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If your child still struggles with dictation but is coming to hate WWE....


prairiewindmomma
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Maybe slowing down can do the trick. Can you repeat the dictation in 2 for a year and then try 3 again so it's not frustrating. You can sell it to him b/c it will be easy, but still maintain the skill. Perhaps a year of maturity will help you out :)

 

Do you do memory work? This may be another way to work on keeping phrases in his mind.

 

HTH.

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I would just make the dictation easy for him and slowly stretch him. If can only do one sentence at a time, I'd just give him one sentence at a time. If you can only do half a sentence, give him half a sentence. Do you have him repeat it back to you? I find that's important. I will read the passage once through. Then I read the first sentence or large chunk if it's a long one, and have my son repeat that back. Then I read the next sentence and have him repeat that, and on until we're finished. Then I read the entire thing again and have him say it to me again before he starts to write. If he stumbles, I give him the word. I also tell him any spelling. I think you need to make him feel successful with it.

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Thanks! We do go sentence by sentence and sometimes phrase by phrase. He has a good ear for when to place punctuation, but hearing the actual words can be a challenge. He is a strong reader; it's just that the wiring between his ear and his brain fires a bit off from time to time.

 

You're right, I do need to work on building his confidence in this area. Maybe another year will make this easier for him. Thanks!

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I haven't used WWE3, but I think plenty of folks here have commented on how challenging the dictation is. I agree with pp to either give him smaller chunks at a time or back up to WWE2 dictation or find an easier source for dictation. Spelling Plus has a dictation book that has sentences matching their word lists - so it might be easy to find a place that's easy for him and gradually move forward. I think there is old source for dictation that's free online (google books?) .... is it called Day by Day? or something like that?

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Change the dictation to copywork :) I think some of the dication exercises are beyond the scope of that level particularly some of the words they would need to spell.

 

My dd is using WWE for 2nd grade this year, and we use the dication exercises as copywork. She still gets to cover the same material without the frustration of the dictation.

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It may help to take a look at these ....

 

 

 

 

 

The first is SWB talking about developing narration skills at grammar stage (it's dealt with in the second question) and the second is her doing dictation with one of her older sons. While he's much older than your ds, it is interesting the details she goes into to help him remember the words only to prepare him to begin the dication. Sometimes I think it is assumed dictation is an relatively easy skill but it is actually quite complex! At times I will do some of the work I'm expecting of my dd and will be surprised at the difficulties I experience! :tongue_smilie:

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My ds has auditory processing issues as well. One of the things we do in therapy is try to get things into his brain in several ways. If I tell him a sentence, he has to watch my mouth as I say it, or read along in the book. Then he has to repeat the sentence word for word. If he can't do it perfectly then we repeat. It has helped a lot with getting things into his auditory memory.

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Maybe slowing down can do the trick. Can you repeat the dictation in 2 for a year and then try 3 again so it's not frustrating. You can sell it to him b/c it will be easy, but still maintain the skill. Perhaps a year of maturity will help you out :)

 

Do you do memory work? This may be another way to work on keeping phrases in his mind.

 

HTH.

:iagree:My 10 yo really struggles with dictation work, though he can do narration perfectly and re-writes well (think IEW). We've shelved it for now, as he gets through other work.

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It may help to take a look at these ....

 

 

 

The first is SWB talking about developing narration skills at grammar stage (it's dealt with in the second question) and the second is her doing dictation with one of her older sons. While he's much older than your ds, it is interesting the details she goes into to help him remember the words only to prepare him to begin the dication. Sometimes I think it is assumed dictation is an relatively easy skill but it is actually quite complex! At times I will do some of the work I'm expecting of my dd and will be surprised at the difficulties I experience! :tongue_smilie:

 

I just wanted to say thank you for linking these. Very interesting :)!

 

OK, carry on everyone :leaving:

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Another idea I've done to help my kids through dictation is to write down for them any words I would not expect them to spell on their own. This helps them to be less anxious about knowing how to spell something and allows them to concentrate on keeping the dictation in their heads. They know when they get to the trouble word/s they can just copy it.

 

I would stay at Level 2. Any dictations that are particularly hard (the ones meant to really stretch them) I give lots of help through. In the book she makes it seem like you can't give them any help and you can only read it so many times. After I watched the video of SWB with her son I learned I can be a lot more helpful during dictation! It changed the whole way we do dictation. My kids don't **love** dictation, however they do it. When we get through a tough one we celebrate! It's tough stuff!

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I think 8 is far too young for for most dictation, save a few words, esp for little boys. It would be one thing if he didn't find it torture. (SWB talks some in her writing audios about how painful it is for some young children: "If he says his hand is going to fall off, he means it" or some such) I would take a break from it. You can do the short copywork in WWE and be done with it.

Edited by LibraryLover
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