Parents with dyslexic DCs - how do you cope with Secondary School homework?

[GodzillasBumcheek]

Because we are not coping very well

Anything written takes ages
Anything using the internet takes even longer

I end up doing most of the internet browsing for them, and being a human spellchecker, but it still takes forever.
I even ended up supervising an online maths homework they did recently because i know they make mistakes with words (it involved hundreds and hundredths, tens and tenths, etc) and switching round numbers.

Is this how it's going to be all the way through school?

Anyone?

Helllllooooooooooooooo!!!???

can homework be typed instead of written? Would that even help?

MY DS (yr8) types everything for homework, his SENCO put that in his IEP. His reading is good, his problem is with writing. I am also a human spellchecker, with every few minutes we get "Mum, How I do spell???????"

DS often gets words mixed up are for our
or howl for whole which the spell checker doesn't pick up.

The first term homework overtook our life but there seems a lot less recently.

leave her to it. she gets much more stressed (and more dyslexic if stressed), if i check. have asked school for help. none was forthcoming so deal with it ourselves. they don't sseem too worried about it, nor does she so aren't doing much at the mo. assume will get worse as exams and stuff approach though. oh joy

Unfortunatelyme - no, it wouldn't help - they would actually take longer as they type extremely slowly, and if they are typing up info they have found on the internet then they haven't even got the screen there to copy from!

I agree that electronic spellcheckers are a bit rubbish in many cases for the kids, as we invested in two of them, only to find that they were needed for every other word (and took even longer than just writing it with the mistakes and then again after corrections)!

we had this issue last year....any and all homework was lasting 3hrs+!

we ended up writing to and ringing into the school, and they were shocked about how bad/long it was.

their advice was to let DD2 do the recommended time (ie, 20mins), and then let her stop, while I wrote into her homeowrk diary that she had doen the right time amount, and then stopped. it showed the school how well she was coping/not coping and they adjusted how much they gave.

I wish I knew! My ds (really pretty dyslexic) has just started at grammar school and I find it tough going. The main problem I find is not having contact with the school - at primary school I saw the teacher if I needed to but I don't even know what any of ds's teachers look like!

My priorities:
Making HWk diary look presentable and include info
Get squared paper for maths (wtf give them lined??)
PRESENTATION!!

Ds has got over the organisation thing and can type at about 24 wpm. That really helps. I just keep feeling really bad that I've sent him to a selective school (though other choices round here are cr&* for non-statemented dyslexics).

Have you been into school to discuss it? I know with ds, English teacher knew he was dyslexic and has some training, but maths teacher for eg didn't. When I wrote him a note he spoke to ds saying he understood as his son is dyslexic too. Communication is lacking. I'm a trained Dyslexia Action teacher and I still don't know how much to intervene and how much to leave it to ds.

Looking forward to some shared experiences of this move to secondary school!

Ds learnt to type with TTRS - really good move for him, though he does it at home rather than in the class as the woman talked witteringly and non-stop!

has anyone used cowriter as a predictive word processing tool? i used it with a visually impaired pupil who was also dyslexic and it did help. needed some time to build up speed and familiarity but it did give her some confidence.

godzillasbumcheek (heh heh... chortled a bit typing that) - i'd say speak to the school about homework. get them to identify what they want your dcs to achieve by doing the homework, and adapt it so that it is manageable for them.

New gripe today and not sure how to approach it - ds's RE book has tons of red marking in it all to do with spelling, and the odd little gem about poor copying from the board. Also "make sure you ask each time you are unsure of a spelling"!! No comments at all on content. Teacher in question is his tutor, so should know. Educationally would love to give her some pointers but don't want to make her resent ds. I'm trying to word a note without sounding like I'm criticising her!

I'm making wordbanks (just on strips of card) for ds at the moment - subject based. He then has a better chance of spelling environment and population right in his geography homework for eg. I'll do them on pastel card and keep them in a plastic zip folder.
Good result from maths - stuck a post it on ds's work - teacher has a quiet word with ds and has a dyslexic son himself apparently so understands ds's issues.
Maybe I should just write a note to all teachers? No word seems to have gone out from SN dept.

Ds was given a book by his SENCO that has all the key words for each subject. Trouble is he can't be bothered to take it with him. It's not very big, so no excuse really.

Thankfully the word did seem to go out last year and he had very few comments about his spelling.
They dc's often assess each others work and there was a comment the other day from another child, something like "good but bad spelling" DS didn't seem bothered by it.

Ds was given a book by his SENCO that has all the key words for each subject. Trouble is he can't be bothered to take it with him. It's not very big, so no excuse really.

Thankfully the word did seem to go out last year and he had very few comments about his spelling.
They dc's often assess each others work and there was a comment the other day from another child, something like "good but bad spelling" DS didn't seem bothered by it.

Sorry it took so long to get back - have been a bit ill (yes, you know it's nasty when you're too ill to mumsnaet ) - but wanted to reply to some of the posts.

Swedishmum - the spelling corrections, the incessant 'you should spell this right it was on the Board', the stupid suggestions of 'asking for spellings you are unsure of' of using a dictionary...yes, very familiar. We had this right the way through Junior School, even though the teachers all knew they were having difficulties. No complaints about Secondary in that respect yet.

RaggedRobin - the cowriter is quite alot above my price range i'm afraid!

The subject wordcards sound quite a good idea, Swedishmum, but i wouldn't know where to start!

I will have to begin monitoring the time it takes them to do their homework, and what they are struggling with, then book an appointment with or phone their form tutor to have a chat. Fortunately their school has made it clear that parents are welcome to bring up any concerns they have. Would have monitored the piles of homework they had at the start of the weekend but i was too ill to remember as well as actually helping!

Word Bank is the book ds was given. Not sure if you can buy single copies. It has all the important words for the main subjects and spaces to add others.

sorry godzilla, i just got back to this thread. when i used co-writer with pupils in the past it was always the school who paid for it/ provided the software and laptop for the pupil.

I've just ordered the wordbank book christywhisty's ds has (thanks for suggestion - has saved me a good deal of time!) - ordered 10 copies! It's something I may use in my work anyway, if I have any older students.
This week's crisis is French - seems all ds did all last half term was copy (inaccurately) from board - no evidence of teacher ever marking his book! All chalk and talk in grammar school by the look of it (not German though - much prefers that). So now we're adding little French games made up by moi to the touch typing and regular homework. Quick chorus of "Dans ma trousse..." anyone?
Seriously, it's not fair on ds. Think I'll wait for my wordbank book then make an appointment to see Head of Year. SN teacher's suggestion was that I email what Harry needs as teachers may take more notice of a parent than of her! I think I'm going to have to dust off my DDA file. I was assured this grammar school was great with dyslexic boys. We obviously have different definitions of great!