To have told DD not to read out loud in class if she doesn’t want to?

[AberforthDumbledoresGoat]

DD has a lisp. It has greatly improved as she’s gotten older but it is still very noticeable and she’s quite young still (primary). She struggles with ‘th’ and ‘f’ and can be quite self conscious about it, particularly around her classmates.

Her teacher has started having the class read out loud whichever book they are reading that week. Each child speaks until she says ‘stop.’

Recently DD was incredibly upset when I met her at the gates (she saw me and burst into tears and was quite hysterical). Her classmates had laughed at her in class and the teacher had ignored it other than to ask for quiet and the bullying had continued all day. I gently raised it with the school and asked that she not be asked to speak as, in my eyes, embarrassing her in front of 20 other children is not going to help her lisp and I just don’t think you do that to a young child. The teacher said no.

So, I told DD she was to refuse to read out loud if she doesn’t want to. She did exactly that - cue exasperated teacher at the gates asking to speak to me. The teacher absolutely refused to understand that embarrassing DD in front of her classmates was counterproductive and she ended up saying it was causing her problems as other children were now refusing to read out loud.

I did lose my temper slightly and pointed out if she had taken action, and addressed the classmates laughing at DD in class over her lisp, that this wouldn’t have been an issue. I also said I didn’t care if other children were disrupting the class by refusing to read.

WIBU to have told her to refuse to read given how upset she was?

Nothing else in in terms of support when a young child is being bullied and humiliated for something she cannot control, so the teacher is willing for this to carry on each time she is asked to speak allowed. I think that's disgusting, the teacher is condoning the bullying. I hope you're not actually a teacher.

If the teacher then disengages with the child then she shouldn't be a teacher. Disobedience to a woman who doesn't address a class about laughing at laughing at a young child who has a lisp is definitely not the worst thing about this.

YANBU. She's nine, plenty of time for her to work on her speech in an environment that is safer than having children mocking her. My son has had a stutter since he was seven (he's now 16) and it's so much worse when under stress.

He went through a period of not reading aloud in primary school but is now older and more mature and happily presents to the class when needed. He's even part of a debating club so all is not lost at her having a period of opting out of reading aloud. I'd stick to your guns.

I'm afraid some teachers have a very dismissive attitude to dealing with SEN or similar issues affecting children. A couple of years ago a teacher posting on here proudly boasted that they had refused to comply with a child's EHCP which required worksheets to be on green paper. In her view it was "completely obvious" that the child did not have the disability that had been diagnosed by medical professionals.

It is disappointing but, sadly, not surprising that this teacher has refused to accommodate your daughter and failed to take adequate action to stop her classmates laughing at her and bullying her. I see you have tried to raise this with the governors and that it is difficult to get an appointment to see the head. I would still try with the head - make it clear that you have spoken to the teacher already and have a problem with her response. I would also talk to the school's SENCO to see if they can help. Finally, as a backstop in case you don't get anywhere with the school, I would investigate other schools in the area to see if any of them would be more supportive.

I’m sorry your daughter experienced this. I’ve taught children with stammers before and speaking in front of the class was really tough for them. If I wanted them to read something out loud, they would be given the material first to read through and practice, and also given the option to read the piece with a partner to support them. If they felt like on the day it wasn’t achievable for them, they wouldn’t have to read/speak. I know a stammer is different to a lisp but the same could apply in order to help her feel more confident.

I imagine the teacher didn’t know how to deal with the laughing without drawing more attention to your daughter’s lisp - but that doesn’t mean she should have ignored it. When you approached her, that should have opened a dialogue about how best to support your daughter to feel confident and comfortable.

The classroom should be based on equity rather than equality - children need differing levels of support or adaptations in order to achieve their goals.

I'd never heard of popcorn reading before so I looked it up.

The OP makes no reference to the class calling "popcorn" after reading their bit so I think we can just keep calling it "reading out loud" for now. But at I've learnt something I guess.

Exactly and your last line could be applied to a few posters on this thread, who I fervently hope are nothing to do with the teaching profession.

I am just amazed by the people here suggesting that children who stammer should be forced to read aloud in public. My son’s stammer was such that often when trying to speak in a stressful situation he would be bent over double, shaking with the desperate effort to get out words that never came. Just repeated syllables.
It was quite astonishingly distressing for him & - less importantly- for observers.

The thought that he might have been forced to display this in a quiet classroom, in front of others 😱.

He was never forced to read aloud.
He now never stammers.
And incidentally he still loves reading.

