Spelling and grammar difficulties

[Booksdelight]

Hello Everyone,

My son who is 14 years old ( year 9) is having difficulty with spelling and grammar in English. He is dyslexic and I'm at my wits end thinking about how to support him in GCSE exams. Kindly suggest any ideas like books or anything else to work at home with him to improve his spelling, grammar and vocabulary.
Thanks in advance.

I would suggest talking to the English teacher and the SENCO to find out what they are doing to support him in school, and what you can do with him at home.

Does he have a formal diagnosis? Does he have an EHCP? Were there any specific recommendations in his plan?

Now would be a good time to ask the school whether he is likely to qualify for any special considerations in his written GCSEs, such as extra time. I don't know much about it, but I gather that if the school can provide evidence that he needs extra time and they normally give him extra time for tests, they can apply for this in his GCSEs.

Just continue to help with reinforcing whatever is already put in place for him at school. Does he already have adjustments in place? If not, now's the time, so they are there by the time he gets to his exams.
Nobody is going to mark him down for SPaG as long as they are already in place.
My exam students this year with dyslexia had their own adjustments already in place by Christmas and included extra time and computer based writing with enabled spellcheck etc, both in class and when they got to the exams.

My understanding is that if you choose to have spell-check enabled then you lose all the available SPAG marks by default.

It's a question of weighing up the benefit of a spell-checked script versus the marks lost.

For some subjects the SPAG marks only apply to one particular question.

We're currently going through the process for DD14 in terms of deciding which option is likely to be better in terms of overall score.

Nothing has worked in terms of improving spelling or grammar so we have now given up even attempting as too much time spent for zero benefit. For vocabulary, audio books, good films and lots of music with clever lyrics have been the main help.

Switching to laptop and learning to touch type made a huge difference to everything.

I'm an English teacher - I'd advise speaking to SENCO at school about exam access arrangements. He could be entitled to extra time, a laptop or even a scribe. The key thing is for it to be valid for his GCSEs the support needs to have been in place for some time already and shown to have made a positive impact. He should be using these arrangements in all tests he does at school from now on.

The other thing I would say, particularly on spelling, is that there are very few marks awarded directly for this one skill. For literature the vast majority of marks are for critical analysis. Even for language, there are more marks for analysis in Section A and style, structure, writing for purpose and audience, creativity in Section B. Try not to fixate on the one thing it will be hard for him to improve on and focus on the other skill strands instead.

Also an English teacher and agree with @onlyamam 's points. The crucial thing is to have things in place early.

How bad is the spelling? How is his reading? Comprehension? What have you already tried?

Thank you all for your recommendations. My son has a formal assessment done which says he is mildly dyslexic and I've spoken to the SEN Co in his school and his teacher, they might give him extra time in exams. However I am looking for ways to improve his spelling, grammar and Vocabulary at home. Can I please request for tips on how he can achieve this?
Thanks in advance.

I can give you tips and suggestions once you answer my questions. It's not really possible otherwise.

Sorry, to answer your questions:

1. His basic spelling is quite poor, he spells as he would say it.
2. His reading is a bit slow but he reads when prompted, not on his own.
3. Comprehension is also basic and poor.
4. I've tried various private English classes from primary age, working on a book called Apples and Pears ( we got through 2 workbooks ) when he was in primary school.

He is willing go try and work hard to improve. Please help.

If his spelling is less than 9 and half years level

https://www.soundfoundations.co.uk/learning-to-spell/

Did do this with all mine but they'd finished that series by end of Primary school. I think Toe to Toe is also sometime suggested for this age range but we couldn't get on with that.

If not have a read though here:

https://www.spelfabet.com.au/where-to-start/parents/teenagers/ - there's a section with suggestions if it's just spelling.

These are older books

https://www.amazon.co.uk/Signposts-Spelling-Joy-Pollock/dp/0435106864

I can't remember if it was a series of books or just this one - that picked out a few issues for DD1 - it was dictation passages which highlighted a few remaining problem areas.

Greek and Lain word roots/suffixes and prefixes might help

https://www.amazon.co.uk/Course-Study-School-College-Students/dp/1659150604/ref=sr_1_1?crid=15UDB8MRHP6D8&keywords=Greek+and+latin+spellings&qid=1687781290&s=books&sprefix=greek+and+latin+spellings%2Cstripbooks%2C100&sr=1-1

https://www.amazon.co.uk/Greek-Latin-Roots-Grades-Comprehension/dp/0881603813/ref=sr_1_5?crid=15UDB8MRHP6D8&keywords=Greek+and+latin+spellings&qid=1687781290&s=books&sprefix=greek+and+latin+spellings%2Cstripbooks%2C100&sr=1-5

Though I haven't used these Greek/Latin books - I can't find ones we did use - but they helped a bit.

Biggest issue I had at this age was getting them to do any spelling work at all TBH - though I had spent years doing various spelling schemes with them by then with very slow incremental improvements.

However I'm not a teacher - though I was a teen who was later diagnosed dyslexia and by teens it mainly affected my spelling. I had a good vocabulary though through reading a lot - my kids do even one that doesn't despite my many efforts read - mainly through audio and podcasts and radio 4 and documentaries even things like QI.

https://www.readandspell.com/

I'm not sure how good this actually was but we did this as well - typing and spelling practise.

Okay cross posts - I see your aware of apples and pears - did you do to book D with them - if not if you got on with the program may be worth going back.

I found with DD1 we did first book and started second but few years later when we went back she'd fallen back to end of first book again placement wise - we pushed through at home then till book D was done then moved on to other schemes. Despite all the schemes they not are great spellers just not as bad as they would have been.

I've never used one but I've seen other posters say dyslexia tutors made a huge difference - so possibly something else to look into.

Apples and pears may be too young for him now, although it is excellent. I would also do dancing bears but the version for older kids. If that's too young for him now I'd do the following in the summer:

Stareway to spelling
Stride Ahead

Both of those are from the toe by toe series. Stride ahead works on kids who already read but comprehension and fluency is poor. Stareway to spelling is self explanatory. Those two would make a huge difference for him in GCSEs.