mfl for statemented ds

[dilligaf]

My ds has just begun to study 2 foreign languages. He is finding that he confuses words from one language with words from the other. I feel he would do better with one language and use the other lessons to work on areas of difficulty in other subjects. He has a statement though no diagnosis just general difficulties e.g. organisation and memory. Has anyone else done this or is it better to plod on until the end of year 9 and then drop one?

As an MFL teacher, I find this situation ridiculous. It must be very stressful for all concerned. Contact the SENCO immediately, that's my advice.

Some dyslexic students don't do languages and are taken out of lessons to have extra support in other areas instead. My son has moderate dyslexia and is doing French and German - recent German spelling homework was obviously a total non-starter! On the other hand his spoken French and German is good. I think that some languages such as Spanish and Italian might be easier.

Niceweather thanks for the comments. My ds has not been diagnosed with dyslexia. Do you think this could be his problem? He struggles with Maths because each time he is presented with a calculation its like he's never seen it before. His spelling age is above his chronolgical age and he reads well- his issues are with retaining information and organisation. Also he finds school exhausting and sometimes even falls asleep in class. He learnt Spanish vocab but by the next day it was as if he had never seen it before.

I couldn't say about the dyslexia dilligaf.... you would have to have a proper assessment. I know that spelling is usually an issue for kids with dyslexia but retaining information and organisation can be issues as well. You could try posting on the Special Needs Children board.

Whilst I sympathise totally as both an MFL teacher and a parent of dc with sen, I think that you are unlikely to get the school to provide a replacement for when your dc are timetabled to do the second language. This will be because there will be no staff member available to teach him for that one or two hours per week. You could probably get them to agree to withdraw him from the second language but he would then be expected to work on homework etc in the library.

My DS who has learning difficulties and is statemented (He is dyspraxic as well - which does gives organisation and memory difficulties by the way; the bit of the brain which deals with acquired learning and memory storage does not work consistently so the bit which deals with new learning has to work overtime - could explain the considerable tiredness as well?) also had to learn French, German and Spanish last year in year 8, despite the fact his English is at a very low level. He coped, verbally he could say the words but i don't think much of the German and Spanish sunk in. French, possibly more but he's been learning it for a few years. For year 9 he was meant to choose 2, selected French and Spanish but got allocated French and German as Spanish was oversubscribed and they felt he could not cope with being with a higher abled class which would have been necessary for him to continue with Spanish. I asked if he could drop German and do more English (he has full time TA support anyway), but so far this has not happened, so I will push again very shortly. The world will not end if he has to carry on with German but I too, can't help feeling that a child with problems with English isn't going to get much out of trying to learn 2 additional languages. Go and talk to the SENCO as you might get somewhere if you keep pushing.