Give them roots and wings

I have been teaching Samuel to read/spell/write/do maths for more than 5 years. These are some things which I have learnt and found useful – tried and tested!

1. The brain needs data.

To be able to read, the brain first needs to know that the symbols printed on paper (whether they are alphabets, numbers or mathematical symbols) have a corresponding sound and meaning. Secondly, the brain needs to have sufficient amount of such data in order to form them into words and sentences.

For example, just knowing the sounds of the vowels (‘a’, ‘e’, ‘i’, ‘o’, ‘u’) is insufficient. The child also needs to know the sounds of the consonants (all other alphabets, like “b”, “c”, “d”, etc), and other phonemes (“ee”, “oo”, “ai”, “ay”, “oi”, “oy”, etc).

Each symbol, vowel, consonant and phonemes can be individually taught to the child. In order for the child to be able to read, he has to be taught these sounds accurately. If their learning of these sounds are wrong, obviously they would make the wrong sounds when they see these symbols and that will affect their reading. (A multi-sensory approach can be adopted to teach the child these sounds).

Beyond the phonemes, the child can also learn syllabication patterns and rules, other spelling rules, and prefix/suffix/roots (latin) which will enhance his reading and so that he can spell words too.

It took me about 18 months to teach Samuel a reasonable amount of phonemes and syllabications pattern and rules, that allowed him to be able to read 80% of a simple passage  (excluding words like “ancient Egypt”, “plaque”, etc). I was also teaching him spelling rules at the same time, so he learnt how to read/spell those words at the same time. 

2. The brain needs to be able to retrieve the data fast.

In order to be able to read, a child needs to be able to retrieve the data that has been stored. Some children have problem with retrieval. Some children have problems with the speed of retrieval.

Exercises can be done to help the child improve in his ability to retrieve and speed of retrieval, both of which are essential for reading fluency.

The child would also need to be taught the skill of blending. Some children have trouble with that. Practice will improve this step.

Samuel is still doing daily exercises to increase his processing speed. This need not be boring – letting the child play some types of electronic games can increase the child’s processing speed too. I regularly review the phonemes which Samuel has learnt. By now, because he is already quite competent, I only review the sounds about once every 2-3 weeks, and when I review them with him, I also review his spelling at the same time.

Samuel had trouble blending when he was about four/five, but by seven he was much better and improved over time with practice. He still makes mistakes blending. The key words I always use to remind him is “Left to right, sound by sound!”. 

3. The brain needs constant checking and review.

Many children who have reading challenges have poor short-term memory. What this means is that they forget easily. In certain instances, the child may forget just seconds after he has been taught. As such, regular reviews are necessary to make the learning permanent. It is like grooving the pathways in the brain.

Each time I teach Samuel, I will check back with him on what I have taught, to ensure that he has understood. For example, when teaching vocabulary – I will explain the meaning of a word using very simple language, and ask him immediately after that, what I have just said. He needs to be able to explain to me the meaning of the new word. If he is unable to, I will explain it to him again, and check back with him again. This cycle will go on until he is able to competently explain the meaning of the word to me.

Regular reviews are done for every topic, if time permits. For example, for English it will be to review vocabulary words which I have taught him in the previous lesson. For Science, it will be to review the scientific facts as and when we come across it in a question.

Sometimes I may find that he has forgotten some things which have been taught, in which case I would re-teach him. Usually, the second (or third) time I teach him results in a faster and more permanent memory, so the earlier rounds of teaching are never wasted.

4. Small segments of regular, consistent work  is more helpful than huge chunks of irregular learning.

Some children do not have the capacity to stay focused for long periods of time. Short periods of intense learning is actually effective and the learning does add up.

Samuel does some amount of work every day, but it is kept to a minimal on Sunday. I teach him for 30 minutes to 1 hour during the school hours (that would be during his MT lessons. He is exempted from MT and the school allows me to take him out of his MT classes to teach him other subjects). When he is home, I will teach him for 2-4 hours, with breaks in between. It might seem like a lot of time, but he has a lot to cover. During those hours, I guide him through his school homework (which can take up a lot of time, especially composition writing and maths problem sums) and also build up his English/Maths/Science. 

He has good and bad days. There are times when he is tired or we are rushed for time, and I only get to do processing speed exercises, and ONE problem sum. But all these learning add up over time.

5. Teach concepts as simply as possible. 

Some children are unable to handle big numbers, or complicated sentences and ideas. We need to help simplify the information to a level which the child can understand. Use daily examples or words which the child can understand. It is more important to take time to ensure the child understands something simple, than to try to do a lot, with the child having a shaky understanding.

