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Original poster

GCSE English with dyslexia - touch typing and any other tips?

37 replies

celestebellman · 13/04/2024 10:32

My daughter was diagnosed with dyslexia in year 9 - up until this point school had not noticed any issue, she didn't do SATS because of covid and it was me who realised that her spelling (always not great) was actually quite at odds with her general ability, and she was struggling to process what she was reading, which was more obvious as she was required to read more complex and longer texts. She was assessed privately for diagnosis, and her reading processing speed was on the first centile.

Now she is in year 10, and I am really worried about her passing English GCSE. She is capable in her other subjects (maths, science, art, geography) of 6-7 grades I would say (based on her class test marks so far), maybe even an 8 in a couple of subjects, but in English language in particular she is probably working at about a GCSE 3. She has a tutor, who is great, and a previous AQA examiner, who has been working with her a few months. In the tutor sessions she is capable of working through a language paper with support and answering questions using set strategies, to a grade 5 standard. However, in the assessments she has had (to be fair they have only done one paper 1 and 1 paper 2 assessment so guess it is early days) this has all gone out the window. I think this is a combination of nerves, time and, crucially, processing speed. She already has a laptop and extra time. In the first language assessment she did, she appeared not to be able to take in at all what she was reading - I have since arranged for her to have a computer reader, she has only just started using this and on her recent assessment she did actually seem to understand the passages more, and she felt this helped. However, what she has written is still probably about a grade 3. She spent ages reading the paper (listened to it 3 times then 'read' it) and about half an hour trying to do question 1 (this should take about 6 minutes with the extra time). She didn't write anywhere near enough and the structure of her answers just went by the wayside (maybe nerves and practice though).

She is only year 10 so I am telling myself she has lots of time to improve, and the tutor is planning to spend lots of time embedding the techniques and practicing over the summer. I guess she also needs to have a strategy which order to answer the questions and know how much time to spend on each.

Her spelling is very bizarre - not for all words and what she means to write is usually obvious. An example in the recent paper was 'ordotory' (auditory!) I think (this one was less obvious!), however, she would still be better not having spellcheck enabled as she should be able to pick up at least some marks for SPAG!

She really needs a 5 if she wants to go to 6th form (and is much more able in other subjects so should be capable of A levels in these). I am really stressed she is not going to get this, though am trying to tell myself there is plenty time.

I have heard that touch typing programmes (like touch type read spell) can help in dyslexia by embedding spellings in muscle memory so am
wondering whether to try this. It's not too expensive though may be time consuming, so just wondered if anyone has had any experience with this being helpful? Also any tips at all about how to get that magic grade 5 in English with dyslexia would be really appreciated.

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GrumpyMuleFan · 15/04/2024 14:28

Lots of great advice here.

We've tried several typing programmes and by far the best one for my kids was Caroline Bateman, Achieve Now. They are run remotely over the summer holidays and the kids use a covered keyboard, so they really learn to touch type. Her system is ingenious and involves a weekly lesson, with ideally, daily practice. My DC did it on holiday and most days. Caroline handles motivation with text messages to prompt practice, leader boards and prizes. She also advises on all the tech that can help dyslexic children. Achieve Now.

I'm sending you a pm as would love to hear about your English tutor...

Achieve Now - Transforming Learning

https://www.achievenow.org.uk/unique-typing-initiative-1

Leonab · 14/04/2024 21:52

Mavis Beacon Teaches Typing is a really good software program for learning typing skills.

Headfirstintothewild · 14/04/2024 17:42

If Nessy doesn’t work for learning touch typing you could try KAZ neurodiverse typing tutor.

Original poster
celestebellman · 14/04/2024 13:51

Thanks @zebee that's encouraging .

@NotMeNoNo I realise how my previous post sounded, and the idea of her not passing touched a nerve - but she isn't under pressure to meet the family standards, she knows I will be absolutely ecstatic on her behalf if she gets a grade 5. She has loads of attributes - sporty, creative, extremely popular and a generally lovely person which are regularly recognised. I think a practical type career would be right for her (she is interested eg in paramedic science) but I still want her to get gcse English which I think is entirely reasonable for parents to want their children to aspire to.

She is not me and would hate sitting in a library studying as I spent the best part of 5 years doing - but I do want to best for her and am willing to support her as much as I can to get this.

