Dyslexia or barking up the wrong tree?

[Cloudhopping]

Just after a bit of advice from teachers or parents who may be able to help. Dd2 is 8 and in year 4. Up until last year according to the teachers she was going very well at school, top tables etc. She is now struggling, particularly in areas of maths and reading. In maths she struggles majorly with arithmetic, often mixing up subtraction and addition signs etc but can manage more complex problems with no issues. She can't seem to retain the basics and misses out numbers when reading maths questions. In reading she consistently misses out words and despite getting her to repeat sentences, still continues to do so. She's always done this but it's not getting any better. She doesn't read fluently, guesses words a lot and struggles with simple but unfamiliar phonics. Her comprehension however is very good and she is fine with spellings. She hates reading and tells me it's because it's so hard but she got a level 3 at the end of year 2. I've begun to think there's something else going on (but maybe totally wrong) and as she's a confident, articulate child, I suspect this covers up quite a lot of her struggles.

The school is rubbish at supporting additional learning needs (but very good in other ways) so just wanted to get an opinion from others before I have a chat with her teacher. Am I making mountains out of molehills?

[GCHQMonitoring]

I'd suggest taking her to a Behavioural Optometrist and getting her eyes checked properly.

Have you looked at the dyslexia website? There's also a bit on there about Dyscalculia.

What does her teacher say?

[DullUserName]

Eye sight check is my first thought, especially as she's previously seemed ok.

[Cloudhopping]

Thanks both. Stupidly, I didn't think about eye issues but will give this more thought.

Yes, GCHQ I've looked at the website and some things fit with both dyslexia and dyscalculia but others really don't so I'm really unsure.

Her teacher was surprised by her poor arithmetic results at the end of year 3 and didn't really have any explanation apart from suggesting that her previous ability had been over inflated (which I wasn't really very happy with as I thought a teacher would have a fairly good grasp of a child's ability whether they were confident or not!)

[dylexicdementor11]

I would push very hard to get her tested for dyslexia. Or if you can afford to pay for it yourself consider having her tested asap.

I'm severely dyslexic and your DDs issues with symbols ring a bell.

A diagnosis can be life changing. It was for me. Good luck!

[GCHQMonitoring]

Children don't necessarily meet all markers. It's dependent on how many, how they impact on the child, how much longer it takes them to answer in line with the average person the same age.

I did wonder how your DD had achieved a level 3. If her current teacher is insinuating her results have been inflated, you may find it difficult going forward. Unfortunately a child cannot go backwards, even if the next teacher/school believes grade inflation. . It is unlikely the current school would put it in writing either.

I dont want to worry you unnecessarily, but when this happened with DS, it happened again at the end of ks2/3, as each school had to show progress, as DS was at the appropriate level, he couldn't need support
I tackled a friends junior school when I suspected grade inflation had taken place; child had left ks1 with level 2 in maths, in Feb of yr6 she was still a level 2, school had my friend and daughter in tears after getting her in to complain about her DC attitude etc, said they'd put on additional support for sats. All friends paperwork showed her DC had made no progress in ks2, school eventually admitted they knew her DC couldnt have been L2 entering KS2, they'd failed to highligh this to parents,. The school didn't think she would achieve level 2 on her sats, so eventually agreed to withdraw, but not happy as they would 'have to take a hit on their results'!

[Bluepowder]

Sounds like an eyesight problem? Especially if her spellings are correct.

[curryandrice]

Unfortunately GCHQ's post,is,spot on for some schools where children's data is manipulated to show ongoing progress when, in reality, progress has stalled. I would push for an Ed Psych assessment

[Cloudhopping]

Thanks for the advice everyone, it's been really useful.

[Perplexedicom]

Tracking difficulties are my guess too.
Although these are often associated with dyslexia, you may be able to isolate the problem if you act quickly.

[mrz]

Progress isn't linear it has stops and spurts

[FoxesOnSocks]

My son is dyslexic.

With maths he mixes up the signs which causes the majority of errors, struggles with times tables. He can get complex sums right (well as complex as it gets at 10). Yesterday he worked out what 7 days after April 24th would be (maths homework question) though I had to help him with what the next month would be (sequencing is difficult, shows in months of the year, days of the week).

He actually does well in reading (we co-read homework reading he does the vast majority, currently reading a Tom Gates with a reading ruler) but struggles with spelling.

It doesn't need to be both difficulties, nor does it need to be total inability - though that does occur.

If you can look into changing school - I changed my son and he's flying. Also if reading is difficult look to see if your local library has audio books. My son loves his, listens nightly instead if reads (I say he reads well but it's not his peers level and it takes effort).

Though do get her eyes tested too.

[bruffin]

It may not be an eye problem,my ds 21 is very similar and it is short term memory and disorganisation with him. He had a very full eye test for another reason at the hospital including various tracking tests. Ds would bring forward wrong numbers from previous page, or spell the same word 5 different ways on page. He did extra time for a while in exams before they changed criteria.
He got an A at A level for maths and had excellent comprehension skills, was in top sets at secondary.
Also go to the high street optician first as they will pick up tracking problems etc before you spend money. FWIW my dd had eye convergence problems and it did not affect her reading at all,she just saw double on the page,her hand writing was atrocious though.