Homework

How is your son’s reading level? Has he had any therapy like FastForWord for his CAPD?

My son is now 15 and we worked together on his homework every night until this year. Cutting your son loose before he can handle it when he is obviously working at being responsible for his homework is IMO, a recipe for failure. He still needs the at home supports and effective teaching that you are providing for him. Perhaps you may want to consider a tutor if you are getting burned out. When to cut him loose? When he knows he’s ready.

I have the same problem, the first nine weeks I let him wing it alone, because that’s what he wanted, The result was an F in science and history, which kept him from being able to play basketball on the school team. So the next nine weeks I helped, and he went up to a C and a D. It didn’t improve his test scores, but the extra boost in homework helped his grade, and as I told the teacher, if it will make you feel better to know that
“I” understand your subjects, and it will improve his grades, I’ll do the homework. Last nights science was to name the simple machines in a can opener and explain how they work. It was all in the book, but she had just told them to read it. He has to see to understand, so I got the can opener out and explained it.
He fully understood then. I ask his step father later, now why couldn’t have she have showed the class a can opener and accomplished the same thing. His answer was sad but true, her pay check will be the same rather they understand it or not!

I have a 13 yr old son with language based learning disabilities, CAPD and ADD-inattentive type. He works very hard during the school day and participates well in class. When he gets home, he’s done (particularly after 3 hr basketball practice!) It’s almost impossible to get him to open a book. He just wants to sit in front of the TV and veg out. However, he usually has difficulty with tests - particularly history and science, so he needs the homework grade to get by…and I would like to see him learning! Plus, it takes him so long to do an average assignment, let alone a long reading assignment.

Any motivation tricks?

Children with learning disabilities are usually “burnt out” by the end of the school day. They must work harder, use many more resources and compensate for difiencies that non LD students do not have to cope with.

Many experts believe that homework for these children should be eliminated all together or at the very least modified substantially. It takes an LD student much longer to complete an assignment than non LD students and their IEP’s should reflect this.

It sounds as if most of you are talking about High School students. A good program for LD HS students is to assign “Resource Room” instead of a study hall or elective course, where homework can be completed with the help of a Special Ed teacher. In most school systems, the students receive credit for this class. Call an IEP meeting and have this program written into your children’s IEP. It will be a life saver for both of you.Laura wrote:
>
> I have a 13 yr old son with language based learning
> disabilities, CAPD and ADD-inattentive type. He works very
> hard during the school day and participates well in class.
> When he gets home, he’s done (particularly after 3 hr
> basketball practice!) It’s almost impossible to get him to
> open a book. He just wants to sit in front of the TV and veg
> out. However, he usually has difficulty with tests -
> particularly history and science, so he needs the homework
> grade to get by…and I would like to see him learning!
> Plus, it takes him so long to do an average assignment, let
> alone a long reading assignment.
>
> Any motivation tricks?

Excellent suggestion. Resource room with tutor instead of general study hall. My son has that this year and it has helped immeasureably.

I’m a big fan of parents helping with homework in any case but in this case, I’d be particularly encouraging of your help. He’s not getting it during the day is what you’re saying. Not every student gets what they need in school. Some need smaller classes than they’ll ever have. Others need the material explained in a different way. There are 35-40 minutes to every class and 25+ students in most classrooms. Students do fall through the cracks.

Your son isn’t ignoring his homework - he wants to do it - he just hasn’t absorbed the class material. Unless you would give him the one on one he seems to need, where else will he get it from?

Your son is very young. I’m not but I still can use the assistance of people around me in certain situations. I can still turn to the person next to me or to my husband on the way home and say, “Can you explain that to me again? I didn’t quite get it.”

Your son’s CAPD puts him at a disadvantage in school classrooms. Good teachers try to cast the wide net of learning but inevitably some students’ learning styles put them outside that net.

Just make sure you take a look at what the resource room is like. At my high school it was glorified study hall, only imagine 1 harried teacher and ~10-20 kids, most of them ADHD, working on different projects! They wanted to put me in resource my senior year to reduce stress. I opted for a “free” period spent by myself in a *quiet* room so I could focus enough to get work done.

