely that OP's son was taught using this method with less emphasis on phonics. Which is why he doesn't know vowels versus consonants or consonant blends (which are taught explicitly in phonics instruction).

To me this would be a red flag. Meaning I would investigate to see how big the problem is. As a tutor my first areas of inquiry would be whether he has an understanding of syllables (whether taught or intuitive -- some kids figure this out on their own) as understanding of vowels is fairly central to understanding of syllables. I would then be investigating to see how he decodes both challenge words (words with unusual spelling for structure) or nonsense words to get a sense of his decoding ability and whether his lack of understanding around consonants and vowels is impacting this ability.

I would also be looking at all his reading assessments. What's his DIBELs score and how has it changed from the beginning of the year? Schools often also do other testing including something like i-Ready and district-wide assessments that are intended to assess school performance but may also provide a snapshot of his literacy as well as a chance to compare against his prior performance and his peer group. I'd look at all of this and also ask for explanations of anything you don't understand from the teacher.

It's possible he's doing fine but especially given OP's experience with dyslexia and being a non-native speaker and reader there are good reasons here to investigate this further just to make sure there are no issues.

Also sorry about the lack of punctuation in my post -- my keyboard has some nonfunctional keys at the moment![/quote]

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