copying off whiteboard difficulty-------dyspraxia

[KangaMummy]

DS is in Class 5 age 9. He has recently been diagnosed as dyspraxic.

He got into trouble today in school for not copying correctly off the whiteboard into excercise book. He missed the ending off a word.

Last year he had a very kind teacher so we don't really know if it was hard for him then as well.
We did have a meeting last year with teacher and it wasn't mentioned.

This teacher is very much stricter. DH and I don't really know what to say to teacher. We both feel it is wrong to be given a warning card for this anyway.

If it is part of his dyspraxia then it is really wrong. Does anyone have any tips or experience of this happening with their DD or DS?

In DH school age 11 and over the dyspraxic children are given printed sheets or extra time to copy it out.

TIA

A laptop may not be the best option, there are many laptop-type devices available for children who have difficulty with writing, communication etc. Look for Communication Matters at the ACE centre in Oxford (prob www.communicationmatters.co.uk or com)

I know this is of no help at all Kangababy but reading this thread I can't help feeling a little bewildered as to why any child of 9 would be given a green card for not copying properly, regardless of whether they are dyspraxic or not. Everyone makes errors when copying, its not 'naughty'. Actually quite horrifies me that this is how children can be taught and I have to say in some ways I feel incredibly lucky that because of dd's disabilities I am never going to have to worry about education in quite the same way.

Rant over.... hope your ds gets the support he should Kanga.

Agree with heartinthecountry ? this teacher is behaving stupidly. Even if your ds didn't have dyspraxia, the most obvious explanation for failing to copy is poor eyesight, as wobblyknicks pointed out. And to pick on a child with dyspraxia like this is appalling. Would they discipline a deaf child for not hearing an instruction?
My SIL underachieved at school and one of the comments that kept cropping up was her inability to copy from the blackboard. Sadly none of the teachers suggested a sight test. And my in-laws, blessed with 20/20 vision, didn't think of it either. By the time anyone did think of the obvious, it was too late, she was convinced she was stupid and left school with very few qualifications. Years later she's now a classroom assistant, having come to terms with formal education through her own children. But who knows what she might have done had any of the stupid idiots realised what was wrong?
Sorry, that rant's not really helpful for you, Kanga, but it is heartfelt ? don't let them get away with blaming your ds for things that are beyond his control.

Kangamummy - if your ds does have an IEP you would know about it - when IEP's are drawn up it is done ( usually) as a consultative process and parents are involved as well as given a copy of it. If you do not have a copy it may well be that your child does not have one. I would contact the SENCO immediately and ask that one be done - legally he is entitled to one.

sorry can't help much more than that - taught secondary school and those children had acess to word processors etc that helped with getting information down that was printed off and put into books it needed - if only a small amount of info then I left it on the board for as long as possible - also when marking their books never worried if they had missed a part or some words etc - just put it in for them.

Have read your problem Kangamaummy and skipped through the rest of the thread- sorry if I'm repeating something that's allready been said. It is really bad practice to do what your ds's teacher has done. contact the school immediately- he should in no way have to copy off the board and the teacher should know about your sons problems and teach accordingly. I never ask dyslexic/dyspractic/any other sen child to copy off the whiteboard. But I don't make them different either- the teacher should copy the work into your ds's book if there is no classroom assistant. Sorry for going on but DO contact the school as it's the teacher that's at fault here for not teaching according to the needs of her students

I'm stunned that not being able to copy properly would be classed as "naughty"!

When I became short-sighted it happened pretty quickly. In the July I could easily copy from the whiteboard. By September it was almost impossible and I had to copy from friends' books rather than the board.

Kangamummy ... 10/10 to your son's teacher for attempting to ruin his enjoyment of school
This makes me so cross when I hear of teachers who do this.

