DS Year 3 - but very behind

[KisstheTeapot14]

So, DS is 8. Has been on a SEND plan since YR1 for dyspraxia. Has stuff to do to help with that, kit, exercises within school time etc. Pretty happy with all that.

My major concern now is that he is in Y3 and I feel like he's struggling. Reading age of almost 5 Y, can't write or read beyond very basic stuff - 3 and 4 letter words. Similar in maths too.

I just feel like time is running out to sort this out. He has 3 lots of 20 min sessions for reading in a week.

Anyone with similar experience out there? How and what did you ask school for? How can we try to close the gap?

We do plenty at home, but since he's at school most of the time I do feel the onus is on them to help.

[Standardpubquizname]

It sounds like he needs a lot more support from the school than he is currently getting. Is an SEND plan the same as a Statement of educational needs, does he have an IEP? I'm not an expert but do have some experience of SEN education and it seems like he needs a more structured plan from the school about how they are going to meet his needs. Additionally there should be opportunities for you to regularly review progress and how well his needs are being met with the school. A legal document like an Statement or IEP should provide this. There's lots of more knowledge people on the SEN boards so worth posting over there.

[KisstheTeapot14]

Thanks. No IEP/statement goalposts have moved so much he didn't qualify. Only children with the most severe Special Ed Needs get formal help i.e. cash given to school via local authority now. So it is something the school implement within their budget. He has had assessments and help from local teams such as ed psychologist and physical impairment team, so has been given a laptop and wedge cushion for stability for example. We are applying for more money from local government which he should qualify for being over 2 years behind.

[Norestformrz]

An IEP is a type of SEND plan ...in my area they're called SEN support plans. This should identify the child's needs and how the school plans to support in school using the school resources (no additional funding involved) and should be shared with parents and reviewed.

[Naty1]

How much reading are you doing at home?
We use reading chest etc and dd reads between 20 min to an hour a day at home. I also found the real books reating to the book bands and read some of those fromthe library, also read a lot of the project x books.
It sounds like the school are trying to help (for comparison dd reads maybe a couple of pages of a book once every 1-3 weeks to either a ta or teacher)

[Valerrie]

What are you doing at home?

[KisstheTeapot14]

Lots at home. In small doses as he's pretty tired after school.

We tend to do one or two of these at a time, but 2 activities per day if we can and more at weekends -

Maths - 10 to 15 questions to reinforce what he's doing at school

Fine/gross motor work (brain gym, play doh, paint, writing practice, dot to dot)

We read pretty much every night - a couple of pages of school reader (10 to 20 mins) and/or word cards made at home. Then me or his dad will read a bedtime story or share a book just for fun. So a session of reading could easily go for an hour.

[Naty1]

Would you say he is reading quite slowly? As you are decribing reading a few pages in 10-20min.
As you have said 2 yrs behind i lm imagining he is still on book band books?

[lorisparkle]

I can imagine your ds will be very tired as research shows that a child with dyspraxia is working 3 times as hard just to get through the day. It can be really hard to expect them to do extra work at home on top of school where they are working extra hard as well. Whilst as primary I sat down with the class teacher and SENCO to go through each of the recommendations from different professionals to decide what the priorities were and how school were going to support those. Reading is so important that that was my priority. We had termly meetings for a while then twice yearly meetings.

[Pollaidh]

I know that children struggling with reading at DD's school got daily 1:1 reading sessions with the headmistress, even without a SN plan.

Children doing ok read 1-2 a week up to Yr 2, and those reading easily read 1x a week with a volunteer/TA. They were also expected to read nightly at home, now 3x week where they are reading to someone at home, as opposed to reading in bed.

[Pollaidh]

It sounds like you're doing a lot at home already, and supporting his learning really well. Could tiredness be making it harder for him to learn? Is he doing after school clubs that could be cut, to give more time to chill and still do homework?

[KisstheTeapot14]

Yes, reading is like wading through treacle for him.

Tried him with YR 1 phonics test - just first few pages - today. He struggled. I don't think he'd pass it even now.

We look at learning/relearning the top couple of hundred High Frequency Words so he has 'stepping stones' and he's on read write inc books set 2 and also an old scheme called fuzzbuzz - which we love.

Lorisparkle - I read that too. Just the effort of trying to control core, and all the fidgets where the body is trying to find itself in space.

We have termly meetings too.

I limit after-school clubs to one a week, as I think the school week is long enough, and give him at least an hour or two once we get home from school to just play/bath or watch some CBBC.

Generally I'm happy with school, its just hard to watch him fall further and further behind with reading - which then has a knock on with writing.

