Improve Focus & Concentration & Memory

[ChiefKiasu]

Swissclover\" post_id=\"2121699\" time=\"1698626890\" user_id=\"58996:

Hi

I realized my child couldnt remember how to spell the words despite love to read. (simple words).
Also the math concepts, have gone through many times how to solve the questions and say maybe a few days later, test again, forgot how to solve.

Is there any program / therapy that can help?

Not trusting the brain training centres as too many negative reviews or using influencers to provide reviews.

How old is your child? Sounds like he might be quite young. If so, don't force it on him/her. No need to rely on any \"brain training\" programs. Just read to him/her regularly his favourite books and after awhile, it will catch on and he'll be on his way.

[Swissclover]

my girl is 9 yrs old.

[Liew Nga Wing]

Swissclover\" post_id=\"2121702\" time=\"1698629269\" user_id=\"58996:

my girl is 9 yrs old.

You may try to start playing \"Scrabble\" or other word games like \"BANANAGRAMS\", \"Just One\" or \"Werewords\" with her. These games are quite fun and kids will love to play them.

[sharonkhoo]

Swissclover\" post_id=\"2121699\" time=\"1698626890\" user_id=\"58996:

Hi

I realized my child couldnt remember how to spell the words despite love to read. (simple words).
Also the math concepts, have gone through many times how to solve the questions and say maybe a few days later, test again, forgot how to solve.

Is there any program / therapy that can help?

Not trusting the brain training centres as too many negative reviews or using influencers to provide reviews.

I have a daughter (now adult) who was like that! Some things you can try:
1. Reading - if she reads well but can't spell, check if she knows phonics? My daughter didn't as she read by word recognition rather than phonics, and I had to teach her phonics so she could break words up for spelling purposes. Using preschool phonics readers to show her how it's done may help.

2. Maths - check that she really understands the concepts, then you may have to just drill. If she has low working memory (mine does), we had to make her do practices daily for weeks to learn every new thing. Multiplication tables took months of repetition.

For overall memory boosting, playing games, making lists, letting her make them meaningful to herself may help - use colours, shapes, doodles, mind maps, etc. Or get her to say things aloud, or walk around while saying them. Whatever it takes to help her absorb things. Of course, she can't do that in school, but she can at home.

Try different ways and see what works best:
https://www.understood.org/en/articles/8-working-memory-boosters

Hope this helps.

[Swissclover]

thanks for the replies.


she likes to read, i hv tried to use phonics to help her, perhaps i wasn’t helpful enough cos i try to make the sounds for her, she gets it wrong and l i lose patience.

Math - today understand, tomorrow forgets. drill until sometimes she cries saying it’s too difficult.

I will start trying the math practice daily methods this holiday.

[MrsKiasu]

I would just like to say maybe slowly don’t to the extend of ‘forcing’ coz we don’t want the child to develop phobia/tense whenever she faces that subject.

[sharonkhoo]

Swissclover\" post_id=\"2121708\" time=\"1698637020\" user_id=\"58996:

thanks for the replies.

she likes to read, i hv tried to use phonics to help her, perhaps i wasn't helpful enough cos i try to make the sounds for her, she gets it wrong and l i lose patience.

Math - today understand, tomorrow forgets. drill until sometimes she cries saying it's too difficult.

I will start trying the math practice daily methods this holiday.

Agree with MKS that as long as she shows that she's making an effort, try not to force. Even if it seems incredibly slow, it's better to work on a very small no. of things at a time, repeat a couple of days, then move on. Holidays are good time to do this as there is less time pressure. Try to keep what you are drilling at the level where is can get it each time so she has some sense of achievement. If possible, end each session with something that she has mastered, and with some encouraging words. Ending every session with a sense of failure will make it even harder to move forward. I learnt this the hard way!

Teaching phonics for spelling is different from teaching phonics for reading. Your daughter can read, so she doesn't need to learn to sound out letters. What she needs is to recognise the different sounds in English, and map them to the ways they are spelled - it's learning phonics \"backwards\". Consonants are relatively easy as there aren't so many variants, though she will need to know that c, k and ck sometimes sound the same, and sometimes don't! And same for g and j, etc.

Vowels are tough for English as there are so many (long/short, front/back etc). Rhymes are good for this - use common words to teach patterns, e.g. for the long vowel a: bake/cake/fake/make, etc. Then move on to other ways to make that vowel sound, like fail/sail/wail; bay/day/say; etc. English has many spelling variants, which is why I suggest using phonics readers to try to capture as many patterns as you can. If she is visual (which is likely), you can write lists of similar words on a whiteboard, or write them on cards and paste them on walls, etc. Let her see them and read through them often, and once they are secure, move on to another set of words.

Another set of rules to introduce once you have got beyond the simple words is how to convert words from one form to another - bake/baking, bed/bedding, hug/hugged etc. But I think once you have done the basics with her, and she realises that there some method in the madness of English, she will pick them up on her own as she reads.

For the exceptions to the rules, she will just have to commit them to memory, but if she can manage the groups of similar words, there won't be as many to memorise. If she's visual, like my daughter and me, she may also be able to remember the \"shape\" of words, like whether it has ascenders or descenders, etc.

I did all this with my daughter when she around P3 too, and she caught on quite fast. She hasn't had issues with spelling since (no worse than any other student).