Published on 12, July, 2020
My Son is in Year 1 at a mainstream primary school in the UK. He recognises is letters but isn’t yet blending them together to read a word, he can mark make and has attempted one or two letters but he can’t yet write or draw. Do any parents have experience of their Children having these difficulties and how did they overcome them?
Hi
When my son first went to primary I was called in by his teacher and told that he was ‘retarded’ (this was 25 years ago) I was told that he needed specialist help which they did not have. After crying with rage when I got home. I used the fledgling internet to find some help. First I got him a book called Toe by Toe ( still available on Amazon) It is an incredible work book that helps dyslexic youngsters and adults to read by putting just two and then three letters together. No more than ten minutes working on that a day. I then got him a slanted writing board -because I felt that his upper body strength was poor and this was affecting the control he had with a pencil and in order to be able to write and draw he needed the paper to be in a different position. I got him thicker pencils and also with one of those big rubber balls worked out a five minute, fun, exercise routine to help with his upper body strength. I also found wonderful computer games that not only helped him read but helped with his hand control and his confidence. And of course I constantly told him that he was wonderful.
This was the start of our school journey. The journey was hard and I had to constantly fight his corner - I did a great deal of research and experimentation with him and my other children on different ways to learn using the seven intelligences. Singing and dancing and hiding index cards and using funny voices and and a whole load of other stuff.
Now he is a professor of philosophy.
I hope some of this might help