Educational therapy for memory-related learning difficulty
I know this wonderful 10-year-old boy who is thoughtful, well-liked, intelligent, and motivated. He likes school, wants to learns, and loves to read. He reads for hours in his free time! However, he has always struggled with spelling and with memorizing/recalling math facts. Despite lots of hard work and countless hours of help from adults, his spelling is still far below grade level. His phonemic awareness is fine, but he struggles with rapid naming tasks. When he reads aloud, he has to read very slowly in order to say the words correctly. If he tries to read aloud quickly, he would make errors in the prefix or ending of the words. With spelling, he might spell a simple word three different ways on the same writing assignment. Also, in the last two years, the family had to spend many hours practicing the multiplication table with him before he was able to commit it to memory. Recalling math facts quickly is still a struggle.
His family is interested in getting private educational therapy for him. (The family already knows about the special education assessment process and IEP services available through the school district.) If you are familiar with an educational therapy program or educational clinic in the East Bay that has effectively helped students with rapid naming and memory encoding/storage/recall problems, please let me know. Thank you!
Parent Replies
Hi,
My daughter (now 12) has the exact same set of issues. I’d love to know if there’s a name for this, or an established treatment/education strategy for her.
Since no one else has replied, here’s what’s worked for us.
Spelling - we really took this on in 3rd or 4th. I drill her on her spelling list out loud, then have her write out (5-10 times) any words she missed. Writing helps her recall. We’d do this every night, or more realistically 2-3 nights per week. She also remembers spelling by saying the words as they are spelled, like saying pee-oh-plea to remember ‘people’. She improved a lot & now gets As and Bs on spelling tests. Now that she’s older and writes more, I see that she still makes many spelling errors writing; spell check helps, but we haven’t figured out a real strategy.
Multiplication-math facts — we took this on after the success with spelling. Similar strategy - oral drills, then written practice. She also is really good at the common core math strategies (eg double double for x4 or x8). That doesn’t help with quick recall on a timed multiplication facts test, but she uses it in problem solving all the time and can do regular math tests at As in the same time as other kids. I’d say she had the times tables memorized a year later than the norm.
Spanish class is the current challenge. Lots of memorizing involved. Practice, practice with lots of repetitive copying out still helps.
Luckily, none of this affects analytical thinking. She’s highly gifted and this only hurts in rote memorization.
Rick Mason has been working with my son since the summer. He is a Reading Specialist and Educational Therapist with decades of experience teaching students who learn differently and supporting parents to find the best resources for their child. He uses phonics-based, multi-sensory instruction to help younger students overcome dyslexia or other impediments to reading success; develops both math concepts and skills for students who lack a natural sense of number or who struggle with math due to anxiety, or simply not having mastered foundational math skills in the early grades.
Rick has used a variety of approaches with my kid to develop spelling ability along with overall writing and reading comprehension skills. Underpinning his instruction is his understanding of how the individual child learns so that he teaches the child rather than the curriculum. This includes helping students understand and appreciate their strengths and challenges as learners, and learn how to use their strengths to support their weaker learning abilities, or to overcome deficit areas. Rick works with patience and humor to forge a positive relationship with students and to make lessons enjoyable.
Rick Mason can be reached at writerickmason [at] gmail.com (writerickmason[at]gmail[dot]com). Thanks! And let me know if you have questions.