Hello Post Reply

[MonkeySee]

Haven't read through all the posts but agree not to push him as he's still so young. Practically speaking, when we were both working full time and my son was in reception (older end of the class) we had the same battles and realised that 5 minutes in the morning when he was well rested was far more productive then trying to fit something in after we'd got home at 6:30. He wasn't miraculously reading all of the sudden, but he had the mental energy to try without resorting to tantrums

[janee]

Children do not develop according to straight line graphs. The current intense focus of assessment and testing is based on an idea that they do. As a result it is not the child that is hard on himself but the system. Getting extra tuition, constantly trying to get him to do something is likely to put him off for life - reading becomes a chore and something to be hated.

What is he good at - there is no mention of this. Focus on what he does well, even if it is talking to the cat or digging holes in the garden. Reading can come from an interest in something else. Certainly continue the reading to him.

It saddens me as a retired teacher that children are now see more as a test result than they are as individuals with varying talents. Have confidence in your child and allow him to enjoy what he is good at and, by all means, ask him about his school day but don't transfer the school's anxieties or your own to inhibit him.

I may have posted before but..... I was a secondary Maths teacher. One of my pupils "hated Maths" but came back after school to produce several editions of a Maths Mag which was distributed to other pupils. This route enabled me to get him more focussed during lessons and he went on to get the grades he needed. He will probable never enjoy 'academic' Maths but he won't be scared of it.

[Earlsfield mummy]

I went to a really interesting talk the other day on the importance of fostering a healthy work ethic in kids from a really young age (pre-school). The essence was that you should try to instill in children the belief that there is no subject that people are naturally good or bad at. So the message is that most people can be good at most things if they practice something enough. Examples given were avoiding phrases like "you are so clever at that" and instead praising the effort that is going into learning something or how hard they have tried.

If kids believe that you are naturally good at reading or maths, or not, then they will be inclined to give up at the first hurdle. Whereas if they expect to have to work at something to get good at, it will give them a really useful life skill and give them confidence to tackle new things.

It really resonated with me and thought I would share in the context of your post. I started off thinking that it was all obvious stuff, and it is, but I am definitely guilty of telling my little one that he is clever etc at the things he can do really well, like maths, but neglecting to praise his efforts when he has struggled a little more with something.

[CheekychappieMum]

Obviously it's difficult to comment without knowing your child. But ...I really urge you to follow Fernando's advice and consider an assessment as support as early as possible will really help his progress and self esteem. Learning difficulties are often developmentally related which is why some sort themselves out over time. However, sometimes the brain just needs some extra support to make the connections in the brain to help with visual/auditory processing etc so that the brain matures in line with the rest of development. If you see a disparity between some areas of learning and others that usually indicates a learning difficulty. This is what we were told in Yr 1 and sure enough our son's assessment flagged up a lot of areas. I agree that very short bursts are better than longer ones. You could alternate 5 mins of reading with 5 mins of a game of his choice. You could ask him what sort of books you'd like him to get for you ie on what subject so that you can get him interested in reading via a topic that engages him. The fact that he's avoiding it is because it's uncomfortable for him and as it gets easier he'll enjoy it more. Also, I realised that it's key to pitch all areas of difficulty lower than you'd expect to build confidence. It doesn't matter when they reach the various milestones but any book I got that was only slightly too difficult put him off completely. Also chart his progress, keep books or words he used not to know and show him how much he knows now compared to how much he could read x months ago. Kids have little concept of their own progress. Rory's story cubes are great for telling stories verbally, the whole family can play. You roll the story dice and someone has to start the story about whatever the picture is and then the next person follows on the story from the picture on the dice they end up with and so on. There's no wrong or right and it can be hilarious. Good luck.