dyslexic child? (long)

"toypup" wrote in message
...
On Tue, 30 Oct 2007 11:14:17 GMT, Welches wrote:


If you have any say, then I'd suggest that he reads shorter books. You
may
have to make your own up. Four pages with a sentence on each can be
enough
when they're first learning. You can have something like.
Here is insert his name.
name and a book.
name likes the book.
name likes the book and I like name.

I don't have any say in what he reads at school. He was in one of the
slower reading groups last year and I assume it's the same this year. The
class was working on book reports, which was very difficult for him.

Right now, we are off track. I am just working to catch him up at bit.
The books I choose will be easier, one sentence per page.
Right I get the picture on that. How long are they? The older reading books
(Jane and Peter in UK) are about 50 pages long. The newer (beginner) books
may well only have 8-12 so the child can read the whole book rather than a
page or two.


3) He has very immature speech. He sounds like DD, who's 3 yo. The
r's
sound like w's, etc. His mother thinks it's because they speak another
language at home. I know lots of bilingual kids and they are not like
that. They may have accents, not immature speech.

I agree, but it probably doesn't help. Does she speak down to him?

His mother does not speak down to him. She speaks with an accent. I do
not believe he has an foreign accent. He sounds American, just very
young.

American accent is foreign to me :-)
I was thinking that if she spoke down "Does little Jonny want yumyums?" Then
he might well imitate her and sound immature because that's how she speaks
to him. I have known parents who speak down in that sort of way and it can
have an effect on their child's speech. eg if they used "mummy" and child's
name rather than "me" and "you", the child may well do this too.

Some children don't memorise easily. I'm not sure it would have anything
to
do with being dyslexic though.


I heard memorization was difficult for some dyslexic children.
It may be. I've never been told that, but I don't know much about dyslexia.
I was thinking of my brother when I said some children don't memorise
easily. I remember him learning a poem at about age 12. Before he knew it me
and my sister knew it better than him from hearing him repeat it. Three
weeks later me and my sister still knew it, he didn't. He just doesn't
memorise easily.



Is it just spelling instructions or generally?

At the time, it was spelling instructions. DS did have hearing problems,
that presented as problems following directions so I will look out for
signs of that. That thought also crossed my mind.


He could be dyslexic, he could have something else, but I'd guess from
what
you've said that he just isn't as bright as your ds.

The problem is that he is the absolute slowest in the class. All the
parents know it (the volunteer rate is very high, so they all see what
happens in the class; I have not discussed anything with them, but I hear
them gossip amongst themselves). The mom knows her child is the slowest
int the class and is not getting it like other children. She was
entertaining the idea of holding him back last year.
If the mum knows it then it's really up to her and the teacher. The only
thing is that if she thinks holding him back (which is something that isn't
done in UK much at all) is going to immediately solve it may be a problem in
itself, particularly if he needs extra help and this delays it by a year.


Perhaps you're
expecting a little bit too much based on your own experience.
A bit of extra help might bring this child on, or he may be a late
developer.

It is possible that he is a late developer. The problem is that he will
be
so behind by the time he develops that he will have great difficulty
catching up.

I'm assuming you're asking this as a fellow parent not as a teacher. In
which case I'd leave well alone. It's not really your business what track
he's in. The teacher should pick it up and tell her. If you think that's
not
going to happen then it could be worth saying something when in school to
the teacher. "I'm concerned about name because he seems to find this
work
so exhausting. Am I doing something wrong?"

DS was in his class last year, but they are in separate classes this year.
I don't know his teacher.

Is your information from last year or are you working with him this year?
If you're working with him this year, even as a volunteer, I think you have
some authority to metion it to the teacher. As a volunteer, I'd put it as
"how can I help further because he's finding it so hard?" as it's not your
job to suggest what might be wrong or solutions unless you're asked for your
opinion.
It's just so heartbreaking to see this child work so hard. He deserves it
like no one else to be doing better.
I know the feeling. In one subject for A-level the hardest worker was going
to (probably) get the worst grade. He'd have got an A* for effort which I
certainly wouldn't have.
It will help him that he's hardworking and you can commend him for that so
he doesn't get discouraged.
Debbie

"toypup" wrote in message
.. .
There is a child in DS's first grade class who is a bit behind. His
mother
has always contended that it was because she didn't send him to preschool.

She DID him to preschool two days a week beginning January of his
kindergarten year, which gives him about half a year of part-time
preschool
before school started. It's not as much preschool as other kids have had
and he was the youngest child in the class, only 4 1/2 at the start of the
school year.

I've always thought he was behind because of the lack of experience in
school and the fact that he was 4 1/2 in a class of many redshirted kids,
the oldest being nearly two years older than he.

