Eli's always had trouble with reading comprehension. SOS seems to be helping to some degree. He usually does really well on the daily assignments (looking back over the lesson for the answers). But when it comes to quizzes... well, let's just say that if there are 15 questions, he gets at least 10 wrong. So now it's about retaining the information. I've been having him talk with me about the information, take notes (with my help) and then 'study' the notes before the quiz. But still... he totally blanks when the material is not in front of him. I thought maybe he needed it on paper, so I printed the questions... still Fs. We've played games with vocab. I thought it was maybe test anxiety, so I used the questions to discuss with him, so it wasn't a test, it was just me sort of fishing for what he knew. He still couldn't remember any of it. I mean, not ANYTHING. Even the science stuff that he's gotten so excited about as he's reading it and telling me all about the cool ways the body turns food to energy, etc. But as soon as he walks away from the screen, he can't tell me anything about digestion (or even what digestion means!). [I'm not grilling him on the stuff, either. Just talking throughout the day] I don't know how to help him. I mean, I don't care about 'tests' or grades, but if he can't have a conversation about what he's read, then he's not actually learning. Even practical stuff is a problem. E.g. He had an activity in LP math where he was measuring various items. He did 6 or 7 following the directions in the book. Then he was to measure a room in the house. I had him do the hallway for simplicity sake. He got in there, and had no idea what to do. What am I doing wrong? What could/should I be doing?
How are his memory skills in general? Does he have problems retaining information across the board? Has he been able to do any narration? How does he do with listening to stories read aloud? Do you know what his learning style is?
I always thought he was a kinesthetic learner, but I'm not so sure. He's, on his own, decided he likes to sit at the table (and just sit) while he works. He does still fidget, but he used to pace and move a lot, using his whole body. He uses the "I forgot" excuse a lot. But I don't know how much of that is him just not paying attention to what DH or I say or how much really is his memory. He is in AWANAs for the first time this year, and he's certainly learning verses slower than DS6, but DS6 seems to memorize quickly, even compared to me (and I'm an actress who is used to learning lines in a matter of hours). He doesn't pay attention to stories read aloud. His mind is in another place altogether. I'm not sure what you mean by "Has he been able to do any narration?"
By narration I'm referring to the Charlotte Mason method where you have a child repeat back/retell what he has heard. Is he a daydreamer or artistic? He sounds somewhat similar to my son. My son is a big time daydreamer. His imagination is quite active. I've found that I need to engage him with hands-on activities and activities related to drawing. He also does well with verbal instruction if there is interaction as well as things like DVDs. I am working on his attention and memory through using narration. I am having him repeat back short sequences and then build up to having him retell an entire story. I would check into the memory issues. See how many unrelated words he can repeat back like: dog cart water jump picture You can also try numbers like: 2 8 5 9 3 See if he can repeat numbers in reverse too. I had memory issues throughout school (still do) and I had to develop strategies to put information into my long term memory. It took me much longer than others to study, but I retained the information when others forgot it after the test. One strategy that works well for me is to associate the information with something else in my memory. For instance, if I was learning the Arabic word for door (baab) I associated it with Bob the Tomato coming to my door. Repeating it, writing it, or reading it didn't work well for me.
Oh yeah. Sorry. I have him retell me what he just read. He can do that. But if I wait five minutes, he can't. I'll try to tie in more drawing. Thanks!
Sounds like my DD! I have found with her if she has something hands on it helps and not necessary something to do with what she is working on. My daughter would be the one in school at her desk sitting upside down and picking her nose( I know not a pretty sight). I finally realized she is learning even though she is not sitting up straight and tuned in to her work. She often starts school with toys at her desk or some stuff animal in her hand. It helps her sit still if you know what I mean.
Please keep in mind that each child learns that at their own pace and develop at different times. Take heart in knowing that my DD had the same issues. She didn't outgrow them until almost 4th grade. It seemed she just didn't retain anything. She still had some difficulty throughout her schooling. We played memory games, the really simple one with the cards. Then the board games. Then we would walk through the house and find things, sit down and try to remember where they were at. It was done as a game. All of this seemed to help. It turned out that she had ADD. The fidgeting wasn't there, and she could sit still. She just didn't remember things right away. They were in her head, she couldn't call them up. She is controlling it with diet and memory exercises. She is very sensitive to preservatives in foods. We even found that some fresh fruits and vegetables have to be scrubbed well before eating. LOL, grapes are her favorite. She gets a workout whenever she wants to eat them. Hope I helped a little, I sure didn't want to scare you. Just go slow. You may have to scale back what you want to teach right now. Go for simpler things. More of the repettative. I'm not an expert, just shooting ideas out there.
I agree with Embassy. Narrations, immediately after a portion of a story is read, are incredibly effective. Now that ds is 9.5y/o we will be starting slowly on a few written narrations as well. I would try that.
We do. Like I said, he can give me the whole lesson nearly verbatim as soon as he's done reading, but 5 minutes later he can't tell me a single thing about it. Case in point: During Eli's science lesson today, he was very, VERY, into the fact that it said animals do not have souls. He went on and on about how great it would be if they did so they could go to Heaven with us. We talked about how maybe God would have animals there for us, but we'd have to wait and see. He told his brother that animals did not have souls. He told his other brother animals did not have souls. This was about 2 hours ago. When DH came home, after we talked about what was covered today, DH asked him if he thought maybe God would have animals in Heaven for us (opinion question meant to start thoughtful discussion). DS said, of course we'd have animals in Heaven. DH said, "Huh. Do animals have souls like we do?" DS replied, "I think they probably do." DH: "Did you read anything today about animals having souls?" DS (very puzzled), "No"
He sounds identical to my ds. I tried everything and it just ended up with me beating my head against the wall. Finally I gave in one year and didn't do much testing, the tests and quizzes that I gave were open book. I also gave alot of busy work - crossword puzzles, multiple choice, etc.. This was around 5-6th grade. Finally in 7th grade I started seeing a change. He still doesn't retain as much as my dd but it has definately improved. I don't have alot of advice for you other than to tell you it does get better. It took us a long time but you will get there.
You might want to try having him write down the important facts. There are many kids who really need to write things in order for the information to plant in their long term memory. Maybe have him list the top 5 things he picked up from the reading.
my son admits to just answering anything to get through it. Not sure what age this child is but mine is now 13 and does this when he does tests mostly cause as he said "I don't want to stop and think" so I had a talk with him about the reasons we have to stop and think. he retains what he wants but things he struggles with are usually areas he is bored with at the moment. I say at the moment because another day he could ace it. What I have done is put up posters and signs around our schooling area to make it easy for him to glance around and get a clue. I found I needed this sort of thing in class as a kid, I would day dream, mostly planning what I was doing next because i am a planner, but I found looking around at the posters on the wall would remind me of what I was doing and help me think on the right thing. I also find hands on things while studying for the answers helps.
My oldest just finished a six month memory skills/brain training program at a place called Learning Rx. They work with students with learning issues, stroke victims, and soldiers with brain injuries to fine tune their memories and cognitive skills. It was very expensive, but the improvements in my daughters learning abilities have been dramatic. I know they don't have centers in every state, but they also have an online program on a website called Brainskills.com I'm not sure how much it costs, but it might be worth looking into. Their activities are not like tutoring at all. They are just activities to make your brain think in new ways.
I heard about Audiblox several years ago. And just the other day I heard of Play Attention. If either one of these is as good as their websites say, they're worth a ton of money....
