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Is it worth writing when she can't read/spell?
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My DD is 9, almost 10, and in the 4th grade. She has dyslexia and mild auditory processing problems. She is reading on a late first grade level and spells terribly. We are doing NOEO physics science this year. When we do expirements she is supposed to fill out an experiment page that has her answer what the experiment is called, what items she needs for it, what she is going to do, what she is trying to find out, what she thinks will happen, what the results were and why. In order to fill this out, she has to tell me the answer and then I write it on the white board and she copies it down. Is there any benefit in her writing it down since she can’t read what she is writing and can’t write it on her own? Or is all the benefit in the oral answering of the questions?
Sometimes we are supposed to write out the definitions of words. Is it beneficial for her to write it out when she can’t read what she is writing? I, of course, read her the definition before she writes it but she doesn’t know what word she is writing. Or should we just read and have her repeat the definition back to me?
When we do reading in the book, she is supposed to do a narration page. She always chooses the one that is only a drawing. I let her draw something and then have her label it. She is not interested in doing any of the ones that have writing lines and I don’t make her.
Thanks
I think that none of us are really sure. We’re not doctors or professionals… 😉
Anyway – I do not have experience with dyslexia, but I have a dd with APD (she is twelve). So please keep that in mind as well as the ideas I use may need to be tweaked or not used with your dd, depending on her level of APD.
When I first read your post yesterday, I thought of the poor people who used to trace the letters in old books to create new ones. How sad to not be able to understand what it said – and in some cases, how frustrating to “waste” time on something that couldn’t mean much to you personally.
I took a class on teaching children with APD and was amazed at how much harder they have to work to do basic things we do in mere seconds without even really thinking. It takes time for a child with these types of issues to move forward. It often takes extraordinary amounts of patience and diligence on our part as mothers and teachers to not force them beyond what they can handle (sometimes just emotionally), but still encourage them to move forward.
Now for my opinion: 😉
I think that writing excessive amounts (like you are talking about) when she doesn’t read is not worth the time since writing is excruciating most of the time to children with APD – it requires so much of their brain engergy. I would concentrate more on her ability to read and a lot less about her writing. Once she is reading better, she will catch up quickly on the writing mechanics. It is okay for you to be the scribe on those pages for experiments, just noting that she orally gave you the answers. If she knows the definition of something, she will probably not need to write it down. I would keep some mental hooks available to help her remember those definitions, though.
My dd with APD much prefers to draw her narrations. They give her time to hear the information, process it, and then put it on paper BEFORE being required to try to tell me what she heard. We did drawn narrations for a year with her narrating the picture back to me. Often I would write out the narration that she had given me. I always dated and titled the drawn narrations so we could refer back to them – she can still remember those stories when she sees the drawings. And that means that we are making progress and she is remembering – which is the point of education, right?
At this point, I am still working on getting oral narrations with some actual details in them. 😉 And since my dd is not struggling to read near as much now, I do write out her oral narrations occassionally and have her transcribe them to her drawings or school books. Sometimes I help her write a letter that way. She dictactes, I write and she transcribes.
She can read quite well now, but spelling is an issue. She can spell the same word six times in a letter and all of them are different – APD kids write phonetically, and since they aren’t always hearing the sounds we make, it can be interesting.
You may have already checked this out, but I have found Dianne Craft’s site helpful. Her articles alone are worth the several hours it to read them all. Her ideas seem to help my daughter – I think that perhaps you could benefit from reading those articles and watching her youtube videos. A child with these issues are not left-brain learners, they are right brain learners. They do not have a short term memory bank…meaning that reading something in black and white will not translate over their long term memory storage. They see life in pictures, not words. Dianne has many tips and tricks for teaching both dyslexixc and APD children in “pictures”. I have tried a few of her suggestions and they really work.
One thing that we knew from experience and Dianne confirmed was that white pages with lots of black words/numbers on it swim for the child. It is too much and they can’t concentrate. We had been using another paper to cover most of the page she was reading or problems she was working (math) and she seemed able to work better like that. Well, Dianne suggested we use color on our problems, so I got the highlighters out and marked her math book. She loved it. It sounds so basic, but she really is doing better – focusing and making far less mistakes.
