Year 3 DS struggling with Literacy - Any advice plesae?

[LondonSuperTrooper]

I am looking for some advice please. I had my DS's parent open evening last night. He is in Year 3 and is doing very well in maths and reading. He is struggling with literacy though. Apparently he has been identified as a child at risk of not achieving his expected sublevels for mid year and end of year predictions. His teacher tells me that he struggles with handwriting and is he somewhat fazed when starting with a blank piece of paper and having to story or written exercise.

What can I do to help him? I'm currently working full time but will be on maternity leave in 4 weeks time. I fear that I do not have the time to give him the attention that he deserves whilst looking after a new baby.

I have been recommended to try hiring him a private tutor or even doing kumon. Has anyone had any success with this? Would you recommend it?

Did you ask the teacher what you can do to support what they are doing in class. She may well be able to give you specific exercises to work on at home with him.

Other than that I would say little and often is the way to go. Find out what style of handwriting they are learning in school and get a book on it. It's amazing the difference 5 mins a night will do.

For the creative writing I'd start by just talking to him. Pick a topic for a story and ask him to invent something. Again 5 mins a night will make loads of difference. If there is a possibility that it's the actual writing it down that is the issue (which it could be if he has handwriting issues) then you could try letting him type things too.

If you have a tape recorder, or a phone that records, I often advise a child to DICTATE his story, report, whatever. He can then listen to it back, amend if necessary. In due course, it can be written out or typed.

Look for Story Cubes on Amazon. They are dice which prompt a start and with each roll how your story unfolds.

We used to play a game in the car where DS came up with a sentence and then we would do the next and so on. You can encourage him to look out of the window for ideas and be as daft as you like. Usually only probably 5 mins max but little and often.

ps I think it's common for year3 boys to struggle with this and would not be paying a tutor or Kumon. Not a teacher. Was it a teacher who made those recommendations or a tiger mum?

You could try 'Mind Maps for Kids' by Tony Buzan. It's a visual way to plan and good for a lot of kids. It will give you ideas on how to get him not to freeze when he's asked to write.

I'd also go for letting him dictate his story - you could type it up, as that will take the stress from him and free him up. Then heap praise on him when it's fantastic and send it in to show his teacher so they can praise him too.

The you say one sentence and I say the next is a good one too.

Thanks for the advice everyone. I think his main problem is his lack of concentration and the fact that he can't focus and is so easily distracted!

Mrs I will ask his teacher for some exercises that we can do at home. Five minute a night sounds like a good start - thanks.

Ferguson I never thought of a Dictaphone. That is a genius idea! I think that will like it and hopefully it will inspire him to write something.

iseenodust I will have a look at story cubes - thanks for the tip. His teacher recommended some external help out of school. I spoke to a few mums and they recommended Kumon & the tutoring.

smee Thanks for your suggestion, I will have a look at mind maps. It seems that dictating and then typing it is a good way to get him started. But what about improving his handwriting?

iseenodust I've just had a look at Amazon for the story cubes. There seems to be several different versions. Which would you recommend? The plain old story cubes seems popular.

I think lots of reading , chapter books together will help more than you think, as for the handwriting, school should be giving him extra help if they've identified he won't meet his targets .

Yes think we started with original orange box and then added a box.

Would second the Dictaphone idea, well actually we use the voice recording app on my phone.

Dts1 (YR2) struggles with getting his ideas down on paper so we started using one to record our conversations around his work. It has definitely helped him translate this onto paper.

Definitely a tutor specially if you are going to be with a new born soon. you don't want to put more pressure on you . Please there are experts tutors; kumon will demand more time from you

iseenodust thanks, I'll buy that right now.

Luna my DH wants a tutor too. I investigated Kumon and they said that they cannot help him with creative writing. He will mainly be doing comprehension sheets, which is what we do at home anyway.

I have already started the Dictaphone idea and DS is enjoying recording his story :) I managed to get 6 sentences out of him yesterday

Hi OP, my Y3 boy is exactly the same. He's a high achiever in maths working a year ahead, excellent reader, good at spelling etc but struggles terribly with writing. He also has a great fear of the blank page.

I've got an appointment with his head teacher tomorrow (he's at a small prep school) to discuss what we should do to support him. We are also considering a tutor but I'm not keen on putting a lot of extra pressure on him.

If I get any helpful suggestions tomorrow I'll post again and share them.

MmeMorrible our boys sound exactly the same! And yes please, I would be so grateful if you can share any tips that the head teacher gives you.

Save interesting/striking images from magazines and papers. Then use them in a short writing exercise once or twice a week - so look at the image for 2 mins and think what might be happening, what will happen next. Then write about it for 5 minutes. Then spend another couple of minutes thinking about how you could make the writing even better (not correcting spelling mistakes, but thinking about extra adjectives, the ending etc.)

But do it together. Both of you write your own stories, sitting at the table together. He gets to comment on yours and you get to comment on his. A genuine shared activity.