I have a 6th grader that is showing some amazing improvment this school year BUT, I have an LD specialist aide who is preoccupied by his terrible act of occationally forgetting to put his name on his paper. I completely understand that he should by now have this down as a mindless act like any other child by now but, he doesn’t - Okay, shoot him!!!
Anyone out there have a trick for me to have him use to remind him to do this when I am not there? (((stop laughing))) God forbid, no one in the school can. Presently the specialist feels the correct way to solve this problem is to have him redo the paper for half credit each time he turns in a paper without his name……like we have nothing better or more productive to do than doing an entire paper over. I won’t even go into the embarrassing fuss she makes whenever he is so evil.
My poor son feels the best way to resolve this is to go through his entire notebook and put his name on each page. Well, yea this would work if all his work was done on notebook paper - not the case.
any wisdom on the subject?
Re: Memory like a sieve
That is a very good idea, what about a bracelet? I know he is a boy but are there any bracelets or watches that are popular in your area that would trigger his memory??
K.
Re: Memory like a sieve
I got this suggestion from Helen for my own son who is just terrible with the details of life.
Make an index card that he will leave on his desk that says, PUT YOUR NAME ON THE TOP OF EACH PAGE.
You are right that this just needs to become automatic. Eventually he should no longer need that reminder but even if he does, so what.
Re: Memory like a sieve
The LD specialist is doing this?? That makes me sad.
I wish I had a good answer to this. I had a similar problem with my car keys. I would not remember where I put them. Finally I had to train myself to always, always, always open the drawer as I came in the house and put them in a corner of it. Otherwise, I never knew where my car keys were and now I always know.
Perhaps if he could be encouraged to fold down a small corner of the page at the top and in doing that it would jog his memory to write his name. Perhaps if we could attach the name writing thing to a physical act. First, I fold the corner and then… I write my name.
Of course,it might flip out the LD specialist to see papers with the corner folded down.
Good luck.
oh, is THIS familiar(and a sore point)
My eldest is in 12th grade now-he is gifted and not LD. He struggled with this until the 8th grade. I should say “I” struggled with this. He had many teachers, as early as third grade, who threw the papers away and gave zeros, even on major exams. It made me sick-take off points-fine- but giving the kid a zero???? Ridiculous in my opinion-you hand the papers back and whoever doesnt get one comes to get the one on your desk-it’s not like running a marathon, just a little variation from their routine(god forbid) Not to mention its usually the same kids to boot!
Anyway, he NEVER cared about the garbage ro zeros while I was pulling my hair out.
8th grade? First time you forget you write your name 500 times-next 1000-next 2000. He did the 1000 and hasnt forgotten since :)
If the + tips above dont help, you might try this one
Re: oh, is THIS familiar(and a sore point)
Oh… this just makes me so ill… We had an English teacher that did that. I was so glad when that school year was over. Just a power trip as far as I am concerned. Shocking from an LD specialist.
It would just be so simple for them to put the unnamed papers in a box for kids to fix or even pass them back around the class. I just can’t believe the message is “Your work has no value” instead of “Wow, great work! I’d love to give someone credit for it.”
How about one of those self-inking stamps? Make it fun to put his name at the top of the page.
Re: what kind of aid is this?
Big deal!
Don’t know if this would help, but when my son forgets his name on homework papers I say you better put your name so the teacher knows who did this good work.
I would try to make him have ownership for the paper. Show him when you are holding a paper it is your paper when you give it to him it is his paper so he should put his name on it.
Redoing work absolutely not.
Re: what kind of aid is this?
If this is such a big deal for the teacher, why doesn’t he/she make an announcement for the whole class to “remember to put their name on the paper before turning it in.”
Or if she can’t be bothered to do that, maybe your son can be the “collector” and make sure “everyone’s” name is on their paper before they are submitted to the queen.
Re: Memory like a sieve
I don’t know if this is a good idea, but maybe in addition to taping a reminder note on his desk, you could create a chart. If he remembers to put his name on all his papers for a specified amount of time (2 days, one week, whatever’s reasonable to begin with) he can earn a treat (like take him out for a milk shake, or on a special outing)…or…my son’s favorite thing, money!
