science and social studies

You work hard to keep the language problems from keeping thekid from learning. Basically, you ask yourself “is he supposed to learn to read from this assignment (or spell, or whatever) — or learn this Science?” So you make compromises — you keep working on the skills (unfortunately, in lots of schools, they drop back on working on the skills about the same time they pick up working on the content areas).

So if thekid’s supposed to answer in complete sentences — okay, have him do that for the first two. Then let him dictate the rest (or if it’s independent, write just the answer). If it becomes an issue with other kids, work out some way that he has to do something to balance it like for that (or at least make it look that way to the other kids). Kids that age often have a really black and white sense of “justice” so they can get real wired over differences…

I would read the text book with my son and discuss the questions and answers with him, he usually knew a lot about the subject from class or I would ask the questions in a different way and he could answer. Most times he could write the answers in short form, forget complete sentences. If it seemed a lot, I would what he told me to and put a note to the teacher on the paper. He was in resource for 5th grade lang. arts, it really helped him, because in 6th I didn’t need to do this so much. I do remember doing it in 3rd and 4th though. I figured that for those subjects, he needed to know the info, we would work on reading for lang. arts time.

Join Reading for the Blind and Dyslexic and get the books on tape for your son to read along with. site is www.rfbd.org

Helen

Thanks for all the ideas, including the website for books on tape. I will put that in my file.

I actually think most of the work is supposed to be done in class but that worries me too. She wants to teach them to answer questions while they are reading. As far I can determine, my son’s reading problems are with decoding not comprehension but you have to be able to read to answer questions.

I asked the teacher to send any reading assignments home ahead of time. We’re going to try to “preread” them and see if that is enough.

My son loves both science and social studies so getting him to learn the material without reading should not be a problem. He poured over his science book last night and wanted it read to him as a bed time story.

Keep talking about it, using pictures, whatever it takes. It’s too easy for science to become a tedious “read the book and answer the questions” process — but the more he understands, the easier the reading will be.

Find ways around that reading — the teacher clearly doesn’t really grasp that a reading problem will really cut back on what he cna get out of the question-answering process. However, if he can do what he can during class, then finish up at home with you reading it to him or the book on tape, then he’ll get practice doing it her way — and still get to learn the science.

There is a lot you can do. Here are just a few:
- Ask for an extra set of books to bring home, so that you can help your son learn the material.
- Ask the teacher for a vocabulary list of unfamiliar words that will be part of the new lessons. Study the words with your son before or at the beginning of a unit, so that he will have mastered them before he needs them or early in the unit.
- I’m just now beginning to explore books on tape and large-print books, to see: 1) where to obtain textbooks; 2) whether there are non-retail, less expensive ways to get both books on tape and large-print books.
- Your school may allow a reader in class with your son to help him with the material. (My son would have a fit if I tried this.)
- Your child may be able to work in partnership with another student who can help him read and/or read to him. My son has successfully worked this way through sixth grade but will not continue to do so in middle school. You need to be sensitive about how much your child wants his classmates to know about his l.d. and be somewhat guided by that as well as other considerations.
- Make arrangements with your son’s teacher to have tests read to him and give him an opportunity to respond to test questions orally or into a tape recorder, if he has trouble writing. Tests can be tape recorded by the teacher ahead of time, and your son can take his tests in a separate place from the rest of the class. Depending upon his needs, you may ask for extended time for him to take tests.

All of the above techniques will probably have to be employed year after year. How many of them you need will depend upon how severe your son’s l.d. is. He need not be ashamed of using these aids. They’re merely ways for him to learn. The learning is what’s important.

I’m glad you have a willing teacher. Carol

Thanks for all the ideas. My son is very sensitive about not appearing different so I have to be careful of that. I am not sure yet whether my son will need the kinds of accomodations you are talking about. This year will tell us a lot.

