Please or to access all these features

Add post

Watch this thread

Save thread

Start a new thread

Flip thread

Hide thread

My feed

Active Unanswered threads

Getting started FAQ's

Unanswered threads Acronyms Talk guidelines

Hide shortcut buttons

Talk

Education

Join the discussion on our Education forum.

Flip

1 2

Original poster

Ds has a problem with spelling and I don't know how to help him

44 replies

IvortheEngine · 02/02/2005 16:42

Ds (11 years)was having help with his spelling last year. He was seeing the special needs teacher for about an hour once a week. This year he hasn't been going to see her. Ds told me yesterday that I needed to go and see the special needs teacher as she wanted to see me. I went at 3.30pm today. She said that nothing was wrong, she just needed to let me know that ds was being placed on the special needs register as this was required by the funding body. She asked me to sign a form saying that I'd been informed of this and said that I'd be given a letter to confirm this tomorrow. I asked what his problem was and she said that it was spelling. She showed me a test result of tests that he'd done back in Sept that showed he'd scored badly in spelling and in maths. I hadn't known anything of this test btw or the result (ie that he'd scored badly) until today. We had an open evening very recently and this wasn't mentioned at the evening. She went on to say that he wouldn't be coming to see her this school year as he was leaving (to go to secondary school). He'd be tested at the secondary school in July and if he showed that he needed help, he'd be given help, possibly by allowing him more time in the tests. I asked what the problem had been identified as and she said the fact that he's bi-lingual and him being a boy. He doesn't mix up his languages at home, I'm fluent in one and dh is fluent in both and he speaks both pretty well.

I'm sorry if this is badly written, but I'm a bit upset at all this. I think I'm a very hands on parent, as is dh, and we aren't strangers to the school, so they know us and surely know that we care and want the best for our children, so why weren't we informed? Why don't they plan to give him extra help this year? It seems that all they want from him is to have his name on a form so that they can get the funding to keep the sn teacher's post. Sorry, I'm about to go out, but I'll be back later. If anyone has any words of advice, I'd be very grateful. Sorry, I've changed my name as I don't want the school identified. I'll see dh when he comes home from work later and I think we'll make an appointment to see the teacher again, but I would like advice from anyone whose child has a problem with spelling (or dyslexia or discalclia (sp) or any experience at all in this field).

TIA

OP posts:

popsycal · 03/02/2005 20:00

DISCLAIMER:
I am only a teacher and this is all my opinion and experience......please talk to your DS's teacher/SENCO for advice too as I have never met your son and am only going from the info you have given!

However, I hope some of it is useful to you

Original poster

IvortheEngine · 03/02/2005 20:05

Thank you so, so much!!!
You have been so kind in taking the time to post and in finding the links. I have to free up the phone line, but will be back (with more thanks!) later!

OP posts:

popsycal · 03/02/2005 20:34

LOL - no worries....
Give me a shout if you want to know anything else....

happymerryberries · 03/02/2005 20:44

I'll put a big disclaimer on my post as well. I know bugger all about teaching people to read .

But what I can say is that he seems to be writing the words as they sound. His spelling in Welsh is much better and Welsh is mostly phonetic isn't it? He also has a good reading age. Does he read very quickly? If so he may not be reading whole words, and therefore his reading will not improve his spelling. If it helps any, his spellings are very like some of mine, and I speed read. Could you ask him to slow his reading down a bit?

Would def follow up the iep thing....wish that we had them when I was in school

popsycal · 03/02/2005 20:48

HMB has just made me remember one more thing....it does sound like the middles of words and 'unstressed' bits of words....

A little trick which may also help which I do is saying things as the look

eg
s-cissors
en-vi-RON-ment
feb-RU-ary
wed-NES-day
etc

popsycal · 03/02/2005 20:51

And exposure to letter strings that make the same sounds or are less common.....

ous
ai
ea making -e sound
soft letter c before the letters i and e for example...

That download I posted a link to has got ALL of these things in - you will be surprised when you look just how it all fits with nearly every word your ds spelled incorrectly

happymerryberries · 03/02/2005 20:52

Popsycal

You don't want to teach me to spell, do you?

popsycal · 03/02/2005 20:54

I teach my DH......

Berries · 03/02/2005 21:59

Can I second the wordshark package. We (teacher & I) thought my dd1 was dyslexic at end of y2, but she only had problems with spelling, NOT reading. (posted on here about it actually, think ks gave lots of good advice). Anyway, we bought wordshark and have used it for about 18mths. It became apparent that she had a problem breaking words down into syllables, so she tended to put in all the letters she 'knew' were in there (remembered fom reading) but couldn't get them in the right order, or she missed whole syllables out completely. The wordshark has taken her back to basics and helped her to learn the 'rules' she obviously missed out on in class. (ties in with Popsycals explanation) We rarely use it now, and she usually gets all or nearly all of her spelling right in class. I was so pleased at christmas as she wrote a letter to one of her friends with only 1 spelling mistake!! She still has to 'try harder' than a lot of her friends though, and if she doesn't concentrate she slips right back (wrote cholet triffels on the shopping list - chocolate trifles).
BTW I think you'll find majisun is probably magician

