Where do I start?

Advice on Special Needs and the 11 Plus Exams

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mystery
Posts: 8927
Joined: Tue Jul 21, 2009 10:56 pm

Re: Where do I start?

Post by mystery »

Good luck with it all. I don't know the difficulties your son has, so I am typing "into the blue". Also I'm really not sure at all from what you have said what he can do / can't do on the reading front.

I understand reading in a very simplistic way - reading is made up of word recognition, and comprehension. If you can lift the word cat off a page, and you know what the word cat means if someone says it to you, then chances are you will understand the word cat when you read it. If you understand some simple sentences when they are spoken to you, then the chances are that if you can lift those same simple sentences off the page when reading, you will understand them when you read them.

The rider to this is that if you are very laboured in "lifting the words off the page", this can take up too much mental capacity so you start to lose comprehension of what you would normally understand if someone read it to you. This is why different reading programmes work in their own different ways at improving word recognition. Some do it by exclusively teaching whole words, others by teaching children how to work out what each word says through phonics, others by using a mix of cues (pictures, context etc etc),others a mix of all these. This is the general gist of it all, and the literature, the researchers, the experts, can argue until kingdom come about the relative merits of all these different ways.

However there are some fairly clear threads running through a lot of the disagreements - that some learners need a lot more practice than others to achieve "fluency" (speed and accuracy), and that a method involving systematic phonics works with the overwhelming majority of learners, whatever their IQ, except at the very extremes.

For a good reading programme to work, it generally would need to be backed up by some daily one to one work at home too. It's unlikely that any school could do it within the working day.

I know your son is not dyslexic but you can also get a lot more about reading on http://www.dyslexics.org.uk" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false; --------- most of the research in the area of reading difficulties is relevant whether a child is "dyslexic" or not. I just find it easier to read everything and substitute the words "reading difficulties". Mona McNee's programme is old now, it has some inconsistencies, and I think looks relatively complicated to use. But it's free for parents and not much is free these days. I just really suggested that to give you a feel for the fact that you probably can succeed where no-one has so far, and to give a taste of what is meant by a phonics programme. I don't think it's a particularly easy one to use though.

I read quite often on TES that Apples and Pears is a very popular programme with teachers of SEN children in KS1 and with thorough application gets children up to about 2b in reading by the end of KS1 (i.e. national average for a 7 year old by the age of 7). Of course the problem is that your son is older than this and it may not appeal. However, it's got to be better than trying to learn reception sight words again and again and failing.

I am sure there are other programmes ........ I only know of a few. Try asking on the RRF message board for help. You will get some I think. There are people from round the world who have worked with all kinds of pupils with all kinds of difficulties.
mystery
Posts: 8927
Joined: Tue Jul 21, 2009 10:56 pm

Re: Where do I start?

Post by mystery »

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/education/33 ... -mind.html" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

Have you read this one?
yoyo123
Posts: 8099
Joined: Mon Jun 18, 2007 3:32 pm
Location: East Kent

Re: Where do I start?

Post by yoyo123 »

Unfortunately, many heads of infant schools did their training back in the days when phonics of any kind was considered a form of child abuse, so it will be some time before all parents are spared the ordeal of coping with illiterate offspring.
:roll: :roll:
mystery
Posts: 8927
Joined: Tue Jul 21, 2009 10:56 pm

Re: Where do I start?

Post by mystery »

:lol: He was clearly trying to create dramatic effect in his article - but there are some people who think that way about any form of phonics ...... and I think that includes a headteacher I know, and several much younger teachers I have met on courses recently!
purplegirl
Posts: 89
Joined: Wed Sep 26, 2012 9:38 pm

Re: Where do I start?

Post by purplegirl »

Hi, just like to say, don't worry too much. My older DD never had a statement at state primary, mainly because she was a high achiever and the primary was really more interested in statements for low performers. She had problems through out primary, one particularly experienced teacher suggested she had dyspraxic tendancies etc and to some extend I agreed ( she had amongst other problems poor hand writting, missed small words when writting, reversing occasional letters and lapses in spelling). Primary school did offer her some SEN help, mind gym etc, but this was short term and only an hour or so, once a week. I must admit I never pushed for any form of statement, as I didn't want her being labelled. I did get her individual 11 plus tuition (1 hour a week) from a tutor who specialised in giving a good grounding in English. So despite any problems, she passed the 11plus and is very happy at GS. A bright child can succeed.
mystery
Posts: 8927
Joined: Tue Jul 21, 2009 10:56 pm

Re: Where do I start?

Post by mystery »

http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/pmc2808040/" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

Been trying to find a useful research article that you can link to which doesn't involve being a subscriber to particular research database. Found the above one on ASD and reading.

It looks quite hopeful.
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