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Hi Ladies,

I have two boys that are working through Preparing Hearts. We are just loving it! We do have some issues, though, and I wondered if any of you might be able to give me some help. My younger one is 10 and my older is 11. When we sit down to do the History reading, storytime box, or anything that I read aloud, I seem to lose my 11 year old. I have been so frustrated because my 10 year old will narrate it all back to me with no problem at all, and my older can't answer ANYTHING! I end up having to retell, and rephrase the story so many times make sure he knows it. I have thought all this time that he may have an auditory processing issue, or maybe just severe ADD, but it occurred to me that he may just learn differently than my younger one. We are only on our second year of homeschooling, so I'm still figuring out how to teach.

He is mildly dyslexic, so he has a hard time reading on his own. It is getting better, but I can never be sure if he is really getting what he reads. So our history is one thing that I want to read aloud to him.

How can I help him hear and learn the story, when there are no pictures to look at and no visuals? My younger is clearly an auditory learner and I don't want to change things up or frustrate him. I also don't want my older to feel bad about himself that he doesn't learn the story as fast or easily as his younger brother.

Thank you for any advice you can give to me,

Tracy
(Two boys in PHFHG, and One sweet girl in LHFHG)

I have a similar issue with my crew. Three of them can follow along and narrate just fine but my dd9 just gets lost. I have found that stopping at random places and asking her a question about what I read forces her to pay attention. She isn't narrating but at least she has some idea of what I have read. She is now to the point that she can give me a general summary of what I read but she still misses a lot of the details that the others pick up on. I then let the other kids narrate at the end of the reading, so she hears a well done narration as well. We have not had an official diagnosis but her speech therapist is pretty sure she has auditory processing disorder.

I have various things I have done with my ds. I don't know if any of these will help, but I thought I would list them for you. My ds has some visual and verbal memory issues. I didn't know that when we did Preparing. I thought he was a just a visual learner and that is why he struggled with being able to narrate anything back to me. I would break it down into having him narrate after just 1 or 2 paragraphs and he did much better. The other thing I let him do sometimes was draw pictures that went with what I was reading. So if we were reading about a battle he would jot down a sword and then maybe the name of battle or person by it. He drew whatever he thought would help him remember. Then he would look back over the pictures as he narrated. I also sometimes would let him stand and act it out as I read or afterwards I would tell him to act it out instead of just narrating or answering questions. Often if he knew he was going to do that he listened in a different way. We talked a lot about picturing the story in his head as I read as if it were a movie. He always did better when he read things. Fast forward to RTR and that has reversed. He does much better narrating after the read alouds then he does when he reads. I thought that was odd until we found out about the memory issues and I realized that the Independent readings are so much longer now so the memory issues come into play. He is learning to compensate though. He will stop at a logical stopping point in the reading and will do part of his written narration and then continue reading and then do the rest of his written narration.

Thank you ladies for the ideas. I like the idea of drawing a picture, which would sort of be "taking notes" in a more simple way. And I will definitely try to stop after a few paragraphs. I had heard that stopping throughout the reading will break the flow and make it harder for them to follow, but I'm sure that's not true across the board... apparently I need to stop.

LynnH - Would you mind my asking how you found out about your son's memory issues? I know there is *something* going on and had never considered this. I did some research on auditory processing disorder and he only fits the description when he listens to instructions or is read to. In general, everyday conversation he seems fine. He has a hard time when he reads a big word that I have to help him with... when that word comes around again he will not remember it at all, even if it's just in the next sentence. I don't know where I would go to have him "tested" for what might be wrong, but wondered if you wouldn't mind sharing?

Tracy

Tracy,
We had a full neuropsychological assessment done on my ds. It included an IQ test,but also so much more. It showed us areas he was very strong in and then also gave us the areas he had issues with. I thought it was a reading comprehension issue,but he tested fine on that test and the issue was really the memory issue. He needs to be exposed to the information 3 times and then he is right where a typical kid would be after seeing something 3 times. This affirmed our use of HOD because he does get multiple exposure to topics through the mapping and readings. The psychologist we went to was very homeschool friendly and gave me ideas for things to do as I teach him. The testing also looked at visual spatial processing and abstract reasoning as well as math skills and reasoning. I hope this helps.

