Non written sources of knowledge for 8 year old?

[rachelfrost]

Hello,

My dyslexic son is 8, finds reading really hard work and has a reading age of 6. He likes general knowledge, topics like science, wildlife, cars, engineering and architecture. He loves looking at books about these but I don’t have the time to read them to him. Does anyone know of an alternative?

He listens to audio books for fiction but there don’t seem to be many non-fiction ones for kids, apps all have writing or are aimed at much younger children and I don’t want him watching any more tv. Is there something I haven’t though of? Can anyone recommend an amazing kids science podcast or know of a magic genie that can come and read my son’s animal encyclopaedia out loud for us?

I feel he’s missing out on so much learning that he would enjoy and benefit from.

Thanks!

I know it's tv but if you're careful there are some really good YouTube stations that cover those subjects. My daughter who is very sciencey and likes factual information loves them. I'll have a look and see if I can find the names of them.

Also, has he watched the David Attenborough documentaries like blue planet etc my daughter also loves those.

To be honest, I'd be less bothered about it being TV providing it's good TV.

My son is 13, totally illiterate. He uses speech to text tech on an iPad to search YouTube for videos on his mountain bike hobby. He is able to strip and rebuild a bike, modify, service and repair as well as perform stunts and tricks all from what he's researched online (obviously you may want to supervise for appropriate content!) you may want to consider looking into a C-pen as a literacy tool to help your son engage in magazines and books of his choice.

Have you ever looked at iXL? It's paid for (although you get a month trial period) and I can't recommend it enough. It is written, but it's interactive and students get stamps/rewards for their efforts. You even get e-mailed certificates you can print each time a student has finished certain units, or spent a certain amount of timing working. It has been so, so useful for Maths and English skills with a lot of my students.

At school we have access to something called Books for All. This means we can access many fiction and non-fiction books in different formats and can have text to speech.

Thank you very much for all these recommendations- I’m going to look into them all apart from the David Attenborough, which we already love! Thanks again, it feels good to know there are things to explore: I was getting worried that no other options existed.

thanks for all the useful tips, am scribbling them down to add to the file of good ideas :)

lanbury: a c pen is just what we need. It’s a shame they’re so expensive but there are advantages to it taking some time to save up: he’ll be older and more capable of not losing it/ swapping it for a Pokemon card/ trying to use it in the bath. Maybe school could buy one...

I will give speech to text another go- he’s speech isn’t the clearest and I gave up because I didn’t want to criticise his pronunciation. But worth another try. Thanks for your advice!

Jenny- as far as I can tell Books For All is books for all who live in Scotland. Great idea though.

Barington-stokes books- have been recommended them but not tried yet. They are books where the subject age and reading age are not the same so, for example, you can chose a subject appropriate for an 8 year old with the reading age of a four year old. Mentioning it incase anyone else is looking for the same.

My step daughter’s teacher recommended simple books. We look at YouTube videos and watch documentaries too. For her birthday I am getting her a IXL membership so she can develop her English and math skills.

With the youngest two I have audio books in the car. We also retell stories out loud for my son using a tape recorder. I do a lot of drama based learning activities for all three children. I make up impromptu oral quizzes to test her comprehension and retention skills in addition to using traditional workbooks.

Can I recommend Brains On, and the ‘Wow in the world’ podcast... they are both kind of science-y. My 6 year old listens to them obsessively , and he is totally mad for all things science and technology

I'm also taking some good tips here thanks!