Once the child understands the concept at the simple level, you may substitute with bigger numbers, or other words/forms, to help the child understand how to transfer his understanding to other situations. If the child gets confused after you make this progression, it either means that the jump was too large (in which case you should try to make a more incremental progression), or his conceptual understanding at the simpler level was not strong  (in which case you should go back and re-teach that).

The key is to train the brains in these gymnastic exercises – from simple to complex – so it learns a pattern of understanding, and learns to manipulate its understanding so as to apply it in different and increasingly complex situations.

In the instance when the child is unable to understand no matter how simple you made it, or how much time you had spent on it, and you have sought advice and done everything you could, it may mean that the child is simply not ready to understand the concept. You might want to do other things, and allow the child time to mature before coming back to it.

For Samuel, when I teach him maths problem sums, I would substitute the numbers with single digit numbers, and using simple calculations, e.g. 10 divided by 2. Once he understands it, I would increase the complexity till he is able to comprehend and solve the problem at hand.  When he could not understand what is 10×50, I asked him what was 1×10, then 2×10, then 3×10, etc to 10×10, then 10×20, and suddenly his brain clicked and he knew what was 10×50. (If he could not understand what was 1×10, I would ask him what is 1×1, 1×2, etc). For English, I would always pause at the period (whether it is a full stop, or comma, depending on the complexity of the sentence), to get him to explain to me what the sentence means. 

6. Do diagnostic teaching and drilling practices.

Every child is different and gets stuck at different things. Find out where the break down is, and work through that. Do not rush. Be patient and work through the “blockage” before moving on, because these blockages tend to slow the child down a lot if you do not work through them, and it is actually relatively easy to overcome if you just focus on them.

Drilling exercises are critical for achieving automaticity. We want to achieve automaticity so that children can free their minds and energy to do higher order thinking. The important thing to note is that drilling exercises should only be done AFTER the child has understood the concepts. For example, when drilling them on the times-table, the child should first understand that multiplication is simply repeated addition. This is so that the child can always fall back to counting manually if his multiplication reciting fails. Furthermore, conceptual understanding is the key to solving problem sums requiring multiplication/division.

After Samuel started tackling multiplication and division exercises, I found that he was slowed down a lot by the lack of automaticity in his time-table so I spent time daily to drill him on the time-table. (I had already taught him the concept). He has gotten quite good at it, but I have to review with him often to ensure the information stays. I am also still doing regular exercises (e.g. make “10”) with him to help him gain a better number sense. 

 7. Track the child’s progress and plan his learning.

This is related to point 6. Start from a diagnosis of the child’s weaknesses, and start working with the child where his greatest weakness coincides with his greatest need. In some cases, the child’s weakness may not be something which the child is ready to work on, e.g. if a child has very poor fine motor skills, and is also unable to read, it would be more effective to work on his reading than his writing. Writing requires good fine motor skills, and this comes with maturity, so give the child time to grow. In addition, reading is a more essential skill than writing, so for this situation, it would be more efficient to hold off the writing, and spend more time on the reading.

If the child is weak both in his maths and his reading, the child should also spend more time on his reading, because again, reading is a more essential skill than maths. (The one exception I can think of, is when the child seems to grasp mathematical concepts more easily than skills for reading. In that case, you might want to work on the maths. Flow with the child’s readiness).

It is true that learning has to be sequential in the sense that some things have to happen before other things can happen. For example reading before writing; counting before multiplication. In the area of reading, I have read that the child needs to understand rhyming before reading. I have found however, that it is very difficult for some children to do rhyming, and they might be able to start with learning the sounds (Point 1), while working on their auditory skills.

The key point is – be diagnostic.

Planning is essential as we do not want to waste the child’s time. Every activity has to have a purpose and achieve a learning objective. It does not mean that the child does not have fun – in fact, learning which is pitched at the child’s level of competence is actually very fulfilling and enjoyable for the child. The key thing is – we want to lift the child up as quickly as he can go, without discouraging him in the process. The way to speed up the learning is be observant enough to know in which area he is ready to learn, and move along with him in that area, and to keep shifting areas of focus according to his readiness and need.

I have come a long way with Samuel, so I no longer need to plan my lessons as much now as when I first started. When I first started, there were many gaps to plug. For reading/spelling, I had to teach him the vowel sounds, spelling rules and syllabication/latin. After that, I had to ensure he knows his arithmetic. At the same time, I was working on his language. There were so many things to juggle and I had to take notes and plan in advance to maximise his time/learning.

Now that I have taught nearly everything and much of it is review, I do not need to do as much note-taking and planning. I still track his progress, e.g. for English it will be vocabulary words which he keeps forgetting, certain phonemes which he has problem spelling (e.g. the “ie” words like chief, thief, believe, etc), spelling words which he keeps getting wrong (e.g. “every”, “flexible”, “absorb”). For Maths, it will be arithmetic drills which he has lost touch with, or certain habits which he has yet to acquire (exams technique). For Science, it will be concepts/facts which he is not familiar with. However, due to his current advanced stage, and my experience working with him, I generally teach him according to the school syllabus, and take extra time to review whatever he has forgotten, and add on new phonemes/latin which I would make time for. 

