Poor dd1 (7 in Dec). She isn't struggling at school in that she loves going, she feels happy there, but she has started getting very upset at home about the fact that she 'can't remember things'. Her spelling is really atrocious - reading her literacy book today she had written a story full of good ideas but almost unreadable due to lack of punctuation and poor spelling - garden was "gand" and later "gadn", walk was "woc". She finds it almost impossible to complete work in the time allowed, in fact any time pressures at all, with anything, make her panic. Her reading has improved hugely but she is still at the 'bottom' of the class, she sits with three other children one of whom is statemented, so it is made very clear how the 'class rankings' work (there are four tables - uber clever, clever, average, below average, I would say). She is HUGELY conscientious but tells me that she finds listening and remembering very very hard. She often doesn't understand given work, especially if if involves sequencing - she has no idea what day it is, she cannot tell the time and has no concept of how long a week/month/year is. She finds putting her clothes and bags on her pegs very hard, hates getting dressed and cannot do the zip of her coat up - ok it is stiff but still...
all this is being thrown into sharp relief by dd2 (just 4) who (thanks to cod!) is now reading simple Ladybird books and recognises all the reception words, can write every letter in the alphabet and if I spell out words aloud can write anything- she tells dd1 what the day is, whether horse-riding is 'today' or 'tomorrow'. Thank the lord that dd1 is good at sport and dd2 is not otherwise I think poor dd1 would be utterly defeated.
I have spoken to dd1's teacher - she thinks dd1 needs a lot of reassurance which she doesn't always have time to give and that it is all a matter of confidence. What do you think?