Hello there.
My 8 year old was assessed this summer because he was behind in reading and even with our help, getting extra help in school he still was behind. By having him assessed we found out that his is average to high average in intelligence, above average with writing when “given context”, but below in the reading/writing. He was diagnosed with a LD, and it was due to his “working” memory. We have ment as a team with the school and are in the process of setting up an IEP for him, and his reading/writing part of his classroom for him is being altered to suit him and what he needs and can do.
My question is, I have read up on the “working” memory, and know that information takes longer to sink in say.. to go from the “short term” to the “long term” and I am finding it frustrating at times when we do his spelling and by the end of the week he is still getting the same words wrong.. ie// Crawl… he will spell it how it sounds.. cral…even though we go over the “aw” as ahhhh sounding. Has anyone gone through this and have suggestions?? I am trying visual, actions while saying the word„, writing the word out and highlighting the “Aw” for example to show the difference. It is good to finally know what is going on… grade one we were thinking he wasn’t paying attention and just forgetting… and we would get upset. Grade 2 we knew we needed him to get assessed and paid to get it done right. ( heard to many stories of kids getting put on meds when not needed) Now knowing it is a memory problem we have to find ways to get him to remember it more easy and find a way that works for him. We know he is a smart boy, just this he holding him back since language is such a big part of everyday things.
Thanks!
Re: Spelling help
My daughter scored very low on standardized memory tests in the beginning of first grade and was a horrible speller. We put her in a program that used the Orton Gillingham approach, and it worked wonders for her. She went from not being able to read or spell almost at all to doing quite well in those regards in most cases. I also have tried some other things to help her with auditory memory, such as Earobics, and I bought her some games like Cranium Hullabaloo and Simon that require memory skill. This year she has a specialty teacher that also works on memory by doing things like reading a sentence and then having my daughter write down what is said from memory. My daughter’s regular teacher makes her students write their spelling words three times each. They also use the words in class for various things, and I go over them orally. After Orton Gillingham, my daughter seems to remember when I give her hints like you are trying to give with the “aw” and everything. I have been seeing her memory skill overall gradually increase, but it is taking lots of practice and work. I think memory is one area which in most cases can be improved with work. Good luck.
Spelling help
Thanks :) We are working with him and the school. He remembers words he shouldn’t lol.. We are trying to use the picture in the mind the word, or have your mind take a picture of the word.. write it in the air… re write it etc. I guess it is just a matter of trying things and finding one that sticks. There is a good program that is offered were we got him assessed www.cogmed.com but at the moment I don’t think he needs that step.
Spelling help
Hello, I used to work with children with the same issue. I am not sure if you’ve tried this yet. What we did was take flash cards and write the word on them put it in front of them have them say Crawl (Take your arm make a fist motion like your pulling a horn on a semi.) and say the word crawl while doing the motion. Then we would say spell crawl have them spell the work crawl C-R-A-W-L with there fingers. So they konw how many letters are in teh word. Then repeat with the hand motion.(CRAWL) We just kept doing that and it worked wonders. If it doesn’t make sense let me know. We also would take the spelling list and make three rows the first row is blank second row the words third row blank. Have them do the first row and then have them check see how well they did. The words they missed they would trace the second row of words and say the letter while they did it. Then after that is done re-do the words missed on the third row (you can do all the words if you like whihever works best)
Hi Danie,
While you have been concerned with ‘remembering’, you might also consider the issue of ‘Recall’?
When you think of ‘how to spell the word crawl’, how do you actually do it?
I would suggest that you briefly ‘picture the word’ in your mind?
Whenever you stop and think about ‘how to spell a word’, that you picture the written word?
On the other hand, how would you go, if you couldn’t visually recall how words are spelled?
You would have to rely on the ‘sound of the word’?
I would suggest that rather than being focused on ‘remembering’, that you shift your focus to Recall?
Where you could begin by asking him to picture the word in his mind?
Can he picture the word; crawl in his mind?
Geoff,