Helping DD with comprehension for Maths and writing,or am I expecting too much?

[freckledface]

My DD is quite articulate,even though she is bilingual,so she cannot get any assistance from school for literacy/English. I, and past and current teachers know she struggles sometimes with comprehension. Sometimes,she just doesn't get 'simple' instructions when they aren't straightforward to her. We see a lot of this in her Numeracy. She understands doubling/halving et al, but got confused when asked, 'the number of twos in 14 is...' She just didn't understand the question,until I said 'how many twos are in 14' and she said 'oh,that's like halving,it's 7'.

I know I am her mum and I should be ready and happy to explain,but I seem to have to do it almost all the time and it is scary. She understands the concepts,but can be thrown by the vocabulary. I understand this happens to everyone,even adults, but, in her case, the simplest(maybe to me) instructions can get her confused.

I feel it affects her writing as well,but not sure if it is just me,so please let me know.

A story by her- Got prompt online-The last thing I expected to see that morning was a blue monster on a skateboard,but

DD- I did not see them and I looked everywere but I could not see them. Suddnly I saw a mighty dragon swooping down to grab me but...I saw the monster on a skateboard and saved me from the mighty dragon and he flew and never came back again.

Another-On Monday,I was playing with my toy pengwin. It looks likes he has big blue eyes,he also has a grey tummy and I shouldn't have forgotn,a huge beek. 'That was how he looked'. But... one tuesday I lossed 'him. Were could he be'? I looked under my bed. Can you ges if I found him... no,so I looked again. Suddenly I thought I found him,but I did. Yes! 'I said.' Then I squeesed it. 'I felt a lot sad and hopeless when I lost my pengwin'.

Writing now, I feel this is okay and feel paranoid,but just need to know and if there are any tips for helping her,or if it is okay and I should back off. She has been writing like this for since Year1, not really making progress, so I wondered if it had to do with comprehesion.

Thank you!

How old is she now?

Sorry, she is 7 in Year 2

I teach Year 2 and it is very common with this age group to not understand maths (which they are capable of doing) because of the language used. Can you make up a poster together of all the different days to write + (total, add addition, more than etc) and do the same with -, x and division. You could also write the different definitions on cards and get her to match ones that are the same?

The writing looks ok to me! She's used connectives and question marks and it has structure. Get her to edit her writing with a red (or green, in these days of red pen damaging people's self-esteem...) pen to see if she could improve any areas. She could look up unknown words in a dictionary etc

She doesn't sound like she's struggling terribly; do you know her levels from last year?

I honestly do not remember her levels and she moved school after last term,end of Year 1, so do not know if relevant anymore. Only remember the '1' but do not remember if 'a' or 'b' or 'c', but definitely not a 2.

The writing is very normal for that age in my opinion. I would not worry too much. Her sentences make sense, have structure and it's normal to spell a few words incorrectly. Y2 is the year when things in Maths begin to "click in". It takes time for some children to grasp the concepts...just revise them and keep mentioning them.
A useful exercise to do is write out something in as many ways as possible and explain they all mean the same thing...e.g 5 +5 =10, there are two 5's in 10, Half of 10 =2, there are 5 2's in 10..e.t.c. My Dd also aged 7 had to do this a lot for homework last year and it helped!

Ok,thank you! Yes,not too worried about puntuation and spelling mistakes, but have you got any tips on how to help her write a little more without making her feel incapable or that this isn't 'good enough?'

I remember that sometime in Year 1,her target was, ' to write more than one idea in a sentence'.

Year 2 No Fuss Photocopiables, Ages 6 -7 . The book costs £12 from WH Smith. It has English, Maths and Science. It is more expensive than the regular books as teachers sometimes use it for photocopying exercises.
In the English section it has prompts for writing stories e.t.c. I found it ideal as something extra to use at home.

I'd just say, be careful with 'more than,' as it usually means subtraction. eg, Julie had 4 sweets, Molly had 7. Molly had how many more sweets than Julie? 7 - 4 = 3 Same with less than. Julie had how many less than Molly?