[lorisparkle]

We are doing touch type read spell with my ds. It was recommended to us by a dyslexia/dyspraxia specialist as it teaches touch typing as well as supporting phonic skills. My ds is happy to do short sessions on it. I would like daily but him not so! As ds has dyslexia as well as dyspraxia we do ‘toe by toe’ with him to support his phonics and reading. As he has a speech disorder as well I find ‘toe by toe’ really helps. It is very much about over learning which is what he needs and again we do it in short sessions. For his writing the OT recommended ‘speed up’ but it takes too Much time for us and his handwriting magically improved in year 4. I think it was because a lot of his difficulties lie in his shoulders and he developmentally went from needing his whole arm to write to just using his hand if you see what I mean. For spelling we used ‘spelling zappers ‘ from the twinkl website. Again very much focused on over learning. We like the ‘barrington stoke’ books as they are based on chronological interest and reading age but he still does not read for pleasure unless it is about mine craft!

[ourkidmolly]

Is he actually on the SEND register? He definitely needs an IEP if he can't decode sufficiently to pass the phonics test. I'd make an appointment to see the SENCo or Inclusion lead asap. He's massively behind but it's not an irreversible situation, he can catch up. He needs very intensive support though, daily phonics intervention to start with. Good luck. It's a tough situation but you're on it and he'll get there.

[ourkidmolly]

@lorisparkle
Great advice there.

[KisstheTeapot14]

Thanks lori, touch typing on our agenda too, though hard to find time to fit it in. Are these programmes you buy or free via web? touch type read spell and toe by toe. DS needs to overlearn. I had gone through box of old cards - hoping to chuck out CVC ones but he found reading some tricky, so have kept! Found Teodorescu very tedious, we did the beginner booklets at infants. He got so fed up of them! We have tried write dance which was more fun and works bigger muscles not just fine motor. Similar to brian gym - shoulders, crossing midline etc

twinkl - would I need to subscribe or is there some free content? Yes - I know exactly what you mean about whole arm vs wrist and fingers - common in boys too, even without dyspraxia as they are later to isolate these movements I have read.

Will see if I can get Barrington stoke ones, have heard of these before.

Thanks for all the great ideas!! Really helps :)

[HumphreyCobblers]

I am sure you will have already done this, but has he had his eyes tested? Not by an ordinary optician but by a behavioural optometrist?

I am not talking about reading overlays (I think the beneficial effects of these are overstated) but a tracking test etc.

[HumphreyCobblers]

Also is there any way you could do some in the morning when he is not so tired?

[lorisparkle]

Touch type read spell is an online programme paid for monthly

Toe by toe is a book that you can buy on amazon

You can also look at ‘nessy’ which is a range of online activities or CDs that can be bought. Ds did not enjoy as much but your ds might.

You can also look at ‘wordshark’ which is s cd that can be bought. Rather old fashioned looking but ds enjoys!

Oh yes at primary ds did ‘dancing bears’ and ‘apples and pears’ both books that can be bought!

Has your school offered the Fizzy programme - it is a form of OT that non specialists can deliver with training.

If I think of anymore I’ll let you know! Ds has had multiple ‘interventions ‘!

[KisstheTeapot14]

Thanks, at school they do an OT designed folder of activities called Motor Skills Utd. and he is down for some touch type lessons, but there's a long wait for that.

[lorisparkle]

The bbc do a free touch typing introduction called dance mat. Ds has played on it a bit and it might be fun whilst you wait.

[mrsreynolds]

I would suggest retained reflex therapy

[KisstheTeapot14]

Thanks all. He was getting daily small group phonics, but now he's moved up to Y3 that doesn't happen. I am going to suggest they do that.
Nat Curriculum says that is what should happen 'urgently' if a child is delayed in picking up skills to be able to decode and read.

[lorisparkle]

I think that the Sound Foundations work books are great for either school or home to do. They are a programme designed for anyone to deliver with explicit instructions and a very structured approach. It makes it easy for school as they need no planning, training or photocopying just pick up and go. They start at the very basics so you pick where your child is. If the school has not got a plan in place to support his phonic learning they might be worth suggesting. You can print off examples from the web.

[SquareDot]

What is your DS's diet like, Kiss ? If he's tired a lot it may be worth getting him tested for anaemia. I had SEN as a child (though not dyspraxia) and my progress steadily improved once I was diagnosed and treated for anaemia.

[notgivingin789]

For his reading, I would highly recommend purchasing this book ; "How to teach your child to read in 100 easy lessons". This book was a life saver for my ASD language disorder, Dyspraxia-ish DS.

I would look into getting your DS an EHCP. Plus an evaluation from an Occupational therapist, who can recommend some suggestions to give to the school (including equipment).

When I was working at a school, a student had a 1:1 specialist dyslexic (Dyspraxia) teacher, who came into the school (2X a week) to help with their son's learning. However, the parents funded this privately. Maybe their could be a way to have this written down in your son's EHCP.

I would also speak to the Dyspraxia foundation regarding educational advice and support.