Circle the Identical Words

The parents can look at two aspects while their children do this activity. One is the ability of the child to handle the problem. The issues are: Does the child understand the problem? Can the child see the differences? (Processing information)

The second aspect is: What is the time taken to do the problem? (Processing time). If the child struggles to do the problem, copy the material and try increasing the size of the font. You can use a white board for this activity.

Does the child have any problems with the eye? If there is no problem with the eye, then the parent should concentrate on improving the ability of the child to read and write. Many children read word by word. They are slow readers. To make sense of sentences, we need to read a group of words together- or in chunks. Reading in chunks also helps to store what is read in the long term memory(LTM). So encourage children to read in chunks. Reading in chunks is needed to have a healthy rate of reading. It helps children to quickly copy from the board. Chunking makes reading and writing easier.

The parent should also find out whether the child has difficulty in reading other languages. If the child has difficulty in reading in all languages, take the help of a special educator. If the problem is with English only, it would be enough to familiarize the child with English language.

The internet can give the parent more exercises of similar nature.

Another useful resource is to do puzzles such as “find the differences in two pictures”. Children’s magazines usually carry such puzzles. These are good for developing concentration and also for improving the ability of paying attention to details.  Such exercises can be downloaded also.

Parent can easily create their own worksheets. It can be a word or a collection of letters or numerals or a numeral and letter. Two examples in each category are given below. These are excellent activities to improve concentration. While making the worksheet, use letters that look similar:

h, b, d;     y, g, j ;     m, n, w ;    o, c, e

Exercise with words and other patterns.