I liked this idea so I've started doing it for an hour or two in the evenings. It's a hard slog because my French is so rusty. However, it feels great when ds8 yells out the translation after only a few days. Has anyone else had one child who can't understand anything they say, but can mimic the speech really well? Then my other one can't mimic the speech at all but is picking up the comprehension much quicker. Amy

I chose French because at one time I used to be able to talk it (I lived in France as an exchange student for 9 months). I figured that since I had some knowledge of the language that it would help. I agree that it's a hard language to pronounce. We have been doing the audio CD in the car, the DVDs in French (so nice having the option of languages written on the back of the DVD). Laura, have you found that you need to do anything in particular to help him learn certain sounds?

Hi Rosie, Thanks for answering. Dyspraxia is a motor planning disorder, so they have trouble learning how to make the normal speech sounds. Sign language is an option, but my son's interest is coming from an ortonography point so sign doesn't fill that criteria. Amy

I was wondering if anyone has experience of teaching a child with dyspraxia a 2nd language. For what its worth, my son who will be 8 this month and my daughter who will be 4 in July are both dyspraxic. We have commenced French already with my elder and also Latin. Due to being an ancient rather than modern language, I am not as concerned about pronunciation in Latin as French. Did you need to employ any particular strategies for teaching him how to speak the other languages, or if you delayed the introduction of any other languages because of it? He loves languages and is enthusiastic, although he struggles more than his 6 year old sister to pronounce foreign words.

I was wondering if anyone has experience of teaching a child with dyspraxia a 2nd language. For what its worth, my son who will be 8 this month and my daughter who will be 4 in July are both dyspraxic. We have commenced French already with my elder and also Latin. Due to being an ancient rather than modern language, I am not as concerned about pronunciation in Latin as French. Did you need to employ any particular strategies for teaching him how to speak the other languages, or if you delayed the introduction of any other languages because of it? He loves languages and is enthusiastic, although he struggles more than his 6 year old sister to pronounce foreign words.

:iagree:with all the advice to find another speech therapist. My childrens' speech therapist is one of our greatest resources. She is always providing me with resources to use in all aspects of their language development, not just the articulation that she is employed to help with. They should be a support and an asset. If they don't provide that, then they aren't going to be able to adequately address your needs.

:lurk5:

Well, I don't know if I'm the best to give advice because DD6 told me this week that I am a bad teacher because I give her work that is too easy and work that she hasn't yet mastered. I'm not sure how I am supposed to provide challenging work that she has already mastered :glare: However, I'll give it a shot: Once I notice that a topic is easy, I ramp it up. Sometimes when they tell me its boring, they are right. However, sometimes that is necessary because although they understand the concept they need to memorize the content (eg maths facts, vocab, spelling rules). I try to keep it challenging. I try to have challenging topics, too, so I thought I'd include megawords, Latin and French from an early age. Thanks to Noeo and RS4K, the kids have good science knowledge. Maths for RS is the only topic I generally do by time, I do roughly 20 - 30 minutes, which often is 3 or 4 of the RS lessons. Everything else I just assign the work and they choose if they get it done quickly or muck around and waste time.

I always read with a torch under the covers until late. I was always up at 5am until I had kids and all of a sudden found that broken kids, pregnancy and breast feeding greatly increased my requirement for quality time with my pillow. Like the last poster, I whizzed through school with great marks and very little attendance (I studied by distance in late high school and uni so I wouldn't have to put up with other people needing more review and a slower pace). My father, one of the smartest men I have known, only slept 4 hours a day in my living memory. I don't remember him ever being sick or tired. That said, he fell of a massive heart attack at 44, so perhaps his body was worn out. My mother, on the other hand, while bright is not gifted. She is, however, an insomniac and has only ever averaged 2 or 3 hours sleep a night. My fil is similar in his insomnia but not even average intelligence grrr, and my mil is lucky to drag herself out of bed after 14 hours of sleep and still whinges about being tired :glare:. Now my son, oh, if only he wasn't in the same low sleep patterns we are. I really need him to have more sleep. Please, please, let this child learn how to sleep more ...

I was reading something like this once when dh yelled as ds: "Would you stop doing your maths and clean up?"

Have a read of some of the posts Elizabeth has made in the past, in particular search for her thread on the Webster Syllabery. That said, I'm not able to wrap my head around how to use the syllabery but if you can I think it would be pretty powerful (and free). I think anything based on Orton-Gillingham or Spalding would be the way to go. My DD6 has dyslexic tendencies (her brother and sister are dyspraxic, a condition that has a 50% overlap with dyslexia) but having taught her using SWR she reads and writes well. Her only downfall is that she often reverses letters. Often as in she reverses everything that can possibly be reversed. I'll teach the next child cursive first, not printing, and not capitals until the lower case is mastered.

