DD6 struggling at school

[SamwiseTheBodyguard]

Hi, I'm just looking for some advice of anyone who may have had similar experiences or is perhaps a primary teacher. I'm so sorry for the long rambling post!

We had DD (age 6) second parents evening of the year and her teacher let us know that she is struggling a fair bit. We knew from the first parents evening that she had some teacher/TA support and her teacher said that it may have been a case that all of a sudden things would fall into place and she would soar or she may need further support.

We hadn't had any further updates until her parents evening this week where her teacher tells us that they have screened her for dyslexia and there are indicators that she may have dyslexia and they will be referring her for an official assesment (she is turning 7 next week which I understand is the minimum age they will assess for dyslexia)

What I really would like to know is how best we can support her learning at home? I feel awful that I didn't realise just how much she struggled at school. We have very much let her take the lead on her learning at home because she loves to practise her spellings on spelling shed and go on doodlemaths and does that without being asked most days. We read with her but not as much as we should which will change, and we also practise spellings a lot throughout the week although she still struggles with these.

Sometimes I think she struggles to retain knowledge or gets so easily distracted and bored. My older DD who is in secondary school now had such a different learning style and would memorise her spellings by writing them down which has never been that effective for DD6.

I've just signed up for a free trial of Reading Eggs which she seems to enjoy doing on the iPad, but was wondering if there was another app or workbook that people may suggest?

We have always bought her workbooks to do at home but the ones for her age she has struggled with and sometimes when I'm trying to explain things to her I can see that she doesn't understand and she plucks an answer from nowhere. Right now we are working through some maths and English workbooks for ages 5+ which she is doing ok with, but I don't know how helpful this will be when it comes to her actual school work. Should I ask her teacher if she can confirm each week what topics they are going to work on so we can look over this at home to supplement her learning? Or maybe for some work to look at at home? The only homework they have is spellings at the moment.

I'm feeling like we have failed her by not noticing how far behind she was and doing something sooner, I got the impression at parents evening that the teacher was frustrated with her because she spends a lot of her time working with her one on one and she is not getting the work they are doing so I really want to do all I can to help my DD.

I would hit pause on the extra interventions and ideally get the dyslexia assessment before deciding with teachers / senco / ed psych how best to proceed. That’s assuming you won’t have too long to wait for her assessment.

in the meantime I would read up on dyslexia. Dyslexia is not just being a poor reader or something you could avoid by putting in more work - her brain is wired differently in both good and challenging ways. she might need different strategies that suit her learning, but there are plenty of very very successful dyslexics in the world and with appropriate support and adaptations she should be able to thrive. The biggest risk for her is developing a low sense of self esteem, which is why loads of extra practice not suited to her needs might be counterproductive.

it is really excellent that schoolhave flagged her so early - it is unfortunately pretty common for children to struggle much longer before being screened, and which point they feel like total failures at school.

Make sure she enjoys and is praised for things she is good at. A tip with maths is to make sure she writes the numbers in the right order. I’m not sure what maths they do at that age but I know with older children it can be very off putting to work a maths question out but get the answer wrong because for example you wrote 131 for 113. A way to help that is to encourage her to say the numbers aloud as she writes them.Mixing the order of numbers and letters and transposing the letters is a common trait of dyslexia. Don’t make a big thing about about any thing of the mistakes.

Just to reitterate the previous poster, I wouldn't put specific interventions in place until you get her assessed (although I am a parent and not a teacher). If you are curious about whether she is dyslexic, then Nessy has an online dyslexia screener that you could do before the assessment to see (and it is free, https://www.nessy.com/en-gb/dyslexia-explained/testing-and-screening/free-dyslexia-pre-screener-ages-5-7).

After you have the diagnosis, look at toe-by-toe book https://www.amazon.co.uk/Toe-Structured-Multi-sensory-Reading-Teachers/dp/0952256401. Nessy is also fun and seems to work for us. A great source of info for understanding students with dyslexia is a free set of webinars online through https://www.kingston.ac.uk/faculties/faculty-of-health-social-care-education/department-of-education/kudyt/kudyt-webinars/?dm_i=1M62,8V4H5,9DECSO,10WY6Y,1. Really good at explaining when touch typing and other technologies can come in helpful.

In the meantime, what about audio books or "read along" books. The key is to get the vocab in through another route.

HTH

Really good tips here and it is fab the school have noticed all of this.

I am a couple of years ahead but you mentioned focus. Sane sort of issues in learning but mine are being assessed for ADHD and autism. I remember saying lacked focus around ages 6.

Otherwise, keep learning fun and lots of praise.

Thank you so much for the responses, sounds like we should just continue as we are and wait for the assessment and results (unfortunately I have no idea how long this could take)

I think I just left that parents evening feeling really sad for my DD, she absolutely loves to learn and is always so enthusiastic to do her doodle maths and spelling shed, and I felt like the teacher seemed quite frustrated with her (things that she explained in the meeting about what DD couldn't do that she should be able to do, quoting what she said to DD to try and hurry her along because she was behind all the other kids)

She gets a lot of praise at home for what she does do, she got full marks on her spellings test yesterday and we were proud as punch, and she was so proud to come running out to tell me at home time.

I would also add that if it isn’t very clearly dyslexia (if you dyslexia in the family hen there is a pretty good chance that’s what it is), an ed psych assessment (rather than ‘just’ a dyslexia assessment) could be really valuable as it looks much more broadly at difficulties AND strengths. It helped us zero in on the specific aspects that were causing dc to struggle with school work and identify some real strengths that were hidden from view, all of which helped us figure out how best to support her while also helping her (and school) see their talents.

I would get clarity on timelines, as well as the nature of the referral - in some areas there is a massive shortage of specialists and/or budgets are massively overcommitted which can mean lengthy delays. If private assessments are a possibility it might be worth exploring.

I wouldn't use toe by toe with a just turned 7 year old unless they were very mature and driven to succeed.

Have a look at Dancing Bears instead. It is more user friendly for younger children although the "decodable story" pages are bizarre and I only use those in the early stages.

Always the advice when considering a child may have any kind of special educational need is to make sure that hearing and eyesight checks have been done, so that is the first thing.

Ask her teacher what they recommend you do at home. Also ask what support is being put in place in school. The need has been identified, so school should be addressing that; they should not be waiting for a diagnosis. You may need to ask to meet with the class teacher and Senco together to get these answers.

What else to do at home?
Read together - join a library as you may need to be borrowing books at two levels: the ones she can read and the ones which are at her understanding and maturity level that you need to read to her/ with her or use as audiobooks.
Put the subtitles on the TV. Simple and really does help.
Enrol her in an activity - a sport or something like brownies/ beavers or forest school - or take up a hobby where she will see tangible rewards for her efforts. She is probably working harder than her peers at school and not seeing the results so really work on keeping her self-esteem high.

I would recommend the "studyladder" learning programme. Costs £48 for the year and has been amazing for both my kids.

So shes y2?
How much time a day is she reading to you?
I would prioritise her reading over the spellings - our school dodnt start spellings till y3 anyway.
Most kids seemed to become ree readers by y3 so working on the reading. As by y3 any issyes with that will affect other subjects too.
Our school use mathletics which is by yeargroup. If you buy as a parent you can set the year group.
Cgp books are also very good for maths.
My younger one isnt as good with spelling but i think its memory related . If you imagine time working on homework woth or without parents spelling is lower importance . How long are you spending on it? We are only spending about 10-15 min a week.