I do most of what Carol suggests with my son. It works. One comment, however, it’s important to get all this in the IEP (e.g., extra set of text books, giving of assignments for preview, etc.). Even with the accomodations in the IEP I find it sometimes necessary to remind the classroom teacher to give me the assignments ahead of time for preview.

As far as the vocabulary list, my son and I do that together during preview. He lets me know if he doesn’t know what a word is, or if I think he doesn’t know a word I ask him what it means. During reading I give him the meaning and then afterwards we make up a vocabulary list and he looks up the word in the dictionary and copies the definition. I read somewhere that it takes 14 times of using a new vocabulary word to internalize it, so I then try to incorporate the new word in questions about the material, if applicable, as well as in regular conversation, if possible. The result is a lot of self confidence in class when the material is presented and class discussion ensues. The teachers or myself then review the material with him to make sure that he understands it.

Thankfully the reading is coming along, however writing due to decoding/encoding difficulties is still an issue. My son likes to dictate to me but I find it not always convenient to sit down at the computer when he’s “ready”. Our solution is that he has a small hand-held dictaphone which allows him to do his work when the muse hits him and allows me to transcribe it off an old transcribing machine that I have when I’m able. His writing when unencumbered by the mechanics is rather eloœuent and in the future dictating software will be better (right now his speech isn’t necessarily clear enough and his voice will be changing soon).

Another thing to assist reading is to put the closed caption option on for TV programs that he is watching. Also, all videos that are watched in his class are close captioned (he has auditory processing issues as well). I figure the more he sees the written word, even on a sublimal level, the better.

Beth, you seem to be on top of this and I think your son will do great. With accomodations and your help there should be no lagging in the “content” realm. You should also have him listen to books on tape for pleasure to keep him on a par with his peers and to help him grasp the punctuation and inuendo in literature.

Good luck,

Jeanette

We don’t have anything in his IEP. It just wasn’t an issue last year. Fort his teacher is very cooperative. We preread the chapter this weekend. I am going to see how it goes in class now. He did reasonably well and was able to answer the questions just from doing the reading.

Everyone has given me lots of good ideas and I will have to experiment a bit to see how much assistance he needs. Once I figure that out, I will make sure it is in his IEP.

Beth,

You’re right that this site has great suggestions. I don’t know where I’d be (or my son) without it. There are many wonderful people that have a lot to give, responding. Let us all know how your child responded to the pre-read you just did. I’m sure it will assist a great deal. As you said, the issue of text books and parent pre-notification of material hasn’t been an issue yet, as far as you putting it in an IEP. However, though you may have a cooperative teacher at present it may not always be the case. In the event you don’t have the cooperation you need the IEP inclusion. Just remember you are your child’s best advocate and any assist you can give and/or get is in the “best interest of the child”. That should alway be the school’s and your foremost concern. Unfortunately sometimes funding and politics come too much into play. Ergo it is important to have any bit that help included in the IEP for legal purposes.

I get a second copy of the textbooks. Ideally the school could lend them to you but I’ve bought them myself directly from the publishers. Then I try hard to keep track of where they are in the book. Again, ideally school would help you to know that. I read the books out loud to my son as he would struggle too much with the reading to be able to understand and retain the information. Textbook reading is a challenge unto itself. In fact, some times I paraphase the information in the book as even when I read it to him, it’s too dry to “stick”.

Any assignments from science and social studies that come home we did together and often I typed it up as writing was very hard for him and spelling even harder. I helped him prepare for tests but he had to write them on his own in class.

You’re asking a great question. Reading is fundamental to school and very early reading weaknesses begin to make themselves felt in other subjects besides reading.

My son is now in 11th grade and we’ve been doing this since 3rd grade. It’s been a long road and I’m so glad we’re coming to the end of it. His reading has steadily improved but textbook reading to this day just doesn’t work for him.

Good luck to you and your son.

Get the school to pay the fee for this service if your child has be identified as a special education student. Also get them to provide a player for the tapes. They do not play on normal recorders.