I taught 9 year olds for nearly 10 years and this is what I did to help those who had problems ...

a) When writing more than one line on the whiteboard I used 3 or 4 different coloured pens ... so, line 1 was red, 2 was blue, 3 was green and 4 was black ... then 5 would be red again. That way the children didn't get confused when writing and then looking up ...

b) I would sit children who struggled with boardwork not too close to the board but not at the back of the classroom. Each child has different needs and so the place in the classroom is important.

c) With Dyslexic and dyspraxic children it is a good idea to print out sheets rather than do board work. There are different ways of getting them to use the sheets rather than just gluing them into their books.

Imagine you have some information you want the children to have in their books .... Some could copy it off the board no problems but for those who can't the teacher could try this:

1. Print the information and then underneath list some key words. The child has to find those words in the text and underline them in a colour.
2. Print the information and leave some blanks. Put those key words underneath the text and the children have to coppy the words to fill in the blanks.
3. Print the information and leave some blanks. Give them a choice of key words and they have put the right words in.
4. Print the informatation and leave blanks. Put the key words on the board and the children have to copy them into the blanks.
5. Print the information and leave blanks. Let the children think of their own appropriate words to fill in the blanks according to what they have learned in the lesson (spelling in this exercise shouldn't matter)

The list is endless .... So many ways to get a child to learn stuff but get the information down at their own pace ... loads of room for growth and development ....

HTH ...

DH made an appointment to see class teacher after school today to discuss DS dyspraxia.

She agreed that he needed a IEP and was going to organize it asap. We have a parent/teacher meeting in 2 weeks so we can go through it then. We will obviously need longer than the 10 min time slot. She said they need updating on a regular basis.

She said that they try to emphasize the strengths of the individual and help with weaknesses.

She wants to see his excercise plan from physio/OT to see what they can help with at school.

He has a SALT assesment next week because he has a long delay between being asked a question and answering/doing it. She was pleased he had app. as she had noticed that alot.

She said that he was a very determined co-operative child who wouldn't give up easily.

News about these green cards is not so good. There are 3 coloured cards.

RED = instant loss of playtime for bad behaviour or work well below the individual's potential

GREEN = a warning for borderline behaviour or poor copying, spelling, punctuation mistakes

GOLD = good behaviour or good work.

2xGREEN = 1 RED

10 X GOLD = SPECIAL CERTIFICATE AND STICKER FROM HEAD IN ASSEMBLY.

Incidentally DS got a Gold card today!!

DS teacher said that she doesn't use the whiteboard for general class work most of it is on sheets or workbooks.

At the end of the meeting we felt that she was now aware of DS and his particular dyspraxia probs.

We are still not happy about the green card as we feel missing play shouldn't happen after careless mistakes. Although we do realise what she is trying to do is trying to make them more careful with the accuracy of their written work.
DS can spell words for a spelling test but when writting them makes mistakes.

She did ask about his keyboard skills and suggested that he maybe tried to learn to touch type with various progammes for children. She said that would help him as a dyspraxic.

Thank you for all your help and support. We are learning as we go along.

Glad to hear you got some positive feedback .

I don't think she should be handing out these cards in general though, but if she is, she should be more lenient towards your ds I think. But on the whole it sounds like a productive meeting. Well done.

Thanks lou

Now we do think she is taking it seriously.

We will keep a close eye on the green card situation and if he is given any more of them we will certainly go and see her again and explain our feelings to her.

We do not want the other children to feel that he is given special treatment and not being told off for things that they are. BUT we do think he should be treated more leniently. IYSWIM

Glad to hear some progress is being made

Thanks hulababy

Sounds like you're handling this really well, and credit to the teacher for having a good in-depth conversation with you and being receptive to your explanations.

I'm kind of surprised at the "philosophy" behind the card system though. First, it seems a lot tougher (10 cards) to get a reward than a punishment (3 cards). Second, while I can see using the cards to tackle deliberate mis-behavior, surely accuracy in school work is better encouraged by positive reinforcement (gold cards, for example) than punishment. It's pretty hard to distinguish mis-spellings and the like which are honest mistakes from those that may be deliberate or due to lack of attention. I'm not just talking about SN kids, but the whole class. Maybe something to raise at the next parent meeting generally ...