My DD and reading/phonics

[jennifer08]

My dd is 6 (kindergarten age) and is an enigma to me. She taught herself to read last year and reads and comprehends at a 2nd/3rd grade level. She is an extremely visual learner. All of her other skills are at a K-1 level, but she has lots of trouble with phonemic awareness. She knows all of the letter sounds and has completed book one of Explode the Code. However, when I tell her 3 sounds (like /p/ /a/ /t/) and ask her to tell me the word they make up, she can only do it maybe about 50% of the time. She gets frustrated and upset. The crazy thing is that she will go over to the whiteboard, write the letters for the sounds that I'm telling her, and then read the word. What are some fun ways that I can help her? How much do I need to worry about this? She is obviously doing fine with her reading and can actually sound out some unfamiliar words, but I think a lot of it is that she's memorized so many words that she can apply them to words she doesn't know. Very visual girl!

TIA for any suggestions.

Jennifer
DD 6
DS 2

[skueppers]

The question I have is, how does this affect her ability to read and spell? When she sees unfamiliar words, does she just guess, or does she use some method that just isn't the typical sounding it out method?

[lerlerler]

so if you SAY the letters she can't read them but if she SEES the letters, she can?

I would just make a note of her VERY strong visual learning style and move on. Not really a problem.. just clues to how she learns.

[Plummeting]

I think if she can write the correct letters for the sounds, then her phonemic awareness is just fine. It seems more like she has trouble remembering what three sounds you said if she doesn't write them down. I would think that's normal for a 6-year-old. If she couldn't even write down the letters when she heard their sounds, then I'd be worried about her phonics abilities, but since she clearly knows what sounds the letters make, I don't see the problem.