I'm wondering if any parents of dyslexic/SEN children ever feel like I do, as I feel really awful about it.
DS (11) is severely dyslexic. He is about 3 years behind in literacy. He hates school more and more with each year as it gets more challenging, and now he has just started secondary school and he can't keep up with the pace.
When helping him with homework, or anything school related, I feel quite exasperated, frustrated and sad. He is not one of those dyslexic kids you read about who excel at something, or that you can see is really intelligent despite their literacy skills. He is not really good at anything. Except maybe swimming.
I've always told him otherwise. That he is brilliant, that he can't be measured by tests, that he will shine in other ways, that dyslexia means he just thinks differently and with that comes other skills. But I'm beginning to feel less convinced about it myself .
I have to help him with homework and I'm afraid sometimes my real feelings show. I have TA experience and a degree in creative education and I feel like a failure that I can't seem to find a way to help him do his homework.
For example, for history homework, I let him watch a short youtube video about the relevant subject. Then talked over the key points. Then asked him to answer the relevant homework question. I returned a few minutes later to find he had copied chunks of the video text (as it was subtitled). So I told him that this wasn't answering the question and was out of context. He said "oh, I thought you'd be proud of me" and looked genuinely disheartened, and I said "but all you've done is copy some text?" (whilst thinking, why would he even consider that an accomplishment?). I said no, in your own words. He couldn't do it. So I literally spoon-fed it to him and even then he was having difficulty. I would say "so you can say that people used to settle in one place and that's how civilisations would form" (after having explained this concept to him, showed pictures etc) and he'll say "so people weren't allowed to travel anywhere and were forced to make a civilisation" or something like that. And I just don't know how much plainer I can make it!!
I will always continue to praise him and am proud of him for being such a lovely, thoughtful child. But I find myself feeling gobsmacked at his inability to grasp very basic concepts...and I don't like feeling like that. I have done lots of research on dyslexia and can understand why he has some of these difficulties. But it seems to be such an extreme level and...no amazing gifts, skills, etc. to balance it out!
I hate feeling like this about him.
Here you'll find advice from parents and teachers on special needs education.
SEN
Do you get frustrated with your DC's learning difficulties?
cakedup · 28/09/2016 17:03
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