What's happening with my upper primary child?

Upper Primary school – why is it all so different to lower primary?
Often we see children who have done fairly well in the lower primary school years, who suddenly hit upper primary and begin to really fall behind their peers. As speech pathologists, we ‘hear alarm bells’ when this happens. Parents wonder what on earth is going on? … Is it a clash of personalities with the teacher? … Are they being bullied at school and therefore can’t cope with the academics as well? … Is it because the teacher doesn’t know his or her job? …. What on earth is happening?

Concerns can be allayed when we understand that the teaching strategies in the upper primary years have dramatically changed. In the lower primary years very practical teaching materials are used, concepts are demonstrated using visible materials e.g. adding is done by counting blocks or other objects e.g. if we have 3 blocks and we add one more what do we have? Let’s count them 1,2,3,4 and there’s the answer right before our eyes. Children often use their fingers to count at this point in their development. The books they read or that are read to them have glorious pictures in them, often leaving little to the child’s own imagination.

Once children enter the upper primary years, the concepts taught are more abstract and fewer visual aids are used in the classroom. Children are expected to be able to perform Maths tasks in their heads, not on their fingers and now they’ve moved onto ‘chapter books’ with all sorts of adventures happening that are not supported by many pictures. If your child is not quite at this abstract level, they may struggle with this shift away from these learning supports.

Some actvities that may help bridge this gap, at home, away from their peers can be found at http://www.literacyfun.com