DS Struggling at School!

[MumOfChildrenAndCats]

Hi,
I’ve never posted on here but thought this would be the best place to get some advice. My 8 year old son is in Year 3 at Primary School and during the past two parents evenings they haven’t been very positive in terms of his academic performance. He is struggling particularly with Reading comprehension, if he’s read something, when he’s asked questions, he has forgotten what he’s read, also if the teacher is giving instructions he will forget easily what he has to do, which means he’s struggling to complete his work. He went through a stage of copying other children, so the teacher had him complete his work in another part of the classroom, the teacher also said she’s worried he’ll get left behind academically. There hasn’t been anything put in place to help support him at school, so was wondering if there was anything I could do to help him at home, aside from reading and usual homework.
Thanks for reading!

I'd ask the teacher if she can record the instructions onto a talking postcard for him so he can replay them as needed. With reading comprehension, have him given a question and told which page numbers he needs to read to find the answer.

Sounds like he has a ‘working memory’ issue, where kids can’t retain info. It’s a learning disability that means he’ll need to approach things differently. He might need to be tested.

I would ask the teacher for another appointment, to then ask them what the school are doing to meet his needs.
It is in school that he is struggling, so they need to differentiate the way they are teaching him.

I say that, speaking as a teacher.

Mmm .. not terribly helpful to dump that information on you but suggest nothing regarding further assessment or plans to help.
Could you request another meeting, without the pressure of having to be finished within ten minutes, and ask what s/he thinks the problem may be and what steps can be taken to help him?
How is his concentration generally? Do you yourself have concerns?
I’d rule out anything physical first: eyesight, hearing, etc

Have you noticed anything at home? For example, could he follow a 3 step instruction like, “Go upstairs, get your red hoodie from the drawer and come out to the car” without you needing to prompt him?

I’m just wondering whether he is feeling overwhelmed by school demands or if it is a more general problem.

Reading comprehension is something you need to work on for long term, if the child isn't naturally good at it.
So, school and teacher can make suggestions and guidelines to help him, but I think ultimately, you may need to give him a lot of help in everyday life, for long period of time.
When he reads to you, or you read to him, ask him questions. When he watches the film, cartoon, anything, ask him questions. Consciously talk about things more in general, in everyday life.

I'd be checking that he has a short term memory issue at home. Is he just about reading the words but not understanding it? How is he doing in maths and other subjects? Is it just reading?
How is he at extra curricular activities? I think you need to delve deeper

I should have also mentioned that he also struggles in maths and as a whole, he seems to struggle to retain spoken information. He is in a fairly disruptive class too. With regards to his hearing and eyesight, he failed two hearing tests in Year 1 over a period of three months, which resulted in a perforated ear drum, he doesn’t show any signs of not being able to hear at present but could be worth doing another hearing test, he’s had a recent eye test and although he has a very mild prescription (not enough for glasses), it’s not a problem but he is having another one in six months to check his eyes again. I am going to be ordering some books to do some work at home, as I’m fully prepared to help him at home as much as possible. I am not sure if school should be doing a bit more, (I am under the impression they find it frustrating). I went away from the parents evening not knowing where or what to do next really.

Hi school need to be treating him as SEN and using quality first teaching, placing him on their SEN list and formulating an IEP.

Their needs to be a referral to audiology for auditory processing disorder also to the Educational Psychologist to be assessed for other learning disabilities. It’s a long process so get the ball rolling ASAP.

There's definitely something there to investigate in terms of working memory, sequencing or planning. One of my kids has dyspraxia and we manage by having lists everywhere (yes we have a list about how your pants go on before your trousers which sums up my mornings some days) and school try to remember to adapt their delivery of instructions and just ask my child to clarify what they need to do before going to start a task, or write them on the board and similar strategies. We also use talking tins so they can record what they're meant to be doing and replay it as much as needed (obviously less of a solution if you've got a kid who'd just muck on recording silly noises and disrupting the class but my little one's very much one for following the rules).

We also have some issues with text tracking in terms of reading - I bought some reading rulers with a clear strip to isolate one line of the text at a time which really helped no end (they were a couple of quid from Amazon the ones I got)

All work should also be differentiated to make it achievable be careful doing extra work at home. He’s using a lot of brain power just to try and keep up at school his brain is exhausted by the time school has finished home needs to be his safe space where he can feel like himself.

Could you afford a private Ed Psych? They're expensive (~£500) but could really pinpoint the issue he's having. If you feel DS is bright in general but has some specific weaknesses it's best to have them identified and support put in place ASAP.

First get his hearing tested and also ask can they do a test of auditory perceptual skills. After that, you might look for indicators of dyslexia or more specifically ask the school to look into these things. A proper hearing test for high and low pitch hearing loss might help but also be aware of intermittent hearing loss whether can be harder to identify ( sometimes caused by glue ear).