Re: Memory like a sieve
Dear Jennifer’
Meet with teacher, or aid (would it be polite to say moron!?!) and ask her to discribe to you the merits of unconditional positive regard or the finer points of positive motivational thinking. When she’s done with those two crucial subjects in relation to a child centred teaching approach perhaps she could share with you some of the thinking on auditory sequential memory issues and ask her if your child has been assesssed for them. You might also consider asking her if she actually likes children and what aspect of your sons work she is interested in the content or the name on it! if this seems a tad impolite perhaps you might discuss the merits of named folders or ring binders or even signiture colour paper for your son ie. he always uses green etc. If these small considerations are beyond her ken (she’s unaware of them!!!) Then perhaps you could have a name stamp made that can be stamped onto any paper he chooses ( my experience tells me that when you buy this its good to buy a spare that you keep as a master so that when one is under the sofa, down the loo, or in the dog you have a master!) If you want to be really imaginative why not have a bale of paper printed or photocopied with his name on top, perhaps the teachers aid would like to pay for it! My son has Auditory sequential memory issues and whilst at first (before he was properly assessed) I couldn’t name it, someone said it might be a good idea to get a white board and ask him to write the day date and year on each morning and check the calender for you saying the day and the date out loud. We dont do this every day anymore but these things are raised in his mind and he normally goes to check a thing with a calender or aid now.
If you dont get anywhere with a quick informal and and excruciatingley polite chat you could consider yourself seriously underwhelmed by her lack of desire to make progress and put your ‘concerns’(concerns is a very valuable tool!) in writing firstly to her and secondly to one rung up the tree to the next line manager who I’m sure will be very keen to see such trivia deposited where it belongs, in the bin! Letter writing and question posing may seem inoccuous but believe me used judiciously they do at times move mountains not to mention bad practice from professionals who should know better!
I wish you luck and courage with your son try not to notice when he forgets but maybe secretly check and when he remembers reward him with some positive thing , not food, maybe a hug an extra half hour of tv or remember 5 times equals the movies. You’ll know best what might motivate him.
all the best marie.
Re: Memory like a sieve
When an LD child forgets to put a name on papers is not to be penalized period it is to be intervened! Especially when other students are not penalized by having to rewrite their papers for forgetting to write their name, a clear case of discrimination against the handicapped child.
The entire premise of an individualized education plan, whether it’s a 504 or a true IEP is to provide modifications to accommodate the childs deficiency not to accommodate the educational systems deficiency to recognize an under developed executive dysfunction. IDEA/ADA/504 states that if the student lacks the inherent ability therefore the school is required to “teach” him this skill utilizing reminders, prompts, etc.
I would write a letter requesting a meeting with his IEP/504 team. Specify the purpose of addressing current deficiencies with the existing Plan (IEP/504) and recommend modifications/accommodations to allow him to achieve the executive functioning goal of “remembering to write his/her name on assignments”. I would substanitate this with dates/times and aide’s comments regarding these events. Then I would point out that this meeting is to avoid further discrimination against a handicapped child which is a violation of several federal, state and local laws. Make copies for the school and if it needs more horsepower add the local Board of Education, Spec. Ed. Dept.
This should be enough to get the aide to lay off your child immediately with the puniative actions sustituting remedial training until a documented modification is instituted into his plan.
I hate using legal implications in correspondence. However, if this was your child’s day care center (a facility that you paid for) would you allow this type of behavior to continue? Conversely, it has been my experience that many school personnel take a “oh, yeah, what do you are can do about it” approach. I have learned that schools assume parents are ineffective and inept and that schools typically don’t know anything about special education laws.
Re: Memory like a sieve
OK, my memory is not too hot at times either. I’m the absent-minded professor type — I’ll give you the calculus formulas of the top of my head, but have no idea of the date and only a vague idea of my bank balance. Last week filled out all the papers for a mortgage and gave all the info, address and birthdate and social insurance number and everything else — and left off my phone number. In other words, one can cope pretty well with a funny memory. As far as car keys, they live in the front pocket of the purse and the purse lives on its closet hook, no exceptions.
Use a computer as an analogy; tell him he has to program his brain to do certain things. After he has done it correctly twenty times in a row, and he keeps up the habit, he has successfully re-programmed himself. It’s now a matter of automatic habit, not thinking. And that’s a good thing, to get simple repetitve stuff out of the thinking area and into habit, to leave the thinking area open for important things.
I tell my students to start, as soon as they get out a piece of paper for something to hand in, to put their names in the top right *first thing*. Then it’s just part of the getting-ready-to-write system. Get him into this habit, one-two-three, automatic, and the problem will reduce and hopefully disappear.
No, definitely, re-doing the whole paper is just ridiculous. Taking off points as a reminder is reasonable, a reasonable number of points, say 2% to 5%, enough that you don’t want to lose them, not enough to devalue the whole job. I just asked in another post, and the point is appropriate here too, are they running an academic institution whose goal is learning, or are they running a workhouse whose goal is work for the sake of work and suffering is good for you?
This is an iron-clad rule in my son’s 6th grade classes also; he loses points if he forgets(I think doing the whole thing over is too strict, and I ould insist on a lesser penalty); we taped our son’s name to his favorite mechanical pencil and it’s a visual reminder to put his name, section number and date on the papers. To be honest, there are 10 sections of 25 students each and I can understand that the teachers NEED the names and section numbers on the papers. All of the students are held to the same standard.