I thought he just wasn't ready to learn the alphabet. He had such
difficulty learning the letters and numbers and even just differentiating
them. I remember teaching him separately from the class in school. I'd
show him flash cards, just a few at a time. I'd show him three cards,
which he'd miss. As I showed him, I'd tell him the answer. I'd go
through
maybe only three cards over and over and he just couldn't remember them.

This child has made progress. He is the hardest worker I've ever seen. I
have such respect for him. However, he still is having difficulty.

The thing is, I'm beginning to suspect he is having more trouble than just
being the youngest in class and lacking in school experience.

1) His mother said he never had any interest in letters like other
children. He has great difficulty reading anything other than sight words
that he struggled very hard to learn. When we get to new words, he cannot
or will not sound them out. If he guesses, it is completely wrong. He
does not learn new sight words easily. If I tell him what a word is on
one
page, he does not recognize it on the next page. He is exhausted when we
are done reading and he cannot remember what he read.

2) He does not write normally. All his letters are formed incorrectly.
Since it was such a struggle to get him to learn the alphabet, I wonder if
they just accepted anything looking close to the proper letter and just
not
corrected him or if he just can't get it.

3) He has very immature speech. He sounds like DD, who's 3 yo. The r's
sound like w's, etc. His mother thinks it's because they speak another
language at home. I know lots of bilingual kids and they are not like
that. They may have accents, not immature speech.

4) He can memorize the memory challenges only with great difficulty. I
worked with him to memorize one which DS (4 months older than this child)
memorized with just a few repetitions. We went over the title, author and
the first two lines over and over. He could not get it despite going over
them over and over. I could tell he was concentrating very hard and was
exhausted. We had to stop.

5) He has difficulty following instructions. During a spelling test,
he'd
get the word wrong, I told him how to spell it at a speed I'm used to
telling DS. He did not get it. I told him more slowly. He kept mixing
up
the letters, skipping letters, etc. He can't hear what I say and remember
it. I have to tell him one letter, wait for him to write it, then go to
the next letter.

My guess is this child is dyslexic. I have absolutely no training in this
area, it's just my hunch. I wonder if anyone here knows about dyslexia.
If it's not dyslexia, does anyone have a guess as to what it is? I really
want to help this child.

This child doesn't belong in the class that he's in, because it proceeds
too rapidly. His mother wants her children on this track knowing that
they
struggle because it is perceived as the best track. It is not the best
track for her children because they are struggling far too much, but that
is an opinion I keep to myself.

I don't want to offend the mom in any way by suggesting her child has a
problem. At the very least, I believe he has some sort of learning
disability, but I doubt she'd take to that suggestion kindly. She
believes
labeling them as English learners puts them on the wrong track, so she
lied
about their exposure to English and said this child speaks only English at
home. I don't think she'd want her children labeled with a disability and
tracked into a slower curriculum. Any suggestions there?




This is a child in your son's class? What is your role? Are you teaching the
class that your son is in?

On Tue, 30 Oct 2007 04:32:33 GMT, toypup wrote:

My guess is this child is dyslexic. I have absolutely no training in this
area, it's just my hunch. I wonder if anyone here knows about dyslexia.
If it's not dyslexia, does anyone have a guess as to what it is? I really
want to help this child.

Dyslexia usually does not manifest as an inability to memorize things.
Does he have trouble with memory if you are using auditory memory? Or
is it only visual memory that seems to be the problem? What about a
sequence of pictures with no words?

Information about dyslexia he
http://www.kidshealth.org/kid/health.../dyslexia.html

Hav ingdys lexiac anmake it hardtoread! Translation: Having dyslexia
can make it hard to read! Writing that looks just fine to you might
look like this to someone who has dyslexia.

Dyslexia (say: dis-lek-see-uh) is a learning problem some kids have
with reading and writing. It can make words look jumbled. This makes
it difficult for a kid to read and remember what was read.

So what's going on inside the person's brain? Well, it doesn't mean
the person is dumb. In fact, some very smart people have had dyslexia.
How smart? Well, some people say Albert Einstein was dyslexic.

The problem does occur in the brain, though. Sometimes the messages
the brain is sending get jumbled up or confused. A kid who has
dyslexia might get frustrated and find it hard to do schoolwork. But
the good news is that dyslexia doesn't need to keep a kid down.


--
Dorothy

There is no sound, no cry in all the world
that can be heard unless someone listens ..

The Outer Limits

On Oct 30, 3:20 am, Sarah Vaughan wrote:
Can I clarify - are you involved with this in a professional capacity,
or is it just that you know him through your children being in the same
class? I'm kind of confused as to where the bit with you teaching him
fits in.

