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Primary education

Is it time for a private tutor?

52 replies

wasabipeanut · 20/05/2015 10:45

Just back from another "share and celebrate" session for my Y2 DS. I just wanted to cry and not for the first time. His written work is abysmal. Spelling for even the first 100 HF words still poor even though we have gone over them endlessly at home. Punctuation is infrequent or completely absent from certain sections. Most pieces seem to be just about decipherable at the beginning then lapse into incoherence.

He has had special 15 minute targeted one to one sessions on and off all year but it just is t staying in his head. He spells a word correctly one day then promptly forgets it despite being taught the same word repeatedly. Bizarrely his reading is ok - on lime colour which is ok for his age I think. Numeracy also pretty good.

Before anybody asks he is September born! I asked his teacher a few months ago what I could do to help and she said do more spelling practice at home but from what I can see it isn't working.

I hate the thought of tutoring so young but I hate the thought of him falling behind even more. People keep saying "it will come" but I fail to see how.

What do you think?

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Walnutpie · 20/05/2015 10:47

It will come. Trust him, trust the process. Keep it light, keep it fun, it will click into place as his brain neutrons develop and you know what the say ..Readiness is All.

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wasabipeanut · 20/05/2015 10:53

But that's the problem - I don't trust the process as it doesn't seem to be working. I think when people say "it will come" they do t know what else to say. It my experience things don't happen on their own.

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Walnutpie · 20/05/2015 11:43

Oh, you have older children with learning difficulties and you recognise this isn't just a little boy picking things up at his own speed?

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KittyBennett · 20/05/2015 11:53

I had years of listening to people say it will come. Well it didn't and in year 5 my dd was assessed and found to be severely dyslexic. I would say listen to your instincts. You can have an educational psychologist assessment done for around £200.

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redskybynight · 20/05/2015 12:10

I'm also going to say "It will come" - it certainly did for my DS. More "pushing" at that level would actually have had the effect of putting him entirely off writing!!

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wasabipeanut · 20/05/2015 12:12

No I don't have older children with learning difficulties and it may well be that he'll get there at his own speed. But he might not and that worries me.

Kitty I hope your DD is progressing with more confidence now. The thing that baffles me is that there is a disconnect between his verbal ability, reading ability and general ability to remember facts and his ability to remember how to spell and punctuate! I keep being told "he's a bright boy," but you wouldn't guess that from his written work.

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Walnutpie · 20/05/2015 12:14

You could do a deal with yourself. If you give it a year, and then if he hasn't shifted, you might rethink getting him an assessment.

A compromise between your anxiety and the teachers confidence, perhaps?

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Timetoask · 20/05/2015 12:15

He is in y2 and cannot spell the first 100 words. I would invest in an assessment with an Ed psych (rather than a tutor) to ascertain that there is no learning difficulty involved

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KittyBennett · 20/05/2015 12:20

Wasabi that's how they made the distinction with my dd. At the time reading age and verbal ability were assessed at 3 years above spelling ability. She is doing well now thanks we moved her to a small independent school with good reputation for children with dyslexia and 2 years on she's gained a lot of progress.

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wasabipeanut · 20/05/2015 12:45

Yes it makes sense to rule out a specific difficulty before throwing loads of cash at tuition. Will go and investigate.

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NynaevesSister · 20/05/2015 12:46

I agree with what's been said in that this is year 2. Don't worry so much for now. See how he is doing in year 3. If you are still concerned approach the school, talk to the CT and SENCo and see about getting him assessed for dyslexia. They can't really test for that until year 4 anyway.

You could be right - there could be a very real problem. But likewise he could just be developing at a different pace. It all tends to shake down at around the age of 8. If he isn't distressed or losing self esteem over his ability that is. If he is talk to the school.

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TheEmpressofBlandings · 20/05/2015 12:55

My DD was very similar it sounds. She was great at numeracy etc but her spelling was truly appalling and reading she used to skip words and make things up. Her handwriting was terrible. She loved writing more than anything though, I think she just had more ideas than she could keep up with.

For us, it did come, she's y4 now and my proudest moment this year was when she got 30/40 on a spelling test. Where she is now is unrecognisable to where she was 2 years ago, we spent a lot of time worrying about it.
A couple of things helped - she needed glasses - it wasn't picked up at a normal sight test, only when she started having headaches because her eye muscles were correcting for her and overstraining. That helped enormously with making reading and writing less of an onerous task. We also did lots of shared reading (she reads a page, we read a page to her).

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yomellamoHelly · 20/05/2015 12:56

Wouldn't rule out getting him assessed, but will say that kids do develop at their own pace. My eldest is in yr 6 and spellings just go in one ear and out the other. Really bright otherwise. But then it hasn't been emphasised at all until this year. (Used to be the same in maths, but has clicked with that now and loves it.)