ks · 03/02/2005 22:47

This reply has been deleted

Message withdrawn

Original poster

IvortheEngine · 03/02/2005 23:00

popsycal - Thanks again for all of your help. I printed out the posts you did earlier and showed them to dh. You've given us lots of good advice. I'll download the links tomorrow and place them in a folder in "Favourites" so that I know where to find them at a glance. I took a look at the wordshark site and dd said that they have that at school. We may well buy it to help ds and dd with their spelling. I'm a bit surprised that dd isn't as strong at spelling as I'd expect her to be as she's such an avid reader. I think she reads very quickly, though, as she wants to see the story unfold and she's not noticing the spelling as she goes. Thanks for the extra tips in your last few posts. There's so much to it, isn't there? Incase I forget to say, we have had his hearing tested a few times and it's not 100%, but it is 95ish%. He also had difficulty when he was little with some of the tricky Welsh sounds (ll, ch, dd, etc) and he couldn't pronounce them properly, but I think he's okay now.

hmb - Yes, Welsh is mostly (or all, I'm not sure,) phonetic. I understand some but can't speak much of it. Ds is going to a Welsh medium secondary school in Sept and his only classes through English will be English. All other lessons will be in Welsh. It seems that he's strongest in Welsh, so that's fine. His spoken English at home is very good, I think. He used to make lots of mistakes when I listened to him reading out loud to me, but I kept count of mistakes per page (very casually, but so that he knew I was doing it) and he concentrated more and made fewer mistakes. I found also that when I asked him to say the word out loud he would say the first bit, then the middle and then by the time he'd got to the end, he'd forgotten the first bit again. When I told him to say it in his head and not out loud until he was ready to say the whole word in one go, he was able to do it correctly. I did feel cruel, I must say, but it seemed to help.

Berries - Thanks for your post. It's good to have a personal recommendation for wordshark. I remember one time when dd wrote a shopping list for me. It was perfectly understandable if you read it phonetically. Ah, yes, magician! I should have guessed!

Thanks again everyone, but especially popsycal. Isn't MN brilliant?!!!!

OP posts:

Original poster

IvortheEngine · 03/02/2005 23:07

ks - Sorry, it has taken me an age to write the last post in a reasonably legible fashion. We've crossed posts. Anyway...please don't apologise. I do appreciate everyone who has taken the time and trouble to write. As an aside, I would have loved to have been an English teacher as I love English, but, unfortunately, I wasn't strong enough in any other subjects to make it worthwhile taking A levels, etc. This topic is fascinating to me and makes me wish I'd chosen a different study/career route. Sorry, I'm rambling. This problem was the first thought I had on waking and it's been a long day. To re-cap, it's better to flag something up as a possibility to be checked out, that not do it incase of causing offence. That's what I think, anyway. So thanks again!

OP posts:

Original poster

IvortheEngine · 11/02/2005 11:03

popsycal - Can I say thank you again, please? Your advice was absolutely invaluable last week and I was able to prepare properly using your advice for the meeting with the sn teacher earlier this week. In the meeting I was told (only when I asked specifically) that he's in the bottom six of the class. Apparently, they don't see children who are "only" (their word, not mine!) 2 years behind. The sn teacher does have a group but says that ds is too good for that group and he'd get bored and de-moralised if he was in it. The sn teacher has photocopied sheets from the books she uses based on the weaknesses you'd indentified. I've got these at home and we did some last night at ds' request! I've added the links you gave me to my Education folder in Favourites so that I can find them easily. Ds and dd ask to go on a site and do some maths games, and I hope the English sites will prove as popular! I've also printed the home page out for some friends who wanted to have the links. So you've not just helped me and ds, but others, too! The sn teacher is going to re-test him on his spellings using the national test and this will take place after the half term hols. We will be given the result of this test. I will keep a close eye on ds and dd's spelling and reading and I feel much more confident now than I did when I first posted. I am so grateful for your help. Thank you ever so much.

OP posts:

popsycal · 11/02/2005 11:10

I was thinking about you at 3am this morning (blinking late pregnancy insomnia!!) and was going to ask for an update

popsycal · 11/02/2005 11:12

If you need any more ideas, resources, etc, I can help you out....just ask!

Original poster

IvortheEngine · 11/02/2005 11:33

popsycal - Sorry I missed you just then. I've been searching the web for the Sieve of Erotosthenes in an explanatory form that both dd (10yrs) and I (thirty !)years can understand. I've found some websites but they're not as simple as I need. I'll keep looking. I'm going to ask to have ds and dd's school work to bring home for half term so that dh and I can take a good look at their work.

Fancy you being awake early - me, too! I couldn't sleep after 4.45am. Too many things whizzing around in my brain. Late pregnancy, you say! Oooh, when are you due? I have a friend who was on the Jan 05 thread. She has had a little boy. I'm really looking forward to seeing him. I hope all is going well with your pregnancy. I'll keep an eye out for you.

OP posts:

popsycal · 11/02/2005 12:35

leave the sieve of erath - whatsit with me

due start of march....three weeks and counting!

popsycal · 11/02/2005 12:39

this is a good maths site

Original poster

IvortheEngine · 12/02/2005 11:06

popsycal - Thanks for that link. I have a good selection of websites in my Favourites Education folder, now! Actually, ds wants to do some maths or spelling now, so I must go.

Good luck with your baby in March. Can I recommend March 1st as a good date and if it's a boy, can I suggest David or Dafydd?

OP posts:

Flip

1 2