Tracy - these ladies have given excellent counsel already! In regard to your comment here...

theruffs wrote:... I had heard that stopping throughout the reading will break the flow and make it harder for them to follow...

You are right - stopping throughout the reading does break the flow and make it harder for them to follow. But, if they are not listening and comprehending what you are reading, the flow has been lost already. In this case, building listening skills will build narration skills, and it would make sense then to shorten the section a child is narrating upon accordingly. A good way to do this is to stop at a natural breaking point. So when you can tell the next paragraph of the reading is moving onto a different topic, it works to stop before that paragraph, and encourage a short oral narration on what has been read thus far. It may be overwhelming for ds to do this for every section, so I'd start by having him be responsible for one of the sections, and I'd model a good narration for the other sections. He can then work up to several sections, and eventually the entire reading selection.

I wanted to share this from another thread I'd responded to, as I thought this may also be helpful...

It is quite common for dc to be able to remember best the last section of what has been read. It helped my ds to give the example of the VCR tape (though maybe now they only know DVD's ). To get back to the beginning, you have to rewind. For an oral narration, you have to rewind in your mind back to the start of the reading too. I tried to show the thinking that goes into this while modeling my narration. I stopped after about a third of the reading and said, "Now, I am asking myself what were the most important parts of what I read so far? Well, it is that Wilbur and Orville Wright owned a print shop and put out a local paper. I'll have to remember that for this finger." (And I held up my index finger to show "1"). Then I read the next third, and said, "Now, I am asking myself what were the most important parts of what I read in this part? Well, it is that Wilbur and Orville Wright opened a bicycle shop, and learned from others that filling the air with tires was a successful way to make bikes more lightweight. I'll have to remember "1" (and I repeated the first part), and now I'll have to remember this for #2." (And I held up two fingers.) Then I read the last third, and said, "Now I am asking myself what were the most important parts of what I read in this last part? Well, it is that Wilbur and Orville Wright became interested in researching flying, and that others had crashed in their gliders. I'll have to remember "1" (and I repeated the first part), and "2" (and I repeated the second part), and now I'll have to remember this for #3". (And I held up 3 fingers.) Then, I said, "Now, it's time for me to share my narration, and I know just what I am going to share". Then, I did my narration, holding up "1" finger as I said the first part with a detail or two, holding up "2" fingers as I said the middle part with a detail or two, and the last part holding up "3" fingers as I said that part with a detail or two. This seemed to really help my dc, and at first they held up their fingers to do this until they began to be able to tell longer oral narrations, and the fingers weren't necessary.

I think it's important to know that they may not perfectly pick the big things that happened at first, and that's alright. The goal is not necessarily a summary narration, but rather a narration that has a good sequence and preferably something from the beginning, middle, and end. What stood out to our dc may (and probably will) be different than what stood out to us. This is the beauty of narration - each person gets to share what struck them the most, and really make the narration their own. Now, if a child shares something like "Katherine likes dolls" for their part of the narration (a part of the Wrights' story, but not an important part, it is helpful to lead dc to more of the main ideas of the story). However, encouragement is the best way we can lead our dc to become good narrators. So, balance the helpful tips with the "way to go's"!

HTH!
In Christ,
Julie

Thank you Julie, that helped a TON! Like I said, I am new at this and still learning how to help my kiddos. I can't wait to try this.

Tracy

Tracy,

It's a great idea to incorporate some of the ideas that the ladies posted above to see if that helps your ds. If after that you still think there may be something else going on you should be able to get him tested at your local public school. I've been homeschooling my nephew for the last 1-1/2 years and he has some learning challenges. We were able to get him tested (many of the same ones listed by Lynn H.) at the local school. They were very thorough and it didn't cost us anything. It didn't matter that he was homeschooled (b/c we still pay taxes) and they were able to give us places to go for resources that would help us be able to teach him more effectively. Hope this helps,

Stephanie