My son is attending a tutorial programme once a week to improve his English language skills, part which includes a technology component where pupils work on computers to learn phonics, vocabulary, decoding skills and pronunciation. At first my son thought this was interesting but his teacher is now telling me he doesn't want to work on the computer. His teacher has asked him what the reason is and he says he doesn't like computer work. What can I do to encourage him? His teacher thinks he is being stubborn.
Education consultant Florence Robertson responds:
This is an unusual situation as many children are happy to work on a computer for many hours during a day, much to their parents' concern for their son or daughter to have other interests. At your son's age, there could be a number of reasons for his lack of interest in the tutorial centre's computer programme such as:
He doesn't understand what to do on the computer,
He can't read well enough on the computer to follow directions,
He prefers to learn with the help of his teacher.