To think that homework should be differentiated!!!

[TheoriginalLEM]

Especially when some children are dyslexic!!!

Yes i know thats a lot of !!!!

But honestly, is it too much to ask for my DD to be given a differentiated spelling list and not be given a wordsearch on a grid that makes MY (her non dyslexic mother) eyes hurt. With words she not only doesn't know how to spell but with no list of words to find. Just words that end in ance or ence.

She is in year 6 - She has an official diagnosis of dyslexia from an Ed Psych.

She is sitting with red eyes from sobbing over not being able to do her homework and getting 2/10 for her spellings because they are simply too hard for her.

It seems there is little point in sending her to school if this continues becaue how the actual fuck is she supposed to learn.

Up until this year the provision has been "ok" although its not been brilliant and we have had to get DD a tutor which is putting a great financial strain on us. We continue with it because it has brought about so much improvement but I worry about how long i will be able to afford it.

I want to go in all guns blazing but i realise this is counterproductive. I have always had a good relationship with the school but Im running out of nice. My DD starts secondary school next year and this i have just had her in tears telling me "but i have to be able to do this, im in year six now" WTF???? where has that come from??? I tried to say but you darling you are dyslexic so we always find ways to make it easier for you.

Im not saying i want my DD to have an easy ride, its no ones fault she is dyslexic and sadly she is going to have to try harder than the next child but there is absolutely no point in giving her work that is way beyond her - its gong to destroy what confidence she has.

You could just ask, you know. See what the teacher says and take it from there.

My DD has dyspraxia, dyslexia, dyscalcula, and ASD. At yr6 she was at about a year 2/3 level. If the work was too hard for her I'd walk in and tell the teacher what part she did herself, what she tried but found very difficult and what I didn't even attempt with her. The teacher always just appreciated what she had done and that she had tried at what she found hard.
Go in and tell her teacher if something is too hard and to please set appropriate homework or she will not be doing any!

catford - i will. but the point is that she is in year six. They should know her level of ability by now.

In these sort of situations, I look for the actual purpose of the homework (in this case, learning the spelling of the words, presumably) and adapt the homework to that function.
If the purpose of the homework is completed, the homework has been done.

Honestly, don't get in a lather about it. Adapt it. Get her to do the homework with the adaptation that meets the purpose, without the silly frippery of word searches or whatever it might be, and hand it in. Add a note to say 'dd has learned the words to the extent of her ability but has not completed the word search due to her dyslexia. Thanks, LEM.'

They used to give dd2 four sheets of paper to write out each of ten spellings twelve times in the shape of a balloon or some such crappery (with the associated look, learn, memorise, hide, regurgitate in artistic format to prove you know it rubbish) Dd2 has cp. so now I look for the point of the homework and get her to achieve that goal. Job done. No teacher has ever said boo to me yet... I'm not getting her to sweat blood and tears for four hours to achieve something that an NT kid can do in ten minutes. Where's the equality in that?

But if you can bear the discussion, yes, ask the teacher to do it. Is it possible they just haven't grasped individual requirements yet?

Sounds frustrating. Talk to the teacher and explain what is hard and why. Obviously a word puzzle is going to be hard for a dyslexic child and has no basis in real life skills. It's a way of game-ifying spelling for NT kids.

Tell her what works, what doesn't, and ask how she's going to accommodate your daughter so she can spell at her best level?

Does she have any extra classroom support from Sen ta or similar? I differentiate homework for students I work with then run it past the teacher and would be happy to do this for other students in the class if asked, May be worth asking?

Weve worked with school to adjust homework to a manageable amount and content for my son who has similar issues. He cant, for instance, do word searches so we just don't do those, and do some writing instead. Your teacher should be happy to discuss and adjust homework for her. My sons school put a time limit on homework too - what isn't completed after say 20 or 30 minutes should be left out.

tshirt. im not sure this term. will likely ask for a meeting with senco tomorrow.

Definitely ask senco or teacher if senco meeting takes a while, homework should be differentiated and can be done by teacher or any ta who works with your daughter, self esteem is so very important in dyslexic children, being handed work they just can't manage is so hard for them (and you!) Hope you get it sorted.

I do guides so not the level of training as s teacher. We have a girl with severe dyslexia that she's very self conscious about and the group of girls we have in general prefer sporty activities to reading and writing ones. We did do a wordsearch recently and the dyslexic girl only found two words but they were both harder ones to find (backwards or upside down) that most of the others hadn't found, which made me wonder if she'd approached it differently to them somehow. I know she struggles with written tasks so praised her and had her help me find them (I was having a go myself) and she helped the other girls find them too. I hope that was a confidence boost for her, helping others with something she finds hard herself.

Definitely ask for homework to be adapted. Word searches might help some kids learn spellings, there must be things that help your DD that she could do instead? She definitely shouldn't be in tears and so down on herself over homework! It's not supposed to be a punishment, it's supposed to help her.

I like the idea of a time limit for a child that is struggling through no fault of their own. Even if you mentally set one and tell her you have but not what it is so she's not stressing about it, just that you will tell her when she has 5 minutes left and then when she should stop. Then you add a note to teacher saying DD worked hard for x minutes and completed x amount of work. Ideally agree with teacher first and if possible get them to advise on appropriate time limits.

Just speak to the teacher - you don't need to speak to SENCO for this, as he/she will only have to speak on behalf of the teacher and then relay info back. Of course, if you speak to teacher and nothing changes, then yes meet with the senco then.

This task is not suitable for your daughter, definitely agree there. Spellings should be differentiated and she shohld have less - focusing on a phonetic sound that she is covering in intervention to help with the dyslexia. I have had dyslexic children who have been given 3 or 4 spellings snd that's more than enough, a huge challenge for them.

One boy I tought made his words on Minecraft, placing blocks for each of the letters. That seemed to really help him.

Write on the homework that it was too difficult and arrange a meeting with the teaher.

Should have fewer, of course that should say!

And taught! Typo central, a long day!

Speak to the teacher.

Also have a little awareness of the pressure the teacher will be under to get your dd up to the 'magic' level 4.

Agree that spellings are easy to differentiate in Primary with only one class.

she is level 2. level 4 aint gonna happen.