Grammar for a child who struggles with language

[Mom0012]

This is for my son who has a language disorder. I just got his Iowa scores back and he is at or above grade level in every area except language. He has consistently scored very low in this area, which is no surprise considering his diagnosis.

 

He understands basic punctuation rules, and he knows the parts of speech. We did SG in 1st and I've used an SRA intervention writing program over the last year and a half, that hits some very basic grammar concepts hard. I'm using Evan Moor's daily paragraph editing and daily grams over the summer.

 

I have looked at GWG, R&S, Evan Moor's Language Fundamentals, BJU, JAG, SG, Daily Grammar Review, FLL and Winston for 4th grade.

 

The main thing I am really struggling with is whether it would be better to put him in a program like R&S that gets into really complicated grammar (that I suspect he will never be able to apply), or to use something that just really solidifies the basics, like maybe Winston.

 

I initially assumed I should start pounding him with grammar because this is such a weak area, but all the reading I do about it suggests that often even typical kids do not retain or apply grammar and that "less may be more" in this subject.

 

I have worked very hard with this boy and have often made the mistake of pushing him too hard too soon, so I'm trying not to overload him this year.

 

Please share any ideas you have about this!! Thanks.

 

Lisa

[Caroline4kids]

Have you ever tried Shurley? The only reason I mention it, even though we dropped the whole program years ago, is because the jingles really, really, helped my kids and continue to help them.

 

I bought the fourth grade level and we lasted about 2 months, but the jingles are something we use all the time. It was a way for my grammar-phobic kids to retain parts of speech, prepositions, etc.

[Mom0012]

Yes, I did use this with him in 1st grade and he did well with it. I keep hearing that it is mostly good for teaching the parts of speech though and I feel he needs a lot of help with usage. Do you think Shurley has a fair amount of usage in it?

 

Thanks!

Lisa

[LizzyBee]

For my mildly dyslexic dd, I used:

 

2nd and 3rd grade: FLL. She really enjoyed FLL.

 

4th grade: Primary Language Lessons with Ridgewood Grammar. Nice gentle introduction to grammar and writing.

 

5th - 7th grade: Rod & Staff 4 and 5. We did each lesson orally. She did some of the exercises in writing, but for each lesson that had a worksheet, we used the worksheet. She loved diagramming sentences and sometimes did more of the written exercises than I assigned.

 

8th grade (just started): Harvey's Elementary Grammar with CW Aesop and Homer for Older Beginners. With my oldest dd, we used CW with R&S, but I found myself using Harvey's as a reference quite a bit. I decided to use CW as written and streamline it this time. So far, it's working great.