DD in year 1 - writing is regressing. Any ideas?

[gironimo]

My DD is 6 and in year 1. She's had trouble making the transition from reception and has stuggled a bit with concentration etc., but we've been told this is getting better. Her teacher expressed concern about her basic maths, and I've been doing 10 minutes a day with her. After a few weeks her maths improved dramatically almost overnight - she just "got it" and is now doing really well. However, her writing has regressed. She used to use capital letters and full stops, but now seems to forget all the time (although knows what to do when reminded) and her spelling has deteriorated. Her handwriting itself is much the same and I think is OK. Her reading has also stagnated for quite a while - she's doing OK with it (ORT level 7) but has been at a similar level for quite a while. Does anyone have similar experiences of this regression, or any ideas how I can help her? Her teachers are getting quite irritated and frustrated, which doesn't help at all. They push the children quite hard (it's a mixed year 1 / 2 class in a state primary).

Sorry just to say - it's not just the punctution that seems to have regressed. What she used to write made sense - now a lot of the time it doesn't and oftenn contains strange gramatical errors which aren't reflected in her speech e.g. she'll use "it" instead of "he".

bump?

No real advice but feel a little sorry for your dd . Hopefully the Easter break will help her recharge her batteries. Maybe she is quite exhausted? My dd is only in Reception but seems to progress in stops and starts. I would feel cross if her teachers got irritated by her!

I think this is actually quite "normal". In Y1, the children are introduced to so many different writing ideas - they still have to think about correctly forming letters, plus now they have to factor in spelling and punctuation and making sentences interesting. And as soon as they "get" one thing they are introduced to another idea.

My Y1 DD is now forgetting about her capital letters and full stops (which she'd previously "got") because she is being encouraged to use exclamation marks, question marks and commas as well. Her spelling has got "worse" because she's too busy focusing on starting each sentence in a different way and using connectives to think about spelilng. I think you just have to keep on with the gentle reminders and trust that it all comes together later ...

I think that might be it Redsky. They seem to do very advanced work with her (poetry writing etc) when to be honest I think she needs to just be focussing on the basics. There are some exceptionally bright children in the class, and I sometimes think much more time and energy is focussed on their needs. And I think she is quite tired BabyGiraffes - and yes, am not happy with the teacher's attitude for a number of reasons!

I think practice makes perfect. Little and often. Invent a full stops game which you play with discrete words written on separate pieces of card. You place each word in order to make each sentence. And terminate the sentence accordingly with full stop or question mark. And if you get them all right you win a lolly, an ice cream, or whatever.

I play games like this with my daughter all the time. They're not formally part of reading or doing maths but each game reinforces a particular behaviour. My daughter is three, she'll be four soon. The other day we were playing with wooden numbers and she told me that seven plus three equals ten, which she can write out the sum of in mathematical notation. She can't add any other numbers in her head only three and seven and I have no idea why she can do that. I remember that we did high fives quite a few times after I showed her the sum for the first time. I guess it just stuck in her brain. I think if kids enjoy doing something they remember it more.

Thanks learnandsay. She's quite keen to write at the moment so am encouraging her to do a few sentances (on a "fun" subject) at home every day, just concentrating of capital letters and full stops. The thing is she knows what to do, just can't seem to do it without a gentle reminder.

Bribery, works a treat on the absence of motivation angle.