Now DD6 and DS7 are fluent readers, I've decided that I will change one of their daily tasks of 'read to mum' to 'read to little sister or mum'. They prefer to read to little sister (she chooses easier, picture books) and this achieves two things for me. Is this something that you could do?

What about mathletics.com.au (though you do have to pay) or the online drill on mathusee.com?

In Australia, the dr has to ring up to get special authority to prescribe abilify (and other meds) if they are expensive. Maybe it is the same for you? FWIW, that is my least favorite part of being a pharmacist, having to explain to the parent/child/friend/ etc that the medicine they really need is going to cost $x. And that's after you've managed to decifer the dr's handwriting!

We have changed from MUS alone to combining MUS and RS. DS7 already knows most of C, but there was some stuff in there he didn't know. So, we are going through it compacting the lessons as has been described. We'll only take 2 months to do RS C (4 days a week, LoF fractions we are doing instead on Fridays) before we go into RS D. I've looked at that and think we'll compact that considerably too, but I want to cover it all. No matter how strong he is at maths (this kid is mathy) I want to give him so many different strategies that he can solve them easily when alpha beta gamma replace 1 2 3. I notice you have one coming up behind. Could you justify it like I do ... he might only use it for x months, but then child 2 (and 3 and 4) will use it too?

:iagree: That said, I started my first two at 5. I plan on starting my third at 6 or 7 (due to delayed language secondary to dyspraxia). As long as my baby is a perfectly normal child h will probably start at 6ish

Thanks for these responses. It seems WWE is easier than CW? Would it be reasonable to work through the currently available WWE and then move into CW?

I just wanted to add that in my family LD can make us all bloom a little later. My son and I with dyspraxia have done very well after somewhere in grade 1, whereas in preschool we were considered delayed. It didn't take us long to accellerate once we had gotten over the language barrier but the language barrier that our dyspraxia created caused us to take longer to get there. FWIW, even though I was considered to have severely delayed language (my poor mother, I didn't talk until I was 4) I am now able to articulate and communicate and have two degrees and postgrad qualifications. I just hope I can say the same in 20 years time for my own kids, it's hard to keep perspective sometimes.

I am tossing up between these two writing programs. I am thinking that WWE might be a gentler way to start? My kids claim to like writing, but when it comes to the crunch they don't like to do it. They have trouble thinking of a topic to write about, so I'd hate something along the lines of 'write about your weekend'. We already do a daily dictation (just the first sentence that pops into my mind) and I make them give me a narration of the books we read. Would WWE just formalize what we already do rather than give us something new? Can someone please compare these two for me? Help me decide which way to go. DD is 6, so I am not particularly fussed if she does it or not. That said, her language arts is at almost the same level as her brother's, so she will probably be dragged along. DS is 7 and in grade 3.

Thank you for the kind words. Thanks Cadam for that link, it's just going to be a long road. The support group here is for parents only, kids aren't allowed to attend so since I've chosen to hs we aren't welcome :( Also, they won't tell me where and when it is unless I pay to be a member of the association first :(

That's it. I just feel like I'm sinking. I'm nearly at the end of the road with my first child's speech therapy and just starting with my second. I feel too overwhelmed. I'm too scared with the 'what-if's'. I've seen the struggles my son has had, the discrimination, isolation and bullying ... the assumptions of other people that he must be stupid when he's actually academically advanced. I feel sick that my dd will most likely go through the same, if not worse. I feel guilty that I've got four kids when two have already been diagnosed with dyspraxia, and hoping the baby is going to be fine. I really want that crystal ball to tell me my kids will be OK and they will all be able to communicate effectively and articulately. I wish I knew other families where the kids had similar issues, even though I wish that no kids had to go through this.

MUS generally has about 10 - 20 problems on a page at that level. A revision sheet reinforces topics they've already learnt so that they don't forget them. I often will give 30 questions on a page and often make pages of + - * or / just to reinforce the facts.

Was he able to handle it all OK? I thought the review might end up reinforcing it all more too him, but he's just as likely to get bored or obnoxious about it. We just started the LoF fractions today and he's loving it. I love the idea of being able to put in stats and other major rabbit trails (we're off on a minor one at the moment - ancient number systems).

I know its not the answer you wanted, but just keep doing what your doing. Don't do anything differently. He's three, and at three if he wants to read he'll teach himself, otherwise wait till he's a bit older. My eldest knew his phonics around then because of speech therapy, but to do anything structured outside of therapy should wait for later.

Does she also hide under the table to escape while she's crying? That sounds exactly like dd. I like the calculus suggestion, she's the sort of kid who might like that. It is frustrating/upsetting me so much to see her so upset. To let her not learn because of it will not do her any favours. I wish I had let this kid wait until 7 before starting formal learning. I've even considered putting her back at school for a few months (she did 6 months K and learnt nothing because she won't concentrate with noise and distractions) so that she can see what would be expected of her and that she is doing well. Except she's not exactly tactful.