All the best,

Sarah
--http://www.goodenoughmummy.typepad.com

"That which can be destroyed by the truth, should be" - P. C. Hodgell

I'm kinda a slow learner and I graduated from Donora, Pennsylvania
high school at the age of 21---
Special Education. My twin sister graduated at the age of 18. The
severe childhood abuse made me a slow learner and I did not graduated
with my twin sister. I was hurt over this. Paula and I had a horrible
suffering childhood life while my older brother and sister had a good
childhood life. After I graduated I got drafted into the army from
Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania and I cheated on the test to get into the
army. WHY? To get away from my abuser (mother). At age of one month
old and again at the age of 5, I almost died because of my childhood
suffering. In 1972, I moved to Portland, Oregon and a elderly lady
discovered me and she taught me to read, spelling and typing machine.
In 1975, I began my One Man Campaighn on 'Stop Child Abuse NOW!'.
Since 1975 to 2001, I had traveled over 25,000 miles across the U.S.
with Open Forums, Speeches, Non profit fund raising and many radio
talk programs across the U.S. I had done much works in my community of
this event in my life I also had met some movie stars and governments
across the U.S.
In the year 2047, my story will continue. My story and works and my
booklet is in a time capsule. All the information is on the Internet
Computer for over 15 years and many photos of this and many other
events in my life. Recently of 2007, newspaper written a story about
my life and works for abused children in Pennsylvania. Have I done
something good in my life because of my suffering? You be the judge of
that question when you see my web page at:
http://www.efn.org/~scan
http://www.geocities.com/Heartland/H...00/story5.html

Paul M. McLaughlin
Stop Child Abuse NOW!
298 Hunington Ave.
Eugene, Oregon 97405-4055

On Tue, 30 Oct 2007 22:21:35 GMT, toto wrote:

On Tue, 30 Oct 2007 04:32:33 GMT, toypup wrote:

My guess is this child is dyslexic. I have absolutely no training in this
area, it's just my hunch. I wonder if anyone here knows about dyslexia.
If it's not dyslexia, does anyone have a guess as to what it is? I really
want to help this child.

Dyslexia usually does not manifest as an inability to memorize things.
Does he have trouble with memory if you are using auditory memory? Or
is it only visual memory that seems to be the problem? What about a
sequence of pictures with no words?

I just looked it up and I found info he
http://www.dys-add.com/symptoms.html It does mention rote memorization as
being difficult for some dyslexics. Like I said, I'm no expert by any
means. He just seems to have some sort of disability and I'm guessing
dyslexia.

On Oct 29, 9:32 pm, toypup wrote:
There is a child in DS's first grade class who is a bit behind. His mother
has always contended that it was because she didn't send him to preschool.

She DID him to preschool two days a week beginning January of his
kindergarten year, which gives him about half a year of part-time preschool
before school started. It's not as much preschool as other kids have had
and he was the youngest child in the class, only 4 1/2 at the start of the
school year.

I've always thought he was behind because of the lack of experience in
school and the fact that he was 4 1/2 in a class of many redshirted kids,
the oldest being nearly two years older than he.

I thought he just wasn't ready to learn the alphabet. He had such
difficulty learning the letters and numbers and even just differentiating
them. I remember teaching him separately from the class in school. I'd
show him flash cards, just a few at a time. I'd show him three cards,
which he'd miss. As I showed him, I'd tell him the answer. I'd go through
maybe only three cards over and over and he just couldn't remember them.

This child has made progress. He is the hardest worker I've ever seen. I
have such respect for him. However, he still is having difficulty.

The thing is, I'm beginning to suspect he is having more trouble than just
being the youngest in class and lacking in school experience.

1) His mother said he never had any interest in letters like other
children. He has great difficulty reading anything other than sight words
that he struggled very hard to learn. When we get to new words, he cannot
or will not sound them out. If he guesses, it is completely wrong. He
does not learn new sight words easily. If I tell him what a word is on one
page, he does not recognize it on the next page. He is exhausted when we
are done reading and he cannot remember what he read.

2) He does not write normally. All his letters are formed incorrectly.
Since it was such a struggle to get him to learn the alphabet, I wonder if
they just accepted anything looking close to the proper letter and just not
corrected him or if he just can't get it.

3) He has very immature speech. He sounds like DD, who's 3 yo. The r's
sound like w's, etc. His mother thinks it's because they speak another
language at home. I know lots of bilingual kids and they are not like
that. They may have accents, not immature speech.

4) He can memorize the memory challenges only with great difficulty. I
worked with him to memorize one which DS (4 months older than this child)
memorized with just a few repetitions. We went over the title, author and
the first two lines over and over. He could not get it despite going over
them over and over. I could tell he was concentrating very hard and was
exhausted. We had to stop.

