Having trouble with some aspect of teaching?  Join the club!  Teaching is difficult because every child has different learning experiences, learning styles, and abilities.  The following troubles are a cross section of typical issues which crop up regularly whenever I am working with parents and teachers in schools.

Make sure that you have read Essentials of Teaching before you go further. 
 

He hates reading to me!  I dread listening to reading every night!  Reading always ends up with tears!
 

Your life is about to change! 

You need to read the section on Listening to Reading right now!

So many parents tell me that they dread the nightly reading session, and so does their child!
If there are problems with reading it can upset the whole family.  This issue needs to be addressed urgently.
 

She has difficulty following print and pointing to words when someone reads.

This is a developmental skill.  It only develops with experience.  Use cut up sentences or

‘Transformations’ to overcome this little hurdle.
Click here to see more about this great activity.

He reads stiltedly, word by word

Children don't teach themselves to read like this.  They are taught to read stiltedly by the adults who hear them read! 
When we tell a child to look more carefully at the print or pull them up when they make a mistake when reading to us, they learn several things:

• look at the print more carefully to avoid mistakes

• mistakes are bad

• slow down and be more accurate

What we should be teaching them are:

• mistakes are normal and expected

• the best readers make mistakes, called miscues

• when we read fast we know that we will make some changes to the text

• look well ahead of your voice to keep the reading fluent

• fix up any mistakes that don't sound right

Teach your children these things.  See Listening to Reading

Finger pointing can become voice pointing and will slow down reading.  Try reading without using the finger to follow every word.  Just put the finger at the beginning of each line.

If your child is still having trouble getting away from word by word reading use a technique I call ‘chasing’ to force increased eye-span. 

Phonics knowledge is poor

These are the kids I see as 12 years olds who are in desperate trouble, having spent many years being schooled in phonics but who still can't read or write effectively. 

To increase your general understanding about the reading process make sure you read Reading Assessment

Lacks confidence in him/herself

Always try to guarantee success.  Do not try to teach things that are too difficult for your child to understand or do.

Watch what the child can do, and keep working on that for a while.  Then tackle something he/she almost understands, or can nearly do and teach that next.  Successful, positive learning experiences build up confidence.
See Essentials of Teaching

Successful learning experiences are critical for building confidence. 

My child won't take risks with learning new things

Reward the attempts to do things even though they may not be successful.  Don't persevere in trying to teach something the child is not ready for.  Watch what he/she can do, and build on those things.  See Learning Style and Essentials of Teaching

The personality of the child is evident quite early (before 2 years).  If your child is not a risk taker it is even more important that you pay attention to building up his/her self confidence.
 

Can't or won't attend to things long enough to learn
 

Make a list of the child's interests and see if you can get him/her to attend to those things first.

It is likely that your child is avoiding attending to the things you want because s/he is uncertain about it, lacks confidence to do it, has tried it before and not been successful, and so on.  Make sure you understand Essentials of Teaching and be patient.  You will have to model the behaviours for the child and make it 'safe' for him/her to try again.

Students pay attention to what they are already familiar with and understand.

Is concentration to watch TV OK?

Children avoid attending to things which have proved to be too difficult in the past.

You have to find a way for the child to be successful at this task, make a fuss, and see if this helps the attending.

Check.  Maybe the child hasn't the background experience to understand or do this task?

Becomes very anxious when trying to learn something new

Reward all attempts and reassure child that its OK to try new things- we all make mistakes.
If necessary let your child see you make some mistakes on similar tasks.

See Learning Style

Anxiety diminishes ability to attend so endeavour to reduce the anxiety by designing tasks the child can do.

Has delayed language skills

Maintain language activities such as structured play with another child.  Include free play with lots of materials which promotes exchange of language.

Materials which could be used include old clothes for dress-ups, tea party sets with tables and chairs, soft animals, telephones, prams or pushers, blankets and furniture for building cubby houses. Try to organise things that require two children to work together on tasks that both have seen and know well such as household activities.

From birth children need lots of experience of language such as talking, singing, rhymes, stories (for book language), and playing with other children in co-operative ways. 

Has problems with speech

See Speech Pathologist for a specialist program designed to help your child.

You are an integral part of any speech program because you will need to carry it on at home.

Loses track when retelling stories, rhymes, or songs.

Sing, read stories and practice rhymes and songs together every day. 

This is usually a matter of experience and it may take some time (perhaps months) of perseverance but it will work if you insist and are consistent.

Sings the alphabet but misses letters or runs letters together.

Sing it together.  Use a tape recorder and tape your voices for the child to play back as often as needed. 

Try using an alphabet chart and touching each letter as you sing.

