My 8 year old ld daughter cannot tell the difference between a
question and a statement, and therefore can never punctuate sentences
correctly. I am trying to work with her on this over the summer.
She will even say “Mom, I need to tell you something,” and then
she will proceed to ask me a question. I always explain to her that
she is not telling me, she is asking me. But, she just doesn’t get it.
Any ideas on how I can get her to see the light?
I have been going over this with her for a long time now.
I have tried showing her a picture and then saying “Ask me a
question about this, and then “Tell me something about the picture.”
I have had her practice on sheet after sheet of punctuating sentences.
I have tried teaching her the “question words” like who, what, where,
why, when. Any ideas????
Thanks.
Stephanie
questions start with certain words and..
They have a rising intonation when you are saying them.
What are you doing?
Where are you going?
Who are you seeing?
When are you going?
Why are you going?
How are you going?
Those are the ones I can think off the top of my head but when you have her write them out have her key into the beginning of the sentence and if it starts out with one of the trigger words she will know it is a question. Has her language been tested by an SLP? This is something that could be a portion of a larger language deficit. Are there any other problems with vocabulary, speech or language that you can think of?
The other thing you can do is to cut up the trigger words in sentences and help her construct sentences with the cards and have her read them outloud and answer them. The other problem could be that the question could be embedded in the middle of the sentence so she is not picking up the questiion that way too. It is hard to say without specific examples of the work you have been doing with her.
www.criticalthinking.com has two workbooks one called editor and chief and the other punctuation puzzlers. They are pretty good but not outstanding.
My son had a problem with ‘s verses plural s. I held him in my arms and said, “You are Linda’s child.” and then wrote it out for him. Then I said, “There are many Lindas in our family.” and wrote it out. I think he got it.
Ask her how she feels when you say, “Go to your room.” as opposed to “Will you go to your room?” Then give her many such examples. Take candy out of her hand saying, “I am taking your candy.” Then give it back and say, “Can I have some candy?” Then try writing it out.
I think my son’s particular punctuation problem is related to visual perception and we are working on that. He just can’t see the trees through the forest. He is my big picture guy. Punctuation symbols are trees.