8. Do the macro activities like talking, reading widely, and exposure/experiences

The things I have shared above are the micro-activities in the classroom, at the work table. They are rudimentary drill exercises and are essential.

However, learning is most effective when done within a context. For children who have learning challenges, they find it hard to understand conceptual words, e.g. cold vs ice, and locate vs room. Words like “scalded/burnt/charred”, “reservations”, “persuade” can only be understood with reference to life experiences.

Lots of learning can be done on a daily basis if parents would seize upon every opportunity to name objects, describe activities and express thoughts/emotions at home and wherever they go (“cutlery”, “pedestrian crossing”, etc)  instead of saying “that thing, that thing”.

Parents should also read aloud frequently to the child, and need not always insist that every reading be a “reading exercise” for the child.

The more words the child knows by sound and understanding (that is, he has heard the word “delivery”, and understands what it means, but may not be able to recognise it in print), the easier it is for him when he reads a new word because he has a larger database of word sounds to match it to.

Due to the challenges some children face in learning through pen/paper/classroom, we should allow them to learn about the world through other means like enrichment activities. It is wrong to restrict a child from these activities because “you need all the time in the world to learn how to read/write/do math”, or “finish your homework/be good at your school work first before doing all these fun things”.

In fact, the opposite is true. You need to find an area where he has a comparative advantage or a special interest in, because he is likely to be most productive there, and the learning would be most effective. Just because the child is weak in his academics, it does not mean that there is nothing which he is good at, or he has no future. He needs to be shown other pathways in life, and areas which he can succeed in. It will build his self-esteem and increase his resilience because he would realise that he has what it takes to overcome. Most importantly, it gives him a reason to live and passion for life, and the motivation to strive for excellence in every area of his life.

As Samuel has language impediment as well, teaching him to talk was part of the many things I had to do with him as well. Language acquisition was not natural for him – he could not learn it simply through hearing/exposure – he had to be taught explicitly. Over the years, I taught him sentence formation by rote learning, and over time, his brain must have been built up sufficiently that he is now able to learn by hearing/exposure, and can speak reasonably well. We still remind him regularly to speak in complete sentences, or to “stop, think, what do you want to say, and say it slowly”. It helps. 

We try to give him as many varied experiences as he could manage – with swimming, drum, soccer, sailing, and science (hands-on) lessons (spread out, not all at once). These exposures were so that he could relate the things he read in print to a memory (which is visual, auditory, kinesthetic, tactile, in short experiential!) and that would help him understand and remember more easily. During times when he feels defeated, I would pull up all these experiences and show him that he is good at many other things. 

Samuel works and plays hard. While he spends a lot of time doing work with me, he also spends a lot of time playing with his brothers/friends/on his own. As I am typing this, he is creating his own schedule using an Excel spreadsheet and having lots of fun learning how to use Excel, practising his typing skills and hand-eye co-ordination, and learning about time sequence and planning. 

 In conclusion

These are just the things which I have learnt on my journey with my son. I am not a psychologist but I have consulted psychologists and learned the trade of a therapist to teach him. There are a lot of materials out there about the different struggles children have in learning, the reasons behind those struggles, and what you can do to help children overcome them. Do read up to supplement what I have shared here, and do share with me too! 🙂

Do I ever get tired or discouraged? Yes, I do. Whatever he knows, he knows them well, but the pace of the school is too fast for him to be able to excel in school despite trying so hard. Both he and I get discouraged. But I believe in what I am doing, that it is more important to really know what we know, than to seem to know everything but with a shaky foundation.

I have learned enough from teaching Samuel to know that I cannot rely on tutors. I can selectively send him for classes but by and large, I have to continue being his teacher. 

I have to remind myself every day, not look at where he needs to be eventually (e.g. how he will manage his PSLE), but just what is the next step he needs to take. Discouragement visits only when I look too far ahead and through the lenses of man. Through God’s lenses, there is only hope. 

He is a special, precious child whom God has placed in my hands, and God has shown me how to help him, so I have to do it.

May God similarly bless you with patience, perseverance and love for your child as you teach him/her.

(Note : I am sharing this although I am still on the journey with him. He is not excelling in school YET. Our psychologist (whom I also consider a friend) who is familiar with his profile prepared me for that. However, I know I am doing the right thing because I see in him a little boy with a passion for life and learning, with so much joy in his face whenever he masters something new.

So I look forward to sharing with you, a few more years down the road, with greater conviction that growth and learning is all that matters).