Tries to play 'I Spy' but is confused about starting sounds

Continue to play the game with your children and accept what the younger ones do.  Help by giving extra clues such as it starts with t, ta, tab... yes table!  Accelerate development by using picture activities to focus attention on certain sounds. 
eg. Use two pictures - a cat and a dog.  I Spy the one that starts with/sounds like a 'c'.......

This ability comes with maturity and experience with language and listening. 

Becomes confused when instructed to do something.

Have you had the child examined by a paediatrician or child psychologist?  This should be first step if you think it is a serious problem.

Try giving only one instruction at a time.  Play barrier games where you are both seated either side of a table with a low barrier between you.  Take it in turns giving and receiving instructions such as in drawing or building things.

Keep things simple and be clear in what you say and how you say it. 

Use simple language.

Has difficulty identifying initial-final-medial sounds in given words

For initial sounds you could try matching letters and pictures.  Make up two sets of cards, one with alphabet letters and one set with pictures to match the initial sounds.  Begin with three matching pairs to sort out and progress from there.

Click here to see more on the Elkonen Technique which is excellent for training the ear to hear medial and final sounds.

The Elkonen tecnique uses visual placeholders to show where to listen.  It is a listening technique and should be used without text.

When trying to read points to the pictures, not the text.

Read to the child and demonstrate where you are looking by pointing to the text.  Take the child's finger and help him/her trace the text as you read.

Sometimes starts at the right hand side of the page with reading and/or writing.

Read to them and demonstrate by pointing where you start.  Write with them and demonstrate how to do it.  Sometimes it is useful to find or put a mark on their left hand so that they will remember the side to start on.

This is normal behaviour for very young or inexperienced readers and writers. 

It doesn't mean that the child is Dyslexic!

See Dyslexia article

Not sure where to go to the next line when the end of the upper line is reached.  Sometimes starts at the bottom of the page?

Sometimes starts to read from the back of the book?

These are all part of the same problem which is inexperience with books and reading.  Demonstrate by reading to and with the child using your finger to point out where you are looking and how the print flows from left to right, the return sweep to the next line and so on to the bottom of the page.

Although it is rare to find this in older children do not overlook the possibility that this could be the problem.  I once found a 8 year old like this.  He had been in school three years and no one had picked it up!

Physically uncoordinated with running, jumping, skipping, throwing, kicking, etc

Enrol your child in a 'Gross Motor Coordination Program' if there is one at your local school.  Also, ask your local GP whether a referral to a specialist such as an occupational therapist is required?

Has difficulty controlling a pencil or crayon for drawing or writing

This 'fine motor' hand control is a developmental skill which generally improves with experience.  Teach how to do it by demonstrating and giving the child plenty of drawing materials to practice with.  Use large sheets of paper and crayons at first to get the bigger actions such as back and forth, up and down, circles in both directions, and so on.  Then use a soft pencil with smaller sheets of paper to get the feel of pushing and pulling and circles and shapes.  Stencils are useful here too, but get the ones with cut outs in the middle so that the pencil can't 'escape'.  These are good for teaching about squares, circles, diamonds, and so on because they show the child how to feel the corners, how to feel 'squareness' or curves, or small circles.

When it comes to writing letter shapes show the child where to start, and how to plan ahead about where the pencil wants to go next.

Self-talk is very useful here.  Begin by talking the child through the sequences as a  letter is formed. 

"You do a 'b' like this.  Start at the top, come down to the bottom, then up. around to the right and back to the stick to finish the circle."

Teach the child to say the sequences for letters that are needing extra care.

Grips pencil in whole hand rather than fingers

Teach how to grip.  Use a thicker pencil at first and place his/her fingers on the pencil, or try using a triangular plastic or rubber grip until the child has mastered the grip without it.

Pencil grips help the child learn where to place their fingers.

Writes letters and numbers backwards

See the article on Reversals for more on this subject.

Briefly, here are a few things to try.  Teach where to start and talk them through the construction of the letter or number.  Find an ‘anchor’ which is something known which can be used to aid memory.  For instance, a child who always does a capital B correctly but reverses the b/d every time can be show how to use the 'B' as a memory 'anchor' to get the 'b'.  They are very similar because the 'stick' is on the same side.

Secondly try teaching the muscles of the hand to do the 'b' automatically.  Do this by showing how to write the 'b' quickly.  Write it dozens of times quickly.  Don't worry what it looks like as long as the principle of its construction is sound.  Then do it with eyes shut!  Do it in the air!  Last of all do it carefully on paper! 

Use these same principles for any letter or number. 

This doesn't mean that your child is Dyslexic!

See Dyslexia article

Has trouble recognising letter names or sounds

Sing the ABC song and make sure the child can play 'I Spy'.  Then use an alphabet chart to link with the song and sing and point at the same time.  This will sort out any confusions and also show the child how to work out any letter just by singing and touching the letters or pictures.  Paste the chart to their desk and use it when writing to find the required letter sounds.  The child now becomes aware that every letter has a name and a sound.

