Dore Talk

Hi everyone,

I am the mum of Tim, aged 11, who has been on the Dore program since July 07. Just this week Tim has started on mental tasks and is finding it very difficult. Up until now he has been enjoying the exercises and was getting quite pleased with himself for how well he was doing them but introducing the mental tasks has deflated his confidence some. I know he will improve but it's hard for Tim to see that and it feels like he has taken three steps back. Trying to concentrate on a mental task seems to interfere with the correct way to do the physical part of the exercise. Does anyone have any tips on how I can help Tim through this hiccup - any tips on simple mental tasks he could do to help his confidence? Thanks

Hi Tim and Mum, don't lose heart you will be surprised how quickly things get easier, the first couple of weeks on mentals are the hardest. Keep them easy, and don't worry too much about long thinking pauses but try to keep the exercises going, as long as the thinking is going on at the same time. We started with really really easy stuff, boys in the class, if you see that drying up go to girls in the class, days of the week, days of the week backwards, months then backwards. Count up in 2, 3 4s, count down again. Keep it easy until you get into the swing of things. We as still dipping back to easy  things, but matthew learnt loads of countries, and their capital cities, starting with 3 countries and going country-give the capital, capital give the country. Days of the week was even hard to start. It IS just a hiccup as you say. Next assess may see a drop in scores, BUT it is normal to see this. Youv'e done brilliantly so far, we took 9 months to get to the mentals! Well done

I agree with Lelly and she's given you some great suggestions. Even now when we get a hard exercise, we make the mentals easier - times tables and spellings. What they want to see at the assessments is fluent mentals whilst doing the exercise, so keep them simple and gradually you will see an improvement. Good luck to both of you!  

Hi mum2tim,

my daughter Laura, aged 10, has been on the programme since June 07 and is now on her second book of mentals. She too had been getting on nicely with her exercises before the mentals. They have caused her a lot of confusion and frustration and some of her pre dore tantrums came back for a while. She has started to settle down a bit now but still gets a bit cross sometimes when her dad is guiding her through the exercises and I'm giving her mental tasks. A simple task I use sometimes is to give her a number and ask her to give me the number that comes before it or after it. I use random numbers from 1-100. ( Did I just call that a simple task? WOW! just realised it's something Laura couldn't do before DORE. She didn't understand numbers much at all.) Good luck. I'm sure things will settle down soon.

DEBBIE

Hi Mum2tim we have al been down the same road as you but take heart it does take time for them to get into the swing of the mental tasks. Remember part of their problem has always been in muti tasking they have only ever been able to concentrate on one thing at a time.

Adds to their problems in learning because they can only retain parts of what they have been taught. It is expected that Tim will find the mental tasks difficult at first but it is the last of his development with Dore.

I saw the biggest changes in Leila during the mentals as you will as well, just give Tim time to get used to them and they will get easier. And as Lelly says his first assessment results may dip, but this is normal if they do. Ellie XXX

Hello, My daughter Chloe who is 9 and severely dyslexic started Dore in May 2007 and starter her mental tasks 4 weeks ago. At first she was enjoying them as they were much quicker than non mental tasks. However, we have experienced moods, stroppiness and shouting which is going back to how she was months and months ago so I guess it is doing something. We find it difficult to think of topics to do have you any ideas. We do things like ice cream flavours, cartoon characters, colours. alphabet, 2/3/4 times table. Have you any idea (roughly) how long the mental tasks can last. I can't do another 10 months of this it is such hard work. I had to try and make it "fun" which was really hard but I tried to do easy subjects which Chloe could do. It takes about 5 mins to get her to do the exercises as she fidgets, says she doesn't want to do them, its boring ........... the list is endless. However, what keeps me going is the fact we are more than half way through and there have been major changes. Chloe can say the months of the year in order, do 3 instructions one after the other that she has been given. I keep saying she is doing so well and that this is the last stage and just praising her (sometimes very hard when she is shouting at me and getting into a real rage which is just part of the Dore programme). Kind regards Lisa Bailey

Lisa - just a tip, but if the exercise is particularly hard, try to keep the mental task slightly easier. Have you tried spellings? You could pick a short word that she knows and then get her to spell it backwards. It isn't easy and I still have melt-downs - it is easy to get dragged into the arguing isn't it? Harry's favourite word is "I am!" when quite obviously "he isn't!"

It not easy but we are seeing good gains since starting the mentals, so keep with.

We count up in 2,3,4,5, 6 etc - chanting tables are much harder so I don't bother asking. Months of the year forward and backwards. Pets, farm aninals. Alphabet forwards and backwards. Going through the alphabet saying an animal for every letter (n- newt, we couldn't think of an N for ages). I have to bail him out quickly if he gets stuck to keep momentum. Simpsons chrachters, book characters, mythical creatures. Countries capital cities- start with 2/3 keep going over and over and then add a new one every day. Ask her to shout out a country and you give the capital, then switch it around. 

I would also say he hardly knew any of these things before mentals started ( days of the week was a no go 18 months ago), but learning these things comes easily nowadays.

 

I also get shouted if I dare to correct things- such as keep the board up! yes "I am "and "I'm doing it" sound familiar!

 

Thanks for the message.  You know what the funny thing is Chloes favourite catchphrase is "I am" too.  it takes about 5 mins for the "I am" before we can start the exercises.  I wonder who actually is in control as it's fairly obvious it isn't me!  Her younger sister, Ellie who is 6, sometimes just stands there looking in amazement at the charade that is taking place.   It is so nice having a site where you can convey what is going on and realise it is happening to everyone else too.  Think we must all be mad to endure this pain for such a long time.  I can't wait until it is over.  I get up in the morning and think what exercise have we this morning and dread it.  Having said that at least it is out of the way for me as my husband does the evening one and that is much harder as Chloe is so tired by then and can be so stroppy.

We all wish for the day that we do not need to do the exercises anymore and then when we get near to it and the day looms you will worry about breaking that umbilical cord, Dore has been so much a part of all your lives for so long. You would have seen so many changes but will know they will continue developing even after Dore and you cannot imagine life without it.

It will be like saying goodbye to an old friend and wondering how you will manage without the routine. tee hee Ellie XXX