Help with writing–where would you start to correct this?

Is he just starting written narrations? What has he used so far for grammar and spelling? If you want to use a spelling program, there are several programs discussed here for dyslexic: http://simplycharlottemason.com/scmforum/topic/spelling-is-not-sticking

My 10 yo has not done much writing yet. So I am not much experienced here. I would think you might first compliment him on the length and content and perhaps his penmanship. You had another post on using capitals and punctuation, so pick one – capitals. Remind him of the rules. Do as curlywhirly suggested and give reminders like, “uh-oh, remember?” Focus on the capitalization until it improves, then move on to punctuation. Instead of pointing out all the misspellings, I would get to work on finding a spelling program that will really help him. Hopefully more experienced moms will add to this and/or correct me. Slow and steady wins the race here.

My understanding is that he would write something new on the next written narration assignment and you would compliment him on something and focus on capitals in that. If he used capitals correctly, then point out a different correction, but only one. But it depends on how long he has been doing written narrations. Read the last part of Sonya’s post here:

https://simplycharlottemason.com/scmforum/topic/beginning-written-narrations-help-please

I do know that you do not want to mark up his whole paper with corrections. So I would think you would need to move on to a new composition.

First of all, I think getting him writing as much thoughts as he did is fantastic! We only just learned my 11yo is dyslexic this past spring and he is not able to get that much down on computer or paper, usually. I’m not even having him do written narration at the moment, as we still have quite a bit of work to do, haveing only recently learned of his dyslexia. From what I’ve read about what works for dyslexics, All About Spelling is a step in the right direction. It is at least partially based on the Orton-Gillingham method, which is what has been proven to work for dyslexics. If you find you need to look for something else, do a search for OG programs as I mentioned above. But hopefully AAS will do the trick. Great job, Mom!  🙂

Melissa

I have 3 dyslexic kids and using a CM pedogady since I started homeschooling the oldest kids in 1995.

Sequential spelling worked OK for my mild dyslexic child who is now in college. It was Ok and certainly not a magic bullet.

Orton Gillingham is the gold standard for teaching dyslexics. My moderate dyslexic 12 yo has worked halfway through an OG program in 9 months and his spelling has improved dramatically. AAS wasn’t enough. He is not a perfect speller, but so much improved. My recommendation is to find an OG program and plan on spending 30 minutes a day for the next couple of years to  improve his spelling. In the meantime, teach him to use spell checker.

My eldest child is not dyslexic and followed the expected timetable of written narrations of CM with excellent results. My college aged mild dyslexic lagged a few years behind ( started written narrations at 11 or 12) and these written narrations were not as good as her verbal narrations. She worked through several levels of Writing Strands before she really felt confident in her writing ability. This was a study she took on for herself. It is now known through research that dyslexics benefit from explicit teaching in grammar and writing.

How is his verbal narrations? Does he tell a verbal narration using complete sentences and thoughts? If not, then work on verbal narrations. Instead of just asking for a verbal narrations, I give my 12 yo explicit instructions. In 3-5 complete sentences, tell me about one topic of XX. If he tells me about the rocks, then the weather and lunch, then the people, then the drive, then I ask for another narration. So we talk about his narrations -such as about the 4 different topics, the incomplete sentences etc.-then I let him pick one of those topics to retell a narration. OR I just remember that he tends to skip around with topics and I help him narrow it down before he gives the narration. Discuss, pick a topic, then narrate. There are a few more steps, but my son’s verbal narrations have dramatically improved. This work in verbal narration is laying the framework for written narrations in the future.

I know copywork and dictation are the goldstandard in CM for teaching grammar and written expression. I have seen it work. However, for my moderate dyslexic/dysgraphic son it just. does. not. work. (at this time). He still is focused on 1 letter at a time in copywork and totally misses any other concepts. According to the person who formally Id’s him, his dysgraphia is significant enough that trying to get him to learn anything through writing was going to be counterproductive. I do not plan on reintroducing dictation until he completes his OG program. There would just be too many misspellings to cover up if I chose passages at his level. The OG program that he uses does have dictations but this is just a method to check spelling ability and certainly not a lesson in written expressions. This was the hardest thing for me to let go.

Instead of copywork/dictation, I spend time each day working on writing through IEW. IEW is explicit and it has helped him learn how to organize his thoughts and get them on paper. Short lessons  and words get put on paper. Instructions are explicit enough that he can check to see if he completed each step. As you know, grammar/punctuation rules that most kids will pick up through copywork these guys don’t even see. So having a written checklist to remind him to check capitalization, end punctuation, etc. is useful. 

I call his accommodations his “tools”. We keep a copy of all the spelling rules taped to the wall so they are always accessible. He uses these less and less as he progresses through his OG program.  I keep a list of words available on a white board. He has access to IEW’s thesaurus. This tool is laid out differently than a typical thesaurus and much more intuitive for him to use. We also use the Ginger program to check grammar and as a spell checker. We do this after he has completed his checklist. To get him comfortable with this, I show him how Ginger can help improve my own writing.

I hope some of this is useful. Just one last word of encouragement, the last English credit for highschool that my dyslexic dd earned was for writing a novel. It does get better.

wbbeachbum, thank you so much for taking the time to describe what you do/have done with your dyslexic students. We are still pretty new to this, so that was very helpful.  I’m going to make a note of the materials you mentioned for future reference. 🙂

Melissa