See Alphabet Activities

Young children seem to be able to memorise names before letter sounds.

Recognises or reads only a few words

Focus first on reading more rather than teaching words.  See Listening to Reading for more information.  This is the main game.
Secondly, support their reading with a regular dose of sight words beginning with the most common words first.  Put five words on cards, making two cards for each word.  Then teach the child to play 'Concentration' with them.  Replace learned words regularly, ensuring that the child is never overloaded.  Demonstrate their progress by marking off words learned on a chart such as the 'Salisbury' or 'Dolch' lists'

Use familiar words (names, pets, hobbies, interests). Use Word list to check.  Play ‘Concentration’

Child doesn't seem to listen to his/her own reading, forcing adults to point out errors

This is probably happening because you started out helping to find the errors and the child now relies on you to keep on doing it.  There is no reason why the child can't find their own errors and correct them.  Have a talk to your child about this and let him/her know that you won't be telling when a mistake happens in future. 

When you see a mistake happen next time, don't say anything and see what happens.  Let the child keep reading at least to the end of the sentence and see if they can detect the error.  If it made sense the chances are that he/she won't see it or hear it.  If it is that minor you should let it go.  Wait until you see an error (a miscue) which doesn't make sense.  If the child doesn't pick this up ask, "Did that sentence make sense to you?"  Keep working on that theme of making sense, or 'sounding right'.  It is easier for the child to monitor for reading which 'sounds right'.

See the articles on Assessing Reading and Listening to Reading
 

To find out more about this click here to see solving reading problems

Child stops on problem words but rarely works out the word!

It is time to teach some new strategies.  There are many ways to solve problems.  Here are some starters for when a problem word is encountered.
Tell your child to:

• miss it out, leave it, keep going

• keep going and come back to that one later

• say a word that will fit and keep reading

What happens then is interesting.  The reader will usually come back and correct the word accurately because they have picked up more clues about the word from the words that come after the problem word.

If you haven't done so you should read the section on Listening to Reading as there is even more that you can do before reading even begins.
 

 Other strategies to try are:

• read it again from the beginning

• use the first letters of the word to 'guess'.
  (the term 'guess' is understood by the child but in reality the technique is prediction based on prior knowledge, the language syntax, and dialogue semantics).

Makes silly mistakes and says words that don't make sense

This happens when children lose the idea that reading is about everyday language, should sound sensible, and should only use words that are already known.  Some children think that there are so many new words that they have never heard before, so they try to make new words up when reading.

To teach them about sensible language a great activity to use is 'Bionic eyes' or 'Oral cloze'!  Just pick up a book and begin reading so that they can't see the print, but stop at an obvious word and ask the child what it is.  eg. "Who's that tramping over my _______?"  When the child says "bridge" you are entitled to ask, "How did you know that?  You can't see the book!  Have you got Bionic eyes?"  Continue the charade using words that are entirely predictable at first, and later varying the words you stop at, including some that rely more on knowledge of the English language structure (grammar or syntax) such as:

"Who's that tramping ______ my bridge?"
"He picked __ the beans...."
"Red Riding Hood set off for ___ grandmother's house."

"He ran all the _____ home."

"He loved his mother be-______ she was kind __  ___.

Note that the predictions can extend to many words at a time.
 

If a child learns that they can solve problems without looking at the print, then how much easier will it be when they are also able to see the print!

Selects inappropriate books that are too easy

This happens because the child wants to be able to read to you successfully.  They figure that its safer to select easy books because they will make fewer mistakes and you will be proud of them.  It may also be because there are things happening at school which could be embarrassing if a book was too hard to read!  Check it out with the teacher.

You need to teach them that mistakes are OK.  They are normal.  Everyone makes mistakes when they read. Daddy. Mummy.  Teacher. Even the Principal!

Then you must look at what is happening when people (including you) listen to him/her read.  Read Listening to Reading.

Children should be able to select books which are just right for them.  They may need some guidance such as having a box of books to select from which are all of similar difficulty.

Selects books that are too hard or not suitable

It isn't normal for children to do this continually.  It will happen from time to time with inexperienced readers but most will soon sort out what they can manage and what is 'hard'.

However, there is one group of children who will always select books which are too hard to read.  These are the children who would be embarrassed to have a book they can read on their desk because the other kids would say that it's too easy, it's babyish, a beginner's book!  For children who are struggling this is a real problem.  Where this is a big problem I encourage such children to borrow two books at a time.  One is a 'pretend' book, which goes on the desk for show.  The other, the real book goes in the bag and is read at home.  Now I know that this is a bit less than perfect, but when their whole social standing is at stake I think that it is worth it.  Children have feelings too, right?

Sort books into boxes based on ability levels to help children choose suitable books more easily.