All work should also be differentiated to make it achievable be careful doing extra work at home. He’s using a lot of brain power just to try and keep up at school his brain is exhausted by the time school has finished home needs to be his safe space where he can feel like himself.

This ^

I was thinking of doing 10 minute stretches on Saturday and Sunday of school work and maybe trying to identify some of the issues he’s having myself. The teacher has also asked if I can do additional work with him at home, I find in a quiet environment, he is better suited to processing things but still has problems retaining information. I wish the school was a bit more helpful in terms of moving forwards, I’ve been told he’s struggling and will get left behind but with no clue where to go and what to do. It seems like they aren’t willing to work with him in order to help him reach his full potential.

Definitely go back to school and request a separate meeting. Ask if the SENCO can attend too. School should be able to refer him to the LEA Educational Psychologist (assuming he attends an LEA school) who will be able to assess him further.

Concentrate on over learning so instead of 10 spellings ask for 5 and over learn them using multi sensory e.g. play dough, sand, steam in the shower, street chalk and finger
paints.

Schools are under massive pressure and teachers seem to have very limited training in SEN but it doesn’t excuse them from their responsibilities.

Read up on quality first teaching, smart objectives, EHCP’s and the equality act. Knowledge is power but if your child doesn’t have behaviour problems they’re at the bottom of the list.

If he tolerates 10minutes slots then great but my son had a horrible year 5 with horrendous pressure and a school who wanted him to ignore his dual diagnosis.

New school for year 6 and it’s been dramatically different even with SATS much less pressure a teacher who listens to him and academically especially in English he’s done better than ever.

As the parent of a bright child who has glasses ( just enough to Defo need them) and intermittent hearing loss & dual perforated ear drums, never under estimate the impact that these things can have. In noisy classrooms, DC with even mild hearing loss can loose the ability to hear much at all as it all blurrs, THe NDCS web site has tons of free info. Any child with perforated ear drums has less than perfect hearing as the ear drum does not act as it should

I would scrap the work at home idea. He needs to let of steam at home - a sanctuary where he can just be himself and not have to fit into the square hole that school obliges him to try and fill.

Talk to teacher again and ask to see SEND coordinator for individual programme of help for him.

I see the suggestions about not doing loads at home cos he’s tired, which I support, but I would still do lots of reading with him, to him and hearing him read too and just stop often and talk about the story - what happened, what might happen next, why did x say that, how did y know that, and sometimes underline that there isn’t necessarily a right answer, we don’t always know what happens next but we might be able to guess, sometimes wrongly etc, and that’s fine but it gets us thinking about the story.
Good luck!

I don't count reading as work! - read, read, read to him! Occasionally point out some feature maybe - two o's - that says oo - I wonder if we can find another one somewhere? etc.etc.

• How does he get on with games like 'I went to the shops and bought ...'
• Motor skills?
• Following instructions on craft kits?
• summarising the plot of a favourite film?

DD1 has dyspraxia and DD2 other processing difficulties. Stuff does go in eventually with them, but it does need more repetition than they tend to get in school.

We read 5 times a week, I used to ask him questions after reading four pages but have now stopped after two pages and asked questions, so the information is fresh in his head, then reading some more and asking more questions. Some of the time if I ask what might happen next, he is answering “I don’t know”, I always ask him to suggest what might happen next, along with my own suggestions. It was suggested that his expressive language was a bit behind in reception but not mentioned again, the problem has been highlighted in Year 3 with regrds to retaining information and comprehension, I’m not sure why any of this was not brought to my attention previously, it seems odd, maybe he was coping before but as the work has got more challenging it may be that it’s become more noticeable. Could it also be a problem caused by maybe an undiagnosed language delay? He had a fair few episodes of glue ear as a child, briefly in reception and two failed hearing tests over three months in Year 1 resulting in a perforated ear drum, so I’m also wondering whether that could have had an impact on his learning. I’m just not really sure where to go and what do apart from additional support at home. I’m well aware that teachers have a lot of pressures on them already, so I’m not expecting them to work miracles but it seems more input from school will be beneficial.

Can you get him assessed by a private speech and language therapist? Unfortunately it costs about £180-200 but it sounds to me like your son has some language difficulties. These will stop him accessing the curriculum across all areas and could result in inattentiveness as, if he isn't following the instructions/ what the teacher is saying, he will just switch off. The school may have access to speech and language so ask them first but it may be a long wait.

LoveBlackpool - It is something we can possibly do, I know there’s a long waiting list with the school speech and language therapist, as I’ve been told by another parent whose son sees one. I think if he does have an assessment, it would rule in or out any potential difficulties with language he may have.