Home | How It Works | Stats Login | Register         Case: Silent Period Grigor is in my 4th grade classroom. He came to the US last year with his family from Bulgaria. He was in 4th grade at our school last year as well. He was retained in 4th grade because he did not develop his English language skills. I learned about a "silent period" that children go through when they learn a new language. My guess is that Grigor is in the silent period. But it does not make sense to me that he would be in the silent period for almost two years. He does not say anything in class. He does not socialize with his classmates either. He can read and write in simple English though. His parents tell me that he acts completely normal at home and he is able to communicate with English speaking people at home when they have guests. This is really puzzling. I have to find a way to communicate with Grigor and discover what is holding him back from communicating with people at school. I need some help. Solution: (Rates are posted for this solution!) He sounds like he could be nervous or anxious in front of other classmates or peers. I assume that is meant by a silent period where you don't try and draw much attention to yourself and just stay quiet the entire class. I used to be like this and it mostly had to do with me being afraid of looking stupid or sounding stupid in front of my other classmates. I think what broke me out of it was an individual person would call me outside the classroom and we would work on like reading passages and words to help me pronounce or feel better about reading out loud. Other than that, you could probably have a meeting with the parents to figure out why he might not enjoy participating inside the classroom as much versus at home. Example: He might have reinforcers at home that he likes that could be brought inside the classroom to help him work better or speak more.