My son’s teacher claims that he has a comprehension problem in school. she claims that she constantly needs to go over instructions again and again. She also claims that if she refuses to help him he will go sit at his desk and do the work on his own. She claims that he has a problem linking phonics sentences together and doesn’t see a correlation between sentences on the same subject. He has really increased his reading ability in the last year but was considered a late reader. He is in grade two and loves to socialize rather than focus at the task at hand. Could he have a learning disorder or is he merrily exhibiting signs of a child more interested in other things besides school? I have asked his teacher if he is meeting the learning outcomes and she says he is but it is taking him longer than it should? Don’t all kids learn at their own rate? Vicki Chorney.
Re: Comprehension Problems in school
My daughter is like this also. She needed instructions repeated constantly, we found that she has an audio processing problem, but it is not severe enough to warrent saying she has a learning disability. The teacher was told how to help my daughter, but didn’t consistantly apply the different approaches. The good news is that when she is in a “visual” classroom she does extremely well. The one area that is very hard for her to this day (she’s in 7th grade) is math. Because we don’t use a hands-on approach in our school, my daughter continues to have trouble with math. BTW, my daughter still has trouble with phonics. She doesn’t phonetically sound out words, she still mispronounces common words.
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: If this were my son, I would consider having someone test his reading
: skills to see how well he is reading. He might benefit from some
: one on one tutoring with reading skills which can only be helpful
: to any child.: My son’s teacher claims that he has a comprehension problem in
Re: Comprehension Problems in school
I’d want a speech and language pathologist to test this child for central auditory processing problems. This site has some good articles about it. Do a search and read up on it so you can make an informed request to the school. Kids with auditory processing issues do need instructions frequently repeated. They need to be with teachers who give short, direct instructions and who then check back frequently with the child to make sure s/he understands and is following through. A good teacher will ask the child to repeat the instructions, thus being sure the child has understood them. Checklists are also helpful. A quiet place in the classroom with less distraction is also helpful.
As far as math is concerned, use of organizational strategies is really important. Math checklists should be used by these kids to prevent a haphazard approach or forgetting to follow through systematically. Use of mnemonic cues also help greatly.
: Yes, of course, all children and all people learn at their own rate. Sometimes with assitance or in the right learning environment that rate of learning can be increased. However, school needs children to go pretty much at the same pace.It’s also true that we have some understanding of when children do what. If most of the children in his room can do a certain task, and he cannot, that’s worth looking at. It may be that with time he will also be able to do the things his classmates can do but in the meantime, what does the teacher do?Teachers base the next day’s instruction of what most of the kids understood this day. By now, she assumes that all of the children in her room do understand the connection between sentences. If he does not, that means he can be lost during the part of the school day that assumes he has that skill.If he cannot absorb instructions the first or second time around, he is dependent on the teacher having time and cooperation from her other students while she spends one on one time with him helping him understand the instructions. If he can absorb the instructions but is reluctant to sit down and begin the work, why is that? Does he find it hard to focus and stay on task unless someone is looking over his shoulder?If this were my son, I would consider having someone test his reading skills to see how well he is reading. He might benefit from some one on one tutoring with reading skills which can only be helpful to any child.My son’s teacher claims that he has a comprehension problem in
: school. she claims that she constantly needs to go over
: instructions again and again. She also claims that if she refuses
: to help him he will go sit at his desk and do the work on his own.
: She claims that he has a problem linking phonics sentences
: together and doesn’t see a correlation between sentences on the
: same subject. He has really increased his reading ability in the
: last year but was considered a late reader. He is in grade two and
: loves to socialize rather than focus at the task at hand. Could he
: have a learning disorder or is he merrily exhibiting signs of a
: child more interested in other things besides school? I have asked
: his teacher if he is meeting the learning outcomes and she says he
: is but it is taking him longer than it should? Don’t all kids
: learn at their own rate? Vicki Chorney.