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prepperpig · 20/05/2015 13:01

MY DS2 is exactly the same, I have an older DS to compare him to. He simply cannot get things down on paper and his writing and spelling is all over the place. He is year 3 and still gets s z, p q, b d etc mixed up. He misses words when reading and whilst he can say out loud without any errors the spelling of the words on his spelling list, as soon as it comes to writing it down he's all over the place and so ends up with 0 out of 10 in his tests.

I think form the advice on this thread I might get him assessed. How do I go about doing that?

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wasabipeanut · 20/05/2015 13:06

Thanks for advice all. I've just rung school and asked for a meeting with the SENCO to see what her thoughts are and get her onside.

It's so difficult. I would be so happy if it just clicks in a year or two and to be fair it doesn't seem to be affecting his confidence. There has been progress this year - just very slow progress. This time last year was when his reading took off - before that it was a long, hard slog but now he reads for pleasure which is brilliant - I just can't fathom why exposure to books is having such a small effect on his written work.

It's so frustrating. Part of me wants to wait and see but I'm concerned that this will start having more of an impact on other areas once he hits juniors.

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newstart15 · 20/05/2015 13:37

Written work is actually tough for children to do well at this stage. They have to take their creative ideas, remember handwriting, spelling and grammar. They have to manage to do all of this in a classroom which can be noisy and time pressured.

My son was exactly the same and only now in Year4 is be managing to put it all together. Still slightly behind on handwriting and I doubt he will ever be neat but by secondary school he should master the skills.

By friends boy had wonderful writing in year 2 but that has changed and he has not moved forwards so my ds and him are now closer in ability.

Have an assessment if you are concerned but just wanted to reassure you that boys especially can seem to take longer with writing.

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MistyMeena · 20/05/2015 13:42

It might click, it might not.

As a teacher (and tutor) I would say don't leave it any longer. Schools can test for dyslexia at the beginning of Yr 3 so get in there now and start asking/fighting for it.

I see so many children with undiagnosed dyslexia who have been left until upper KS2 before any intervention and then there is such a large gap to try and close that it can't be done in a few 15 minute slots with a TA. By that stage their confidence is rock bottom too in many cases. All avoidable with earlier intervention. Good luck.

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PotatoesNotProzac · 20/05/2015 14:44

Don't leave it any longer.

But don't go for a tutor either. Something once a week won't be enough. You need to do something every day.

My DSs teacher recommended he does spelling tutor (www.spellingtutor.co.uk) program every day at home.

It's helped enormously. His spelling has improved.

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SomewhereIBelong · 20/05/2015 15:09

I am an occasional tutor and would not consider taking on a Y2 for spelling work once a week.

If it is just spelling, then practise at home is what is needed - repetitive practise, over and over and over - did this with my own second DD - she did not "get" phonics with respect to spelling - some kids don't straight away - they can read, they can sound out, but spell from memory ... nope... writing can be a bit problematic because of this too - if you can't spell words how can you write them?

a word a day, 30 times a day - NOT all at one time of day- adding another word every day, but remembering to check the previous ones too..

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wasabipeanut · 20/05/2015 17:39

But Somewhere how do I fit 30 spellings into the course of a day? We've been doing 10 a day - just the same 100 words over and over again and he just keeps forgetting. I thought we'd cracked "little for example and I saw a piece of writing today which he did on the 15th where he had written littul."
We also had "ower* despite us coming up with a rhyme to remember it.

It just makes me feel like everything I hAve done is utterly pointless. Unless I cancel every after school activity I find it hard to see how we could fit much more in. I have 2 other DC's and work freelance as well!

I did wonder if something like spelling tutor.co.uk would help but had resisted based on the fact he is writing at school not typing. Is it worth looking at do you think?

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kesstrel · 20/05/2015 18:37

Does he understand the phonetic basis of spelling, or is he trying to memorise the first 100 words by sight? Does the school have a phonics chart showing all the alternative spellings for each sound? Does he break the words he is trying to spell down into specific phonemes as he writes them?

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TeenAndTween · 20/05/2015 18:53

OP, we've had this with DD2, people kept saying 'it will come'. She's now in y5 and spelling has improved but, for example, she wrote her sister a 'Good Luke' card for her exams.

One summer (end of y3) we did Apples and Pears religiously, and it did help, but when she started back at school there just wasn't time when she wasn't too tired.

(She's also not all that willing to be helped, so it takes a lot of energy to force her to be helped).

So no solutions (apart from try Apples and Pears), but sympathy.

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Heels99 · 20/05/2015 18:55

Dyslexia trsting

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wasabipeanut · 20/05/2015 19:36

Kesstrel he dies seem to grasp phonetic spelling but that's the problem! Vast amounts of common use words aren't spelled phonetically - such as the examples I gave earlier.

He scored 40/40 in his phonics check at the end of Y1 and I sometimes think he's almost too phonetically drilled now.

He often gets all of his spellings correct but then immediately forgets them and you see the same words phonetically spelled in his work books!

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wasabipeanut · 20/05/2015 19:43

Does anyone have any thoughts about the relative merits of Apples & Pears versus Spelling Tutor?

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