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Original poster

Spelling lists

16 replies

figleaf · 19/09/2005 09:35

Spent the weekend trying to learn 25 spellings with DS. The words are not in families and seem deliberately intended to trip them up eg double and bubble. I can feel the stress and misery building in him at the prospect of learning these words before Friday morning.

Last term he saw a devolpoment paedatrician who said he was dyspraxic with dyslexic traits. We have been refered to OT for the dyspraxia but the EP said ds was too bright to have his dyslexia recognised by the LEA.

Given the above, do you think it would be reasonable to ask for DS not to be given speling lists and tests?

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Original poster
figleaf · 19/09/2005 09:36

DS in Y3 by the way.

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Pixiefish · 19/09/2005 09:37

or ask them to only give him a few words to learn (without making it obvious to the rest of he class)

Original poster
figleaf · 19/09/2005 09:48

I considered that. He only tests 20 out of the list,last week it was 20 from 30, this week 20 from 25. It didn`t seem right to ask to be told what the 20 would be. What do you think?

My problem with asking for Ds to be given fewer than the rest eg 10 is that the teacher reads out everyones results so DS may feel a bit thick.The doctor and EP said self confidence is often lacking in dyspraxic kids.

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Original poster
figleaf · 19/09/2005 12:58

Anyone?

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gigglinggoblin · 19/09/2005 13:05

my kids dont have special needs, but i just cant agree with making them do something that makes them truly miserable. personally i would give them a go and then if you think he has done well on his test, give him a sticker at home. it really winds me up when kids who are not much more than babies really are dumped into this world of stress. might not be the best idea to ask that he is excluded altogether tho, you dont want him being singled out by the other kids

Tiggiwinkle · 19/09/2005 13:10

figleaf-my DS is dyspraxic and we have had similar problems over thh years, but more with Maths and things like times tables tests in his case. Does the teacher HAVE to read out everyones results? That is stressful in itself, especially when a child has a recognised difficulty and therefore cannot be expected to do so well in the tests?

coppertop · 19/09/2005 13:11

I think that if he has to be given spellings at all then they should be words that are appropriate to his level rather than his age-group. I have no experience of dyslexia and dyspraxia but am and at the LEA refusing to help because he's too bright!!

Hopefully someone on here will be able to give you some relevant advice about what to do next. Good luck.

Original poster
figleaf · 19/09/2005 13:12

It is sad isn`t it. My hubby has similar view to you ie do a bit and if he gets any right say well done. My thinking behind asking for him to be excused is that if he was missing a leg no one would make him run so why make him spell when he cant (well not without living the list for the next few days). Your right about it singling him out not easy this mum stuff is it.

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Original poster
figleaf · 19/09/2005 13:15

posts crossed there, mylast one was in reply to gigglingoblin but thanks coppertop and tiggiwinkle. I may ask about reading the results out - don`t want to be the difficult parent though.

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gigglinggoblin · 19/09/2005 13:28

i am frequently the difficult parent if thats what makes parents difficult! any teacher in their right mind is happy if you are helping your child get on at school and the spelling tests are not helping him. both my kids have been rather difficult to deal with at times and i went in to discuss anything i could think of to help. you wouldnt beleive the number of times i have been thanked by teachers for caring. at first i was really puzzled cos i thought it should be me thanking them (which i did) but i started noticing other parents reactions to situations with their kids and i understand a bit more now! do what you have to do, the only way you and school can work together to help your son is if you discuss these things. staying quiet wont help

LIZS · 19/09/2005 14:00

We haven't had spellings or maths homework yet for ds in Yr 3, suspected dyspraxia, so can't comment from recent experience. However 25 words sounds too many to me for many children anyway. Do they ability group the children so that those who may find it more difficult are not expected to learn the same as those who find it easier ? I don't think you could reasonably ask to opt him out altogether but could you ask the teacher to scale them down so that he has a list of say 10 definitely to learn and the rest are a "bonus". Then you can see if he copes better with that. Part of ds' problem is that he lacks confidence from never achieving or completing his work but if given smaller tasks to complete he feels better about what he can do.

Original poster
figleaf · 19/09/2005 14:41

I agree that you should raise concerns Gigglingoblin but Im a governor at the school so I dont know if that effects the way teachers view me. I feel they are a bit sensitive at times . An example of this happened at the start of this term when I wrote to appologise to the SEN teacher for missing an appointment about my sons first ever IEP on 25th June. I haddnt got the letter as they had sent it via my son who had left it in his drawer until the hols. The teacher is only in on Frdays so I said I was keen to have the meeting ASAP to make up any lost time. I also asked her to follow up any future letters with a phone call if she got no reply. The day after she got the letter we got a letter at home saying how hurt she was by my letter as she had so many children to work with and always tried her best to keep us all informed. In order to send me this letter I know the head and class teacher will have had an input so I imagine I`m not thought of that well.I sent another letter saying how nice and helpful everyone had been and that obviously somthing I wrote had been taken the wrong way. As I dont want to make things difficult for ds I thought a lie low policy may be in order.

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Pixiefish · 19/09/2005 16:03

thoroughly unfrofessional to write you a letter saying you'd hurt her. It should be in his IEP that he has 5 spellings to learn (or whatever it is). His teacher is at fault for doing this- she really should know better. I would do something though- have a word with his teacher and see what she suggests- put the ball in her court so to speak

Original poster
figleaf · 19/09/2005 17:13

Perhaps youre right.I may speak to his teacher but itll have to wait until Thursday as Ds has come home with a streaming cold this evening so may be off tomorrow. He has a different teacher on Wednesdays due to his normal class teacher being newly qualified and getting extra non contact time.

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gigglinggoblin · 19/09/2005 17:39

i didnt mean i go in to complain or that you should go in to raise issues! your childs teacher should already know if they are having problems with something, so just go in to discuss what can be done to work together to solve the problem. its no good teachers having a go at parents or vice versa, school and home needs to work together and the only way that can happen is if there is good communication. just mention after class how he feels and suggest that he would be happier (and probably more productive) in class if he didnt have the stress hanging over him. she might turn round and tell you that the spellings arent that big a deal. does anything negative happen if they do badly? if not then i would just make sure he knows he has other strengths and that it doesnt matter as long as he tries his best. we get them and usually do them, but ds never comes home talking about them. fingers crossed its just a storm in a tea cup

Original poster
figleaf · 19/09/2005 18:47

hope so - thanks.

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