Child struggling at school

[SageWednesday]

Just wondering if any other parent has experienced something similar

My child is behind in school, when I went to parents evening the teacher expressed her concerns over my child’s retention. It seems as though having a verbal conversation my child will understand and answer all the questions correctly and then when asked to complete written work based on the topic discussed they do the work but don’t incorporate anything that was discussed in the verbal communication.

When they get asked why they haven’t included what was discussed their face will be blank and will ask what’s that? Like they have completely forgotten it all.

is a daily occurrence and makes me wonder what the issue could be?

Sounds like she’s maybe dyslexic. How is her spelling? How was she when learning phonics?

How old? Processing issues can be associated with various conditions or just immaturity. What strategies does teacher suggest?

She's been tested for dyslexia in year 2 and that came back clear. It's seems though all the phonics she should have learned in year one she's still breaking down or forgetting the sounds they make

She's nearly 8. The teacher is continuing with the additional group interventions she's in for reading and phonic etc but she's will do it fine in the interventions and forgets it all in class

Maybe she needs prompts or handout to keep on task.

Sounds like shes struggling with short term working memory.

When you say she was tested, did she have a full dyslexia assessment or did they just do a screener? My dc 'passed' the dyslexia screener given at school but was later diagnosed as being dyslexic with a proper assessment. I was told this isn't uncommon and that the screeners aren't always very good.

This!

She was tested for dyslexia and it came back "clear" ?

Dyslexia assessments and screeners don't generally work like this though, which test or screener was used?

They usually result in a profile of strengths and weaknesses and then give an indication of whether or not the person is dyslexic.

If the test was a screener then I would ask for it to be repeated and then look together at the results, not just the "dyslexic or not?" End result...if that makes sense?

If the test was an actual dyslexia assessment, they generally cost hundreds of pounds and generate a comprehensive report so go back to that and, again look at what her strengths and weaknesses are not just whether she can be labelled dyslexic or not.

Agree with @Hah786 could be Working Memory difficulties. Query this with the teacher as there are strategies and interventions that can be used to support.

Yes agree with others talking about working memory. Games like uno and pairs help to improve this.

This is common in children who are behind.

There can be a lot of reasons for it.

The usual advice is to get vision and hearing checked as if there are issues here it'll impact school. It doesn't sound like there are in this case but it is good advice anyway.

Once you have checked those, think about them at home. If you asked them to do two things (not in their daily routine) would they be able to remember them long enough to do them?

So for example, most children if they have a daily routine know (for example) to eat their breakfast and then brush their teeth.

But if you were playing the game "Simon says" and did for example "Simon says pay your head twice then jump up and down" would they be able to retain the instruction long enough to do it?

Long term phonics retention is very much about repetition and some students do need more repetition than others. Does your child read to you every day?

There are also support programs that help which you can do at home. When mine were young we used wordshark and number shark. I think Nessy now do a phonics one as well.