DD2's comprehension improving - any drawbacks I'm not considering?

[lougle]

DD2's backstory - undefined tendency to literal thinking and a need for explicit teaching of concepts, but not recognised at school level.

So, DD2 couldn't seem to follow even the most basic plot unless the story was read back to her, and seemed not to be able to answer questions about what might happen next, or what had happened before.

I went to the library with her and found a set of books she was drawn to. They are 'fairy' books, with different themes, but the central characters stay the same throughout the series and always involve naughty goblins.

I've been reading a chapter or two per day, stopping every so often to ask a question, point out a meaning of a word, check for understanding. DD2 has improved massively through this. She's starting to retain the story, and even predict what might happen next and why.

This can only be good, right?

I have this niggling thought that by doing this at home, it covers the issues up and then she won't get help at school. But, so far, they aren't helping anyway...so I need to just keep doing what I can, don't I?

It's confusing.

Keep doing it Lougle. Forget school. You can have hope as far as they are concerned but you can't rely on them, nor risk not helping your dd now when you have found something that is working well and within your capabilities to deliver.

Thank you, Star. It's that dilemma of knowing that whatever I am doing is working in one sense, but it isn't changing the core issues...yet, if I can help her to bridge the gap enough that academically she can keep up, then perhaps socially she'll keep up too.

Her new school is a primary (her old was infant) and it seems that some of the older children play with the younger children. She's joining in lots of role play during break times ('mummies, babies and sisters' 'mummies and doggies', etc.) which is fantastic modelling for her, too.

"Using series of books which all adopt a standard plot with minimal variation"

Is killing me slowly and painfully

But you are so right. I'm encouraged, really. At first, she couldn't even pick out who was 'Rachel' and who was 'Kirsty' from the story. Now, she can tell me what happened in the chapter I read the day before. Today, she was even able to tell me that she thought the girls and 'Milly the River Fairy' would find Goblins down the river.

Interestingly for me, she stops me every so often and says 'where does it say that word?' I'm not sure why....I wonder if she is learning word shapes as well as phonics, because she seems to want to see it written, then she smiles contentedly.

Shove a pen and a mini notebook in the back of the book.
Keep some basic data
Date/title & pages/time spent/vocab taught/questions/her answers/fluency

If you need it later, you have some record that her progress is due to 'teaching' and not just to 'all children need bedtime stories'
SLT (yes, the private one you'll be saving up for) can look at it too
And it'll be useful for you in a year, perhaps when she hits the bumpers about something new, and you've almost forgotten the big difference this made.

Polter lol at rainbow fairies repeating patterns.
You're so right but they're so annoying

Have you also used Language for Thinking with her? What you are doing is great and LFT will give you much more material and much more structure..
LFT takes you through different little stories but you ascertain your child's level (out of three-the assessment process is easy and takes 10 minutes) and from that, you are able to work on a set of questions about each story which reflect the level.

It is cheap (£40) very simple and you can see progress very clearly and pick up areas of weakness to work on.

I've developed an easy to use guide and an assessment form so if you email me, I can send it to you.

Thank you all for your encouragement, it makes a huge difference.

Great idea about recording the data.

Moondog, that's kind of you, I'll email you

Oh and yes to the repeating. Daisy Meadows actually earned money for these books

There are no less than 21 sub-series to these books (weather fairies, pet fairies, dance fairies, green dairies, sporty fairies....) and each sub-series is 7 books.

That's 147 platforms for learning

Genuinely now, at least we've found something that she's interested in.

Oh God yes. Those are dreadful. Utter bilge.
I suffered through a few with my dd.
But, if she likes them, then, go for it.
Having a G&T to dull the pain somewhat beforehand helps.

Lougle.
I have found this issue with ds1.
We have done loads of stuff at home to help him and of course now he has made such good progress school are pretty much saying that they were right all along and he has just "caught up". Sigh.
It's very frustrating, but at the end of the day he is benefitting so I can cope with them taking the credit :)
Is good you have found something she likes, even if it does give you a migraine :)

Beast Quest
I daren't even ask waht that entails

I raise your beast quest and give you dinosaur cove.
God, he has written 100s of the bloody things!

Deffo echo what everyone else says, Lougle school will never be able to give your dd2 this level of support, so you have to do it.

I would also venture that some books are also written in a more concrete style, e.g. Enid Blyton's language is so much more accessible. Might be somewhere to go next, resource wise.

Moondog thanks for the heads up re LFT. Have been thinking about buying this while we wait for our busy SaLT to have availability. Do you mind if I PM you too?

zzzzz...you have been warned!!! :)
That and bloody astrosaurs.
And now it's how to train your dragon....

I never thought ds would read for pleasure zzzzz.
But he loves astrosaurs, dinsosaur cove and HTTYD.
It's lovely to hear him reading to himself and giggling away :)
The biggest challenge is finding something that hooks them ime.
I tend to use the book people and buy sets of the books...I got 9 HTTYD books for £20 last month.
Does your ds prefer fiction or non fiction?

Ooooh!
Super fudge was by fave book when I was 8/9!!
:)