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Skill Sets
Bright Child Still Needs To Master Basic Skills
May 26, 2009 12:00 PM
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Dear Dr. Fournier: Every year, my son’s teacher complains that he “is the only child” having his kind of problems. Now in the fourth grade, his teacher insists he doesn’t know his math facts and has trouble spelling words he should have learned in the first grade. I spend every summer reviewing these with him. I know he knows them. My son loves history, science and geography. He followed the last elections with us and has his own opinion about the Wars in Iraq and Afghanistan. He has us recycling everything to save the planet. He reads constantly. When does the teacher decide to teach him?!? |
The Assessment: Your child conceptualizes and places details within the big picture. His knowledge is not just for knowing. He uses it to solve problems: recycling and activism in demanding this in your family. He is already aware that his backyard is but a speck on the globe among other countries. He thinks outside of the scope of what he learns. He uses knowledge for conclusions to take action.
Regardless of how bright your son is, there is something that neither you nor his teachers are able to control – his natural development. The skills that his teachers are concerned about are basic skills. Mastery of basic skills requires the accurate automatic retrieval of basic sequences.
Every basic skill is an entire sequence that once fully imprinted in your child’s mind, will always be retrieved correctly and automatically. The fact that your son has mastered his reading basic skills is an example of his capacity to master basic sequences.
Whenever a teacher talks about a basic skill, change this word to “sequencing.” If your child is having difficulty recalling math facts, change this and say “he is still developing automatic retrieval of a basic sequence that with repetition and time will be mastered.”
The problem is not that children are not able to learn these. The problems are in the teaching of these basic sequences:
If your child has not learned math facts accurately, then he/she will miss math facts over and over again for many years to come. However, then he will inappropriately be called careless. His grades will be used to justify that something is wrong with your child. Parents get called in to listen to often inaccurate conclusions such as he is not paying attention because he knows what is right on one day is wrong on another; he must have attention or memory problems so you should have him tested; he is the only one having this problem (every parent knows better); and much more...
Development of accurate and automatic retrieval of basic sequences is part of natural development. The only way to teach a child his/her basic sequences is to know which ones are already mastered and which ones are not.
What To Do: Focus on those not yet mastered. Have your child take three math facts and place note cards all over the house. Play with these and even make math problems with them. For example, we have 5 family members and 3 guests for dinner. How many settings do we need at the table? (5 +3 = 8.)
As for spelling, get a list of Dolch words (the most commonly used words when we read and write). Begin to teach these. When your son writes sentences or paragraphs, make a list of misspelled words. Find patterns and teach the rules to the patterns (for example, “sion” and “tion”).
Only parents can turn the tide of thinking that natural development can be assigned complete by a certain date. Refuse the myth that all children should be on the same page of a curriculum’s timeline that can do great harm, more so than good.
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