Word reading

• ‘Guesses’ when reading a word – based on the first letter, pictures or contextual cues.
• Doesn’t recognise the common exception words (CEWs) taught ‘at a glance’.
• Frequently looks away from the text when reading.
• Isn’t able to adjust their pronunciation of a correctly decoded non-word to match a word in their spoken vocabulary (this is sometimes called ‘set for variability‘ and is key to reading. More information can also be found Section 3.4.3 of Devon’s guidance on understanding children and young people with literacy difficulties

Based on need, some of this provision will be effective.

• Initial support should be based on the school’s systematic synthetic phonics (SSP) scheme. The reading framework states that this support should:
  • provide multiple opportunities for overlearning (recall, retrieval, practice and application at the level of the alphabetic code, word, sentence and text)
  • progress systematically in small, cumulative steps
  • be at a suitable pace for the child or young person (progression may be much slower than for their typically developing peers)
  • be engaging and motivating, using resources that are age-neutral or age-appropriate
  • be daily, if possible.
• Keep a personalised ‘bank’ of words that a child or young person is working on close to hand, so that these can be reviewed throughout the day (for example while waiting to go to assembly). Share these words with parents so that they can practise at home too.
• Provide opportunities to promote fluency in word reading. For example, play Trugs or Trugs Tricky Words in a pair or small group, or use Speed Word sheets.
• Provide 1:1 precision teaching.
• Provide individualised reading intervention (training is provided by Devon’s SpLD team).
• Provide a reading ruler, if the child or young person feels that this makes reading easier. The SpLD team advises that yellow and blue are the best colours to try first.
• Ensure that the child or young person reads with a skilled adult as regularly as possible, and that their reading practice book is at an instructional level (90-94% of words read accurately).
• Explicitly help children and young people adjust the pronunciation of correctly decoded but mispronounced words, through using prompting. For example, if they read cow as ‘coe’ (with a long o sound), tap the ‘ow’ digraph and say ‘What other sound could this be? What word does that make? Does that make sense?’ If the child or young person doesn’t know the sound, tell them. In addition:
  • Practise manipulating the sounds in printed words – for example, using word chains
  • Ensure that the child or young person knows the alternative pronunciations for graphemes taught as part of the school’s phonics scheme
  • Sort words containing the same grapheme according to pronunciation
  • Read books that specifically focus on alternative pronunciations for graphemes.
• Continue to focus on developing vocabulary knowledge and language skills (research indicates that language skills impact on decoding, as well as on comprehension).

Support services

• The Devon English Team
• Devon’s Specific Learning Difficulties (SpLD) Team
• Devon’s Educational Psychology Service

Further reading and information

• Devon’s guidance on understanding children and young people with literacy difficulties
• What Works for Literacy Difficulties? – a database of interventions
• The reading framework
• NASEN webinar – Dyslexia
• NASEN webinar – Whole class reading
• Apps to support children and young people with literacy difficulties
• Speed Words:
  • Instructions for using Speed Words sheets
  • Speed Words sheet example
  • Speed Words record sheets

Ideas and resources to share with parents

• Reading at home (tips from the SpLD team)
• Share books with your child or young person every day. Read to them, following the text with your finger as you do. Tips for reading with your child |BookTrust
• Help your child to read their school reading book as often as possible – ideally every day.