Why is my son struggling with this bit of literacy? Processing issue? Too young? Just being daft?

[Backingvocals]

DS is in y2 but is v young in the year (not 7 till end August). He's doing ok despite being the youngest. He naturally tends to enjoy maths more than English. Although his reading is good, his comprehension is so-so and he doesn't really enjoy reading for pleasure.

So this weekend's homework was actually relatively simple for once (it's a v academic state school). Part of it was to copy and complete various sentences. Every single time he failed to start with a capital letter, failed to add a full stop and failed to spell a repeated word in each sentence properly (the word was "there" which he spelt "ther" every time)

I was sitting with him so after each sentence I'd prompt him: "What do you start a sentence with?" "What do you need at the end of that sentence?" "What letter is missing from the end of that word?" He knew all the answers so corrected it all but then immediately went on to write the next sentence with exactly the same mistakes. Ten times. Each time I prompted him. Each time he corrected it. Then did the same thing again.

He does actually know all these rules. He knows how to form all the capitals. He can correct himself when prompted. He just can't seem to hold the rules in his mind while writing. Any thoughts?

[JerryFerry]

Sounds a bit like my son. It was around that age I started to suspect something was up so had him tested and he has visual processing problems, especially sequential memory. However his other scores were very high so his teachers have adjusted his work so he can use his strengths to complete it, e.g. audio.

[Coconut0il]

I would say that sounds quite normal. I've worked in primary schools for over 10 years and I couldn't even tell you how many times I've said remember capital letters and full stops. That's right up to year 6 too!
I'm convinced my DS1 never gave any of his homework his full concentration, the number of times I've told him it's which not witch and he still gets it wrong is unbelievable and he's 12.

[Pengweng]

I help out in a Y3 class and lots of them still forget to do capitals and full stops. When i ask what is wrong with the sentence they work it out quickly so they know the rules. They sometimes just get too caught up in writing to remember. Then they all insist on using capitals when doing spellings. Sounds typical to me.

[NotCitrus]

Might it help if he did all the homework, and then went through to edit it and correct the punctuation? Then he wouldn't have to think about punctuation and the answers at the same time?

[drspouse]

Would it help if had a prompt sheet in front of him with frequently forgotten rules? If he's forgotten something more than once add it to the list, if he remembers it four or five times in a row take it off?
Then you can just point at the list when you spot he's forgotten something?

[Backingvocals]

Thanks for all the feedback. Some really good ideas here.

I think if pushed I would say it's not an intrinsic problem - he does fine with maths. In fact you can almost see his brain hold one fact in his brain while he processes another iyswim. So it's just this bit of literacy that's causing a problem and it would make sense to me that he is busy trying to think about handwriting and an answer and can't at the same time think about punctuation even though he does know all the rules.

I like the idea of a sheet with the rules on where the rules get removed when he remembers them 4 times in a row. Or in doing it in pieces. Answer first, then punctuate.

He would never really choose to write anything so perhaps that's something else to work on