Class Work Help

You can maybe play spelling bee, write the letters or type the letters and cut them up and have him build the words, have him write the words and trace them with a color or marker, get a dry erase board and have him write the words with a dry erase marker when you call them out. You could also make hime some flash cards with the words and have him sort them by similarity and difference.

I found that playing cartoons, movies, etc on TV with captions help. The child is interested so reads without realizing. You could make a game out of watching a tape or DVD. After a while, have him wach with just captions. It rally helps.

For spelling scarf juggling helps as the spell the words it helps them use both sides of their brain. As for the reading have you had his hearing problem fixed? This can be a huge problem with how he has learned to read. Being unble to hear or a speech problems can make for delayed reading and falling behind their peers. Also another thing that would help would be a whisper tube that he uses inorder to hear himself read when reading aloud is not a option (you can pick up at a teacher supply store). Best to you and your son.

Has he been taught phonics? I hope he has. The public library might have some fun reading material. They used to have books to listen to and follow along. When my son had spelling problems- and when it was time to study for a test- I'd ask him to spell a word. Then he could ask me to spell a word. While he was checking to see if I spelled right- he was learning to spell it at the same time without realizing it! We'd do that a lot. When my daughter was in first grade-she tired of the reading material homework. She loved to sing-so I'd have her sing a page and then read me a page. Either way- she was reading and got her homework done!

The school is required to test him for learning disabilities, etc and to provide the resources he needs to overcome them if he has them.

Maybe they are better at this now than they were when my son was that age. It also depends on the school district. I had to fight to get my son tested and ended up having him tested on my own. Then I had the experts who tested him come to the school meeting and help me fight to get the services he needed.

I always wanted to try a learning center but I was a single mom and couldn't afford it. If there is any way you can get him some time in one, do it. Even a short time in one could give him an advantage for a life time. It's amazing what we can sacrifice if we need to.

Find a school supply store, or even wal-mart has some suplementary books that you can work with him at home, dr office, any where you can find time. They will be much cheaper. Most of the ones i've found have been around $10. Also get some flash cards. They are real cheap. He may rejected it at first because of embarassment. Just be pursistant. You don't want him getting held back, or worse. When I was in school, I saw kids go to the next grade just because the teacher didn't want to deal with them anymore. Pick about 10 words a week, or get spelling words in advance from teacher, and put in words he has a hard time with. Put 2 on the fridge every day, and several times have him spell out the word to you and at the end of the week do a test, and if he does good, mostly trying reall hard. Give a special treat. Also, take care of his hearing problem. It could be playing a big part in it.

Well I feel for you honey! Our stories seem to be alot of the same. My son who is now 14 has had trouble in school since 1st grade. Unlike your son, he has always been a excellent speller. But reading has been a huge issue. My son failed in first grade. We put him in Sylvan Learning Center during the middle of first grade and yes it really helped him. They taught him how to read. Now it took him 15 months to complete the program because he was so far behind but it did help. The next year he made honor roll one six weeks which was like a miracle.
Now my son has had 8 ear surgeries in his life an yes he does also have hearing loss in both ears. He has struggled with school every year. Finally in the 5th grade we moved him to private school because here in Louisiana we have to take the LEAP test which he failed in 4th grade. Private school does not have the LEAP test. Well one of his teachers called me about the third day of school and told me that Curri, our son, was really struggling and told me she thought she could help him. So we had a meeting, and she told me that Curri had a Language Processing Disorder. This basically meant that his brain has to process each and every word that he comes across seperatly and then has to put them all together and process the whole sentence. It even involves little things, like doing multi directions, and trying to process each direction before he can do it. Also she started giving his test orally. Which to this day works best for him. He is a very visual person and even this week on a science test his teacher sat with him and they talked about the test in different wording and he could give her the answers orally better than having to read the test and write the answers. He gets anxiety often and just having one paper infront of him instead of 3 papers stapled together helps his anxiety. As far as reading, our school has AR which required students to read books and get points as part of their reading grade. As of today, Curri has not ever received all of his points each nine weeks, but reads as many books as any other student so the teachers give him partial credit at the least. His scores have gone up in the past year but he still reads at a lower grade level than he should. I really feel for you because I know how frustating it is when your child struggles but you need to know that its not his fault and as long as he is trying don't ever give up on him. Talk to his teachers and see if there are some modifications they can do for him. See if they can try some oral testing and maybe even extending his time on his reading test.

I hope this gives you some insight. My son is 14 and we are still hoping for that light at the end of the tunnel!!!

The best thing you can do is spend time reading with him, modeling an enjoyment of reading, and turn off the TV except for special times (like every Friday night or one hour per week or whatever rule you want to make). Same thing with video games and computer time.

Reading, compared to these activities, is very hard work for someone so new to it. And he's probably already feeling discouraged. So, he will always want to default to "screen time," instead. He needs to get through the hard work of reading, and it takes years for any child to get to the point where it really comes easy and feels natural. So, off with the electronics!

