Dyslexia and homework tips - secondary school

[UnlikelyStar]

Hi, my child is getting set a lot of homework in year 7 and is struggling with things that require research. In geography for example they have a menu to choose homework tasks from but they are often things like "describe the movement of the tectonic plates and how they interconnect". There is no guidance on where to look, my child can't skim read a few websites until they find the relevant information. We have been mainly hoping that BBC Bitesize can help. I am trying to think of ways to help my child without overwhelming them even more. For questions that ask things like "find the definitions of 10 words related to map skills" for example, I am thinking they could type a mind map style slide in PowerPoint for each word. Less writing / typing involved but completing the task in a more manageable way. We also click on "read aloud" on websites so they can listen to rather than read the text.

Not being dyslexic myself I am trying to find ways to help my child succeed. Anyone have any useful tips? I have heard of dictating into the laptop but we haven't tried that yet. Handwriting is also a problem area.

Assistive technology will help.

Would researching in a book help, especially if you read it to DS or he had a reading pen? There would be less likely to be irrelevant content or too much detail in e.g. a CGP geography book.

Have you spoken to the school?

I am not entirely sure what "assistive technology" exists. I will have to speak to the school again. Today we found the science textbook on Kerboodle but we couldn't use the "read aloud" function on it. Then we found some pdfs on Kerboodle which we could use "read aloud" on. This all added an extra hour or so to the whole homework task. I don't really want to buy workbooks for every subject, maybe I'll have to though.

It takes my child longer to do the homework in the first place and then I spend ages trying to find ways of making it accessible.

Assistive technology is things like speech to text software, text to speech software, a more in-depth and refined spell checker, mind mapping software, reading pen. Have a look at things like TextHELP Read & Write, dragon, verity spell, global autocorrect, inspiration 10.

Have you spoken to school about reducing the homework burden? Do the school have a homework club?

@Thatsnotmycar thanks so much, I wouldn't know where to start

I know this is an old thread but in just in case it helps..we asked our sons school to take him out of French at the beginning of year 8. It was a subject that he massively struggled with (the English language is tricky enough) and he was not going to take for GCSE. This gave him two 'free' sessions a week where he could go to the senco department and do homework. Although they can't provide one to one support there is someone there who can help if he's stuck and he finds homework much more manageable.
Not to mention the relief for us of not having nightly homework battles which are so difficult for everyone!
I have found it has really reduced the pressure he feels. Good luck.