I'd escalate this to the Head. It's not OK for the other children to be taunting your DC, nor is it helpful for the teacher to insist on your DC reading out loud in front of the class, knowing what the issue is.
I teach primary children, and whilst we encourage all the children to read out loud, we're very aware that for some it is something they dread, and so of course we don't force them. As the teacher, I'd be looking into S&L support. Ask the head how they will be supporting this child's SEN

Whether they say popcorn or not, getting children to read out-loud in turn, in front of the whole class is basically the same thing. Not saying 'popcorn' does not somehow make it less regressive 🙄

The whole point of the popcorn is that the child picks who does it next. So it does change things. If it's teacher-led to account and accommodate differences then it's completely different.

It isn't completely different at all - the studies which show that it is not that great relate to whole class reading generally. I was lazy in my use of 'popcorn reading' to encompass whole class reading and clearly should have been more specific.

For clarity, I will rephrase the key parts of my original post and add some further context:

Whole class reading (including ‘Round Robin Reading’, ‘Popcorn Reading’ and ‘Control the Game’) is a horrible teaching practice and most schools are stopping it now because they realise the impact that it has in increasing anxiety for children and decreasing reading fluency / interfering with learning.

Studies show that while reading out loud is important for fluency, whole class reading is not a good method for achieving this and can actually reduce fluency and hinder learning by increasing anxiety:

https://www.cultofpedagogy.com/edutips/edutip7/

https://educationendowmentfoundation.org.uk/news/eef-blog-whole-class-reading

Incredible isn’t it? You’ve got to hope these posters aren’t teachers, let alone parents! The lack of empathy towards a 9 year old is staggering.

I’m so glad for your son ❤

YANBU. This teacher is oblivious. Your dd now may develop selective mutism as a result of this experience. Is your dd receiving or has she received speech therapy for her lisp. You need a professional involved to diagnose, treat and guide the school on how to deal with this. The school won't listen to you. Accommodations need to be made by way of an IEP or similar.

It is disturbing how many people think resilience is just taking whatever is thrown at you without question or complaint. I think you did the right thing OP.

Don't be so ridiculous. OP's child lacks confidence to speak in front of an audience because she was laughed at by the other children due to her lisp and the useless teacher did nothing to stop them.

Forcing her will probably make her lisp worse out of sheer anxiety.

Talk to the head. But as some others have said, OP's DD needs to speak - and why has bullying just started?

You sound self-righteous and cruel. You are completely wrong by the way. Those sorts of teaching methods were used in the 1950s and were completely counter-productive. They just put children off school and learning.

A primary school child with a lisp who actually loves reading but quite understandably is incredibly upset by the other children laughing at her lisp with no reprimand from the useless teacher will now associate reading aloud with humiliation and mockery. A good teacher makes children feel good about themselves and increases their confidence. This teacher is crap at her job.

I would have wanted action about the bullying - telling your dd not to speak is just going to make her feel ashamed and that the bully’s have got a point not that she is ok just the way she is.

Well, I’m a secondary school teacher and can tell you that in some of my classes I have children whose parents have requested they don’t read, and I am fine with that. I always ask for volunteers and I am never short of readers-a lot of kids enjoy reading. I’m my opinion the bullying should’ve been addressed firmly the first time. Bear in mind that later in secondary your daughter may have to read or talk for presentations but you can address that then, and allowances can be made.

Speak to the teacher first, my child has a reading age 3 years behind their chronological age so wouldn’t be expected to read a class book out loud.

Tricky one. Getting your child to feel the answer is to remain silent is never going to help her develop resilience about her lisp (which she may well grow out of, but she may have it for life. It's no big deal, but worth talking to her dentist or GP with to see if there are physical reasons for this).

But telling her that refusing to read is the answer will reinforce in her mind the idea that there is something wroing with her voice - loads of people speak this way, not because they necessarily have a speech problem in the form of a lisp, but because that is their accent. She clearly does see this as 'wrong,' as she got upset which the other children saw and made fun of her.

However, the teacher should have put a stop to the bullying - I think this should be the focus of your talks with the school. This, of course, has now blown up into a massive issue. I think you were BU when you told your daughter to refuse to read - that's not how these things should be dealt with and I don't think it had helped anyone. When you got no joy from the teacher, you should have gone to the head and discussed ways of dealing with this.

But your DD needs to know there is nothing wrong with the way she speaks.

She did speak to the teacher.

OP isn’t saying the bullying has only just started. She said the reading out loud to the class has only just started, and that’s clearly where the problem lies. Kids are cruel and DD now being required to read out loud in front of the class presents them with an opportunity to make fun. The problem here is that the teacher failed to shut it down. OP’s DD doesn’t need to speak if she’s going to be jeered and mocked in response. The reading isn’t the issue here. The bullying is.

She did. Read the OP.