Dianne also suggested that we write out our reading words in color and making up silly stories to help them remember how to spell the words. It works so far…my dd gets a kick out of drawing the silly stories on the words. It only takes a few mintutes a week, but it helps.
Another tip Dianne talks about is placing a colored transparency over a book page she is reading. The color makes the words stop swimming and they can concentrate. Often the words appear bigger, making it easier for the chikld to see them.
Something else we noticed that helps my dd to learn more effectively: daily outdoor time (preferably at least an hour, more is better) – sometimes during hard moments, I let her out for a few minutes to relieve her stress. Quiet classical music during lessons keeps her brain from over-stressing and helps her to be able to concentrate.
Here is a link to Dianne Craft’s site:
Here is a link to my blog where I wrote about some treatments for APD kids after the class I attended:
So many things in our CM homeschools are perfect for a child who struggles with these issues.
I second Diane Crafts methods. I’ve seen a remarkable attitude change in my son (dysgraphia) since we started following her methods for writing and spelling. You may write her narrations or oral answers for her to have a record of what material you covered, but I wouldn’t bother having her write these things for herself until she is much more accomplished with her reading. See what Diane Craft has to say on the topic and then you will have a cleraer picture of how to help your daughter have success.
My son is Autistic and one of the things we use a lot is called Teach Me Language, also just for fun you might try Arcademics.com, My kids love it. As for Physical Edcuation the CM Way, her way is to let the children innitiate things
If a child says to you mother I would like to learn to kick the ball then you teach him how, if a child just wonders around playing with things then let them, they are constantly learning from interacting with the world around them and will ask questions easily to you. Provide balls and ropes and other various things but put them out without instruction instead let the child choose to figure it out themselves or ask or not use at all 🙂 I hope this post helps you I firmly believe in cm education and making it for your family so then it becomes a (yourname) Mason Education
Amanda
Thank you for your input. I didn’t want to have her doing something that really wasn’t going to be much help to her. I felt like it was busy work and not accomplishing anything for us. If she knew what she was writing down, I could understand that it was helping to reinforce it. She doesn’t like it, either. I think I’ll just go back to complete oral for now. I am having her give me an oral narration on a different subject once a week that I type out. I am thinking about rotating by term which subject she is doing for that.
I will look at the Diane Craft links. I have read some of her things in the past, but it has been awhile.
I just got back from an appointment with the local PS and we are going to start going over there for 30 minutes a day of reading instruction with their reading specialist. We’ve worked through their testing this month and will start on Monday. Hopefully that helps with the reading and next year we can move her into doing more of her own writing.
Thank you, again, for your input.
Pangit, I’m going to say no, don’t make her write it if she can’t read it. I have an 8 year old dyslexic son and we’ve struggled with this same issue. After intense research, I’ve learned I was “beating a dead horse”. I just watched a presentation by Denise Eide, from The Logic of English where she mentions this. And, I apologize up front for not remembering exactly which presentation it was as I’ve watched several lately.
If you’re dd is dyslexic, she needs intense phonics instruction using the Orton Gillingham method. The multi sensory piece is huge for teaching anyone with dyslexia!! In my experience, dyslexia is often times not recognized in the public school system. I’ve been in contact with the cooperative that serves 29 local school districts in my area. They all say they can handle teaching kids with reading issues, but not one of them teaches the OG method. I encourage you to specifically ask your school about the methodology used for teaching dyslexics.
There is a plethora of information on any of these sites….
http://store.logicofenglish.com/
Two books I highly recommend are Overcoming Dyslexia by Sally Shaywitz and Uncovering the Logic of English by Denise Eide.
I’m coming to this discussion a little late and unfortunately, I’m in a bit of a rush this morning 🙁 But, please hang in there and feel free to ask any other questions.
Blessings,
Melissa
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