Hi, I'm wondering whether anyone has a similar story to me and worked out a good ending, or just has sane advice. I'm in the lucky position of having dyslexic DS in a brilliant primary school which makes a real effort to accommodate and accept children with special needs. Problem is, he is way way behind, as in at the bottom of his inner city primary class. This is despite the fact that his nursery spotted a problem and so I was early in thinking "dyslexia" and giving him tons and tons of extra help learning to read. He finally got diagnosed about year ago and we have not had any specialist help, but frankly I can't see where we could fit it in time wise from his PoV.
We have had fantastic online homeschooling videos from his teachers during the current lockdown, and this has revealed to me that even with expert lesson planning and my help he takes up to 8 hours to complete a school day which a normal kid would finish in 3 or 4 maximum (I've got him to complete the more important tasks that at school he always leaves unfinished, but we've had to miss out on the arts part of the curriculum). The stuff that stretches pupils is, logically, left to the end of the lesson, so he never gets to the fun stuff. His writing is virtually illegible, half of his words are still spelt with reversals and omissions if the spelling is decipherable at all, and his concentration in a normal lesson, no matter how wonderfully delivered, dies after a few minutes. He makes tons of silly mistakes and, like all dyslexics, seems as though he's failing to focus rather than simply unable to do it, and the less well-trained teachers sometimes betray their annoyance with him. I had hoped his dyslexia would start to become less evident by now but, though his DD and I do all the dyslexia stuff like Nessy, toe by toe, Nessy touch typing and loads of spelling, maths and everything help with him, this is where we're at.
He has an IQ in the top 1-3% (they get tested on their cognitive abilities as part of the dyslexia test), and this has always been apparent by the way he talks and analyses information. His brain whizzes along like Eddie Izzard's and he is extremely funny and adult. One day he will do well if his confidence and drive stay intact. But I feel we are going to have no option but to send him to one of the local secondaries that are just trying their best to keep kids out of gangs round here/drill kids into submission. That would kill any interest he might have in learning, because dyslexics just can't do the rote learning thing, or cope with the hour or two-hour long lessons that seem to be standard. (I think he might also have mild ADHD or ADD but that's another story). He needs a smaller class where he's monitored and his teaching is differentiated.
When we have parent teacher meetings and I ask whether he's capable of doing an 11+ so I can get him into a nice secondary with smaller class sizes and the possibility of studying things he adores like DT and engineering I'm always told how wonderfully bright, verbally advanced and imaginative he is by his lovely intelligent smiley teacher. But the fact is that his work doesn't compare with that of any normal 9yo (dyslexics can't get their work into written form at all easily) and soon I'm going to have to make hard decisions. I don't think he's capable of doing anything like the Ebacc (compulsory at the local state secondary, but hugely difficult for children with SEN because taking a foreign language is compulsory) but we won't know for sure till he's older. I can't remove the possibility from him of being taught in a way that means he can get some qualifications - though this would be a massive financial commitment. He is our only child though. Sometimes I just think we need to find a special school for dyslexics, but none of them seem to cater for children who love science like him; they seem to be all about art and sport, and we would have to move to the country! We're not that rich. Also, so many dyslexic kids manage to turn things around at secondary and suddenly do really well; but at the moment our DS is too babyish to have worked out that he should be doing 11+ papers in his free time (joke) and spends most of his time playing with lego, pokemon or super zings, or reading the Beano. Anyone with similar story or help?
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Dyslexia, not progressing with 9yo, where from here?
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allotmentshirker · 08/05/2020 08:20
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