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!

and hopefully give you strategies to help your son if there are any difficulties.

You need to ask school what they are doing to help him stop falling behind.

That's their responsibility.

You should and can support at home but need their guidance to what they've assessed the issue is and what things you are aiming to improve.

My ds has LD but is cognitively very able in some areas. We know what weakness is and I support schools Sen input and we know what we are aiming for.

We got a private ed psych assessment for my Dd and it was a real eye opener and showed up some real difficulties in areas I hadnt heard of let alone considered. It made a massive difference to my and schools understanding as to why she was not progressing as everyone knew she was capable of. She is a very bright child with very slow processing. In retrospect it all made alot of sense and we needed to approach things differently.

Before you spend too much time worrying about this, is it worth asking your son a bit about what he reads at school.

I am not a teacher so I may be way off here but I have an 8yo ds and he never does well with reading comprehension at school but we read at bedtime for fun and if we miss a night or 2 I always need to ask where we are up to in the story and he can give me a perfect summary of story so far with whats and whys. He also loves factual books and can tell you all about an insect or a pokemon from information he has taken from an encyclopedia.

I think some of the problem at school isn't his comprehension but that he isn't really interested. Obviously he has to learn to take information from texts that are not of interest to him but I think this is more of an age problem than a learning one as he just doesn't care enough at 8.

Might not be relevant to your ds but worth a conversation or try asking him about a book you know he loves.

I spent some time researching this morning and it’s pointing towards a possible speech and language delay. So I think an assessment may be beneficial at this point. Will have a chat to my husband about possibly seeing a private therapist for an initial appointment and go from there. There could also be other things that may also be present but I think this has given me a starting point. Thank you for all your help and advice, it’s been highly appreciated

I would start with getting the hearing checked again, from what you've said. It has a massive impact.

Plus, as said earlier, make an appointment with the SENCo and ask what the school are putting in place to support him.

Does he snore? Sleep well? Just wondering if adenoids had been swollen so affecting sleep and how much he is taking in.
My dc is yr 2 glasses and several double ear perforations. I think it possibly has had a long term affect on behaviour and learning.

I myaelf have very poor working memory. I feel the main effects have been struggling verbally (with oral exams/job interviews) as i get anxious. And i have to make sure i learn things really well

Hi OP, if you read to him regularly and have not noticed before that he has the problems the school says he has, then I would suggest you continue reading and working with him on his comprehension. It may be the school setting that's the issue.

In everyday life, do you observe anything that backs up the school's concern?

I also endorse what Periodictable said.

By the way, many kids use the "I don't know" line especially when they are tired and just want to read and get it over with. I've done as Periodictable suggested and overtime, my DS has got used to reading and explaining the text. I've now moved on to inference.

You are right to check whether there is a disability of some sort but also consider that it might be the school setting and that you son needs extra support and practice at home, but he may be perfectly fine.

Some kids can't focus in noisy disruptive environments.

Didiplanthis - you DC sounds like mine (re: slow processing speed). May I ask what your child’s school has done to help her with her learning? I recently received my son’s WISC scores but there was any advice in the report about how to work around or improve his processing speed.