This sounds hard, but it's really the best way to do it. Marie Winn's book The Plug-In Drug (which is where I came to understand these things) offers some great tips on how to break the addiction. Highly recommended. And yeah. It can be hard. My husband and I still find ourselves watching too many movies in a month - sometimes two a week, or even more when we're really getting distracted from the many other things we can enjoy doing together. BUT. When we keep the screen off, we know we're adding more to the quality of our lives. And we get a lot more done :)

Oh, and speaking of third grade: a study showed that 3rd-graders with TVs in their bedrooms had significantly lower grades (or test scores? I forget which) than those who didn't. If he has one, get that TV out of there!

i agree with everything so far, but just a little more insight. i have a neighbor/friend that was told that her child was falling behind in reading and may have to repeat a year. she took her daughter to Sylvan learning center and they did very thorough testing, presented the results to the school, and did a program with her that had her caught up and passing some of the other kids in a very short time. I want to say that it was only a month or so before they were seeing dramatic results. It may be worth it, at least to build up the foundation for future learning, even if you don't leave him in it. In addition to that, read, read, read!!! With him, to him, let him read to you, let him read to other bros/sisters, let him see you reading and enjoying it. Also, it doesn't matter what he's reading, at least content wise, try to find stuff on his level, but comic books would work just fine. The more he enjoys reading the material, the easier it will come to him and the longer you can keep him interested in the material. Good luck.

I was the worst at spelling during my elementary days and still sometimes now. My parents use to make me go through all of my spelling words before I got up from the dinner table. We had a set of words for one week (got them on Monday, tested on Friday). I hated it at the time, but I think it really helped.

I taught school for 10 years. Our school had an auditory oral program for hearing impaired children. My second daughter had hearing issues as an infant that were cleared up with tubes. Yes, the hearing issue will definitely affect the whole speech/lanugage/reading process. I think phonics programs are excellent. I'm sure that there are other good ones out there, but I am particularly fond of Saxon Phonics. You can order a homeschooling kit and work on it with your child or see what your school has to offer. If they do not do a phonics program, they likely won't start one with him. Though my second child began speech therapy at 2.5 years, the early language development issues are still obviouse to me in her spelling/reading. I did second grade phonics with her all summer for about 20 minutes a day. I saw great improvement. If you do the Saxon phonics at home, I recommend spending the time on the important lessons and skipping the weekly assessments. When you are working one on one, you will know if he "gets it" and you don't have a need to assess for a grade. I think the second grade level will not be too low. It teaches concepts that my fourth grader isn't familiar with. Also, make sure he reads anything that HE is interested in reading for at least 15 minutes every night.

Another thing to try for spelling is to have a dry erase board for practice tests. That makes taking the tests and possibly writing the words a bit less painful for the kids. At the beginning of the week, look at all of the words and discuss each word. Point out any pattern that you see, spelling rules that are in the words (like double consonants, vowel-consonant-silent "e", etc.) he might even like writing the word and tracing around it to help him picture the shape of the word. Kids remember funny things you say about words. For example, when one daughter was learning to spell "many" we would say "you spell it like man - y (pronounced like "why") Also help him break words into syllables and spell the syllables.

Finally, if he has hearing difficulties, he should definitely be getting speech therapy. He will spell how he hears and speaks.

Have you talked to the school about his hearing problem? Have you talked to his teacher(s) about your concerns? The reason I ask is my sons have had wonderful teachers that have gone above what I expected. I don't have hearing issues or such but I make sure my sons teachers know I'm available and if they have any issues to contact me and we will work on things. So talk to his teachers and the principal. If they are aware of the issue they should be willing to help you with ways to encourage him at home.
Also talk to his doctor and make sure you have proof of the issue. Sometimes teachers will want proof.
Also the teachers will have websites that have spelling games and ideas on them. I have had teachers send home worksheets that point out to go to such and such website. I don't have any right now or I would post them.

My son had the same problem with Reading. We sent him to Sylvan ( not sure about the speling) and this helped him "Learn" to read but did not help him "like" to read. We tried having his vision cheked and it always came back he had 20/20 "eyesight". We finally had him checked by a Developmental Optometrist and found out he had a "vision" problem. It seems vision and eyesight are not the same thing. We had to go through about 9 months of vision therapy. That was about 4 or 5 years ago and he now loves to read and is an above average reader for his age.

Hi there. Good for you for paying attention to your son's learning. Now, the school offers free testing for various learning abilities or differences. They usually won't tell you about it. This test covers the basic ADD stuff (to rule out) and various other things. Push them to do it. It takes about 1 hour over a few days to do it. They are required by law to do it. We did it a few years ago with our daughter. Answer? Gifted and with a learning disability. The school is also obligated to provide OT, ST, and PT as needed for learning. We found out as we went along. Your tax dollars already paid for the people to do the work. Now she has learned how to learn best for her, is in high school, and made honor roll. Good luck.

His hearing problems definitely can contribute to his language problem. You need to get involved with what the school is doing. Find out what his doctor recommends and make sure the school is doing that for him, if possible. I'm no expert on the hearing impaired, so I hesitate to say more than that, but I have raised a fairly dyslexic son who can now spell o. k. most of the time. We just practiced reading and writing a lot. He actually had fun when I tested him weekly on 10 words. It was not too much for him to memorize, and some of it stuck. When he didn't do well he was upset, but then he tried harder the next time.
One last thing, I used to teach English at a community college, and a reading teacher who was taking my class told me that reading help could interfere with how kids do because the school did not try to integrate the help with the class or help the kids make up for they disruption of being pulled out for remedial work. You might want to check on what your son is missing when he gets "help" and what kind of help it is.

The first thing I would do to help your son read better is to get him a good phonics program. If he can learn the sound the letters make it would make this so much easier. I also kept a card file of the words Jeff know and we went thought them one a day and I add any new word he learn. Also practice reading with him, pick a book he really loves and sat down and take turn reading a page. I had Jeff do the old word the word over and over again. I also had him make up a story with the spelling word. Maybe you can make up a sing with the words kids learn this way a lot of time because the sing are funny most of the time.