5) He has difficulty following instructions. During a spelling test, he'd
get the word wrong, I told him how to spell it at a speed I'm used to
telling DS. He did not get it. I told him more slowly. He kept mixing up
the letters, skipping letters, etc. He can't hear what I say and remember
it. I have to tell him one letter, wait for him to write it, then go to
the next letter.

My guess is this child is dyslexic. I have absolutely no training in this
area, it's just my hunch. I wonder if anyone here knows about dyslexia.
If it's not dyslexia, does anyone have a guess as to what it is? I really
want to help this child.

This child doesn't belong in the class that he's in, because it proceeds
too rapidly. His mother wants her children on this track knowing that they
struggle because it is perceived as the best track. It is not the best
track for her children because they are struggling far too much, but that
is an opinion I keep to myself.

I don't want to offend the mom in any way by suggesting her child has a
problem. At the very least, I believe he has some sort of learning
disability, but I doubt she'd take to that suggestion kindly. She believes
labeling them as English learners puts them on the wrong track, so she lied
about their exposure to English and said this child speaks only English at
home. I don't think she'd want her children labeled with a disability and
tracked into a slower curriculum. Any suggestions there?

On Tue, 30 Oct 2007 13:57:07 -0400, Stephanie wrote:

This is a child in your son's class? What is your role? Are you teaching the
class that your son is in?

He was in DS's class last year. I tutored him in class last year and I'm
tutoring him at my home this year.

On Tue, 30 Oct 2007 16:09:50 GMT, Welches wrote:

"toypup" wrote in message

Right now, we are off track. I am just working to catch him up at bit.
The books I choose will be easier, one sentence per page.
Right I get the picture on that. How long are they? The older reading books
(Jane and Peter in UK) are about 50 pages long. The newer (beginner) books
may well only have 8-12 so the child can read the whole book rather than a
page or two.


We read a story today. It was not very long (I could count the number of
sentences in that story). Sentences were only a few words long. Words
repeated frequently. He could read it, but certain words appeared over and
over and he could not remember them from sentence to sentence. By the end
of the story, he'd have read the same word so many times but still not know
what it is.


American accent is foreign to me :-)
I was thinking that if she spoke down "Does little Jonny want yumyums?" Then
he might well imitate her and sound immature because that's how she speaks
to him. I have known parents who speak down in that sort of way and it can
have an effect on their child's speech. eg if they used "mummy" and child's
name rather than "me" and "you", the child may well do this too.

The mom does not speak in babytalk to her kids.


He could be dyslexic, he could have something else, but I'd guess from
what
you've said that he just isn't as bright as your ds.

The problem is that he is the absolute slowest in the class. All the
parents know it (the volunteer rate is very high, so they all see what
happens in the class; I have not discussed anything with them, but I hear
them gossip amongst themselves). The mom knows her child is the slowest
int the class and is not getting it like other children. She was
entertaining the idea of holding him back last year.

Is your information from last year or are you working with him this year?
If you're working with him this year, even as a volunteer, I think you have
some authority to metion it to the teacher. As a volunteer, I'd put it as
"how can I help further because he's finding it so hard?" as it's not your
job to suggest what might be wrong or solutions unless you're asked for your
opinion.

I worked with him last year in school and this year at my house. Right
now, I offered my services directly to the mom for free. I am not
volunteering through the school.

On Tue, 30 Oct 2007 08:54:09 -0700, Chris wrote:

On Oct 30, 10:19?am, toypup wrote:
On Tue, 30 Oct 2007 10:20:09 +0000, Sarah Vaughan wrote:
Can I clarify - are you involved with this in a professional capacity,
or is it just that you know him through your children being in the same
class? I'm kind of confused as to where the bit with you teaching him
fits in.

He was in DS's kindergarten class. I volunteered in class and tutored the
children there privately as the class was in session and now I have
volunteered to tutor him at home just because I am very fond of him and he
would not get tutoring any other way.

That's really thoughtful and kind of you. The world needs more people
like that for certain!

Thank you.

In article , Banty
wrote:

Yep - seems the best course of action would be to share the observations with
the teacher, and let him or her do the job regarding interfacing with the
parents about this.

That's what I did with a kid in DS1's first-grade class. He plainly wasn't
reading -- he was relying on recognition of previously memorised words and had
no decoding skills at all. I informed the teachers that I was very concerned
about not just the lack of progress, but the limited skills, and he is now
getting extra assistance.

In our educational system, teachers can arrange in-school assessments for
learning difficulties.

--
Chookie -- Sydney, Australia
(Replace "foulspambegone" with "optushome" to reply)

http://chookiesbackyard.blogspot.com/