Supporting your child with their work while they are at home or with homework while they are at school shouldn’t be a frustrating experience but here are some basic tips to help:
Keep to a Routine
- Routines really help! Keep to the same time if you can
- Little and often is best rather than one long session
- Plan the timetable together with your child
- Keep it visual, so your child can see what they have to do FIRST and NEXT.
- Visuals can be quick drawings, or photos if you have time.
- Be clear about timings. Decide how long each bit will take
- Set aside a place to work that is different from play/TV watching spaces.
Planning the work
- Go over the homework together. Does your child know what they have to do?
- Look at any words that they may need to use and make sure they understand them.
- Break the task down into small chunks and decide together what order they need to be done in
- Make a list or draw pictures for each chunk.
While they are working
- Encourage your child can work independently. You can agree together how much they will do on their own before you step in.
- Try not to do the work for them! You can support them by saying things like: “We’ll read it through together and then see if you can do the next bit on your own.”
- Encourage them to read their work aloud. Keep going back to the plan to check. Tick off each chunk of the task as you go.
- Talk about what they are doing and any vocabulary they are using.
- If they find writing tiring, do some of the writing for them. Take turns to write a sentence each.
- Don’t worry about spellings while they are getting their ideas down – it’s better to check for spellings at the end so they are not trying to think of too much all at the same time.
If they get stuck
- Try asking questions rather than just telling them the answer. For example, “What bit are you stuck on?”, or “What do you think you need to do next?” or “How did you do the last one?” They may be able to sort the problem for themselves.
- Problem solving is a really important skills for learning and the more you can encourage them to sort out problems the better.
- Tell the school know if the work is too hard and frustrating so that the level can be adjusted.
When they have finished
- Support them with checking their work.
- Be encouraging and give plenty of praise.
- Talk about what they have learnt.
- Ask them to summarise the key ideas in the work.
- Ask them how they feel about their work too.
For longer pieces of writing / research / note taking
- Encourage them to use short hand methods such as abbreviations or stick figure drawings.
- They could record voice messages to help organize their ideas or use post it notes or Mind Maps or story boards.
What are Mind Maps?
- Mind mapping, or concept maps, are a way of representing ideas in a visual way.
- They can be like a diagram or flow chart and often include pictures and colour coding.
- They can help with organizing ideas like a story board
- Mind maps are often helpful when revising for a test or exam.
- They can be drawn or written on paper, or online, e.g. MindMeister
- If your child’s school subscribes to PurpleMash, try 2Connect which is a lovely mind mapping tool.
- There are also software version e.g. Kidspiration
Using the Computer
- Use the computer for longer pieces of writing
- Get your child to write straight onto the computer rather than writing on paper and then re-typing it.
- Learning to touch-type will speed up the process.
- If your child is using Word, you could use the “Dictation” facility by clicking on the microphone icon on the Home toolbar. This lets you to say what you want to write and the computer will type it for you.
- Use the spelling check and grammar check to check work at the end – your child might need your support to do this initially.
Find out more:
https://studyingwithdyslexiablog.co.uk (includes information on the Claro Read software & App)
https://www.theverge.com/2017/8/1/16074506/microsoft-word-read-aloud-feature (text-to-speech features in Word in the latest Office 365 updates)