Thanks for the advice. Had a discussion with his SpecEd teacher today and we made some more modifications with his school work mainly in the area of his history and science tests. He is going to continue to attempt homework on own with me checking for errors and seeing that he completes all assignments. Right now he is grounded for a few days (in room, no playstation, no TV, no priveledges(sp) whatsoever) for lying to us and telling us he had completed work and didn’t. He also got a detention at school because this is the third time he didn’t pass in complete homework. Hope this improves. By the way he is in 7th grade. We waited til he was 6 yo to start him at school. I very much like the resource room versus study hall, I will keep that in mind when he starts high school (can hardly wait!) Take care all.

I’d go further than helping him get through the homework. When I”ve helped kids with homework it’s been very mutually frustrating because basically I have to choose between finishing the assignment or actually having the kiddo *learn* the most important stuff — or learn studying skills so that he can eventually sit down and learn the stuff on his own! But that takes more time than just plowing through and getting the answers.

Letting him fail will teach him a lesson — the lesson that he is a failure. It would be fine if it would motivate him to do things differently — but unless you’re sure he’s got the skills to succeed on his own, I wouldn’t back off. It’s just the wrong thing to do, unless he really, really refused the help (in which case you should try to work wiht him to give him a small thing to do independently, and show you in 15 minutes).

My son is 11, and has been misdiagnosed as ADHD, then re-diagnosed with a language-based learning disability (i.e. dyslexia). His IEP requires that he go to a special needs teacher for reading, but not while his sixth grade class is doing reading, naturally, that would be too easy. My difficulty is that he has homework from his reading teacher in addition to homework from his classroom teacher, which sometimes includes, reading homework. A lot of time he misses instruction in class work that I have to provide in order for him to do his homework. There is also a conflict over completing classwork at home, and my acting as his scribe at home. Writing is such a struggle for him, he has to really fight get what he is thinking through to paper. There is constant confusion about what he should and shouldn’t be doing for homework because sometimes his classroom teacher ignores the requirements of his IEP. I guess my question is what do you do when a classroom teacher virtually orders you not to help with your child’s homework?

I put a note on the homework that my child did not understand or did not have time to complete because of other worksheet or reading that was also required.
This lets the teacher know to much was assigned and that they need to go over it with my child. My child’s teacher then passes the note onto the learning support teacher. Hopefully they are communicating and knowing what my child needs help with. I let my child decide what to do first, give breaks and give alot of detail praise and have child let me know what part of homework was their best effort because it tends to get sloppy and it seems to help.

And just so a non LD mom weighs in- I help with writing and monitor my 13 yr. old eighth grade boy’s homework regularly- developmentally, no matter how motivated, most of their brains are not functioning at full capacity and they need it. I have a friend who maintains there brains bleed out through their ears. I agree:) I don’t feel guilty about it and I don’t think failure teaches adolescents anything but inadequacy. I did it with the daughter also- and as a sophomore she passed the state writing exam with “Exceeded the Standard” in mechanics and close to that in everything else. (I am a wicked and unforgiving proofreader:)
Robin

I had to reteach everyday too. It is hard when your not always sure what the teacher is looking for in every instance - and I would write that on the paper.
One teacher also gave me a homework limit for my son- 20 minutes only on that math sheet and put my initials. It helped my son to know this did not have to go on all night. Ironically, because the pressure was off, he usually did over-time on his own to finish.
I used to sit right beside him while he made the 1st initial of his name (which had to be perfect) and he drove me crazy - but we developed a pattern that worked. I slowly backed off with the help - Take out the stuff you understand and do that first or last. (organizing) Then I could leave the room. Eventually (again Years), he was able to do most everything on his own.

My other son runs from homework and his disabilities. Motivation is difficult. He says he understands when he really doesn’t understand. He says hes done when he is not done. Although its more than just time consuming, you feel the pressure of “homework” again. I wish he would let me reteach! He is getting a tutor.
I hated homework when I was in school and I hate homework now. I understand its importance, (sometimes), but when do the kids get to have a life. I think its overdone! I find myself doing the same thing as others here - “well if your going to get low test scores, having the homework in will help you pass. “