My 10th grade son, homeschooled until this year, is now enrolled in a rigorous academic private school. Suddenly, he is failing nearly every test, although he does 80-90% work in-class and for homework. I am beginning to think that while I taught him, I adjusted to his learning strengths and weaknesses, and he achieved well, but now, in an inflexible learning situation, he is not able to do well. I notice that he reads information, then seems not to retain any of it. If I read aloud to him, I retain more than he does, without trying!
Is there a catagory of LD that involves retention of information? Are there strategies for helping this problem?
We are making our decisions re: his schooling next year, and need direction.
Thanks -
Re: retention of information
You might want to try “I Read It, But I Don’t Get It: Comprehension Strategies for Adolescent Readers” by Tovani. The problem may not be retention, but rather comprehension.
At a more basic level, you may also want to make sure that he can visualize. Most of us do this automatically, but some children need to be explicitly taught. Lindamood Bell’s “Visualizing and Verbalizing” and IdeaChain from MindPrime are both effective ways of teaching visualization.
My guess, though, is that the Tovani book is all you need. I don’t think he would have done so well with homeschooling if he had a fundamental visualization problem.
Mary
Re: retention of information
It may be an LD issue — but it may also be that he has not had to memorize as much stuff. Right now I’m working with a kiddo who did very well in high school — and is floundering mightily in college, because before it was enough to comprehend things and to do the homework, and then move on — but now he’s expected to know all kinds of names and labels, as well, and use them in essays. (Anatomy and PHys. is a real bear!)
It is a very tough adjustment — usually best to figure out one area to target and try some strategies to improve retention. a strategy that would work wonderfully if there’s enough time and not too much to cram in will fall apart completely if you overload.
post this over on parenting LD or teaching reading. there are, indeed, LD’s involving memory and retrieval problems. People on those boards will be able to help.