OP posts:
NotMeNoNo · 14/04/2024 13:24

I thought I had a bright child on course for uni apart from his SpLD, but it turns out after 4 resits he still can't pass English. Getting the Functional Skills qualification has enabled him to get on with the rest of his life.
I'm sure your DD will do well but it sounds like she is under incredible pressure to meet the family standards.

Zebee · 14/04/2024 13:14

I think a grade 3 with just over a year to go is ok. She has plenty of time to develop exam techniques which will help a lot. My dd is year 11 and English is definitely a set of rules of how to pass. Dd is dyslexic and has very bad spelling but seems to be doing well despite this, definitely use trickle words spelt wrong (Dd can’t reliably spell the easy words right). Definitely see if you can get her assessed for visual stress it makes a big difference to Dds reading speed. For us the nhs tested her but that might not be the case everywhere but worth searching your local hospital’s ophthalmology department.

Houseinawood · 14/04/2024 13:01

Two different prongs here here: learning things by rote, fighting for access arrangements

My youngest is SEN and has auditory issues, salt and hyper mobility in hands. Although they are only 10 they have a full EHCP and already have ‘nessy touch typing, laptop l, immersive reader etc for all assessments, they have 25% extra time, they have one to one reader and a”scribe, they have a silent room and noise cancelling headphones to work and breaks when needed’ this is already specified by their EP, EHCP and class teacher as ‘normal way of working’.

It has to be a normal way of working so I’d speak to the SENCO - do they have an EHCP ? They need an assessment and application to JCQ for access arrangements.

Although mine is only 9 we have hammered spellings learning by rote and not phonetically. Now aged expected for spellings and will be ahead by the end of the year. If your is in Year 9 this may be harder to do - but learning the spelling phonetically mine can not do.

At GCSE my eldest practised the essay they needs to reproduce and learn and again learnt it by rote got a level 9 in both - even creative writing they reproduced it in the exam. It is all about technique to quote from standard texts and use it as evidence etc

Start by talking to the SENCO and English department. Consider a tutor. As a life skills basic spellings will help her there is my method which was get the year 1/2 spelling and learn by rote or before that there are things like toe to toe they did this as part of learn to read and SALT. Ask for help from a dyslexia organisation as well and ask for a local tutor who understands dyslexia
https://www.thedyslexiashop.co.uk/products/toe-by-toe-a-highly-structured-multi-sensory-reading-manual-for-teachers-and-parent?gad_source=1&gclid=EAIaIQobChMI49XmvdPBhQMVvZtQBh0XqQdsEAAYASAAEgIkLvD_BwE

Toe by Toe - K and H Cowling | The Dyslexia Shop

Help students make progress with their reading by the tiniest steps - one toe at a time! A highly structured multi-sensory one-to-one reading manual which can b

https://www.thedyslexiashop.co.uk/products/toe-by-toe-a-highly-structured-multi-sensory-reading-manual-for-teachers-and-parent?gad_source=1&gclid=EAIaIQobChMI49XmvdPBhQMVvZtQBh0XqQdsEAAYASAAEgIkLvD_BwE

babster · 14/04/2024 12:46

Re: the coloured overlays, if your daughter is using a computer reader (I am only familiar with Read & Write), she may find that there is a screen masking feature in the settings to change the background colour, and also to highlight a particular paragraph.

clary · 14/04/2024 12:32

celestebellman · 14/04/2024 09:39

@NotMeNoNo I definitely want her to pass GCSE and I think/ hope this should be possible. I understand what you are saying about the challenges of A level, but for us it is not really an option to be downgrading that much to functional skills English. She is in the more able stream at school, has strong subjects and I think she could manage with support and, crucially, her work ethic which has recently really started to develop. I agree I have queries in my mind whether school should be imposing the same requirements on children with a specific learning difficulty and a spiky profile, but I suspect they do.

We are an academic family (firsts from Oxbridge and Russell Group universities, PhD from Oxford) so I appreciate I am probably looking at things through this lens, but I do want her to have the best education possible and to reach her potential, which I feel
is there in the subjects she enjoys and is better at (science and art). I don't think she would be aiming for As at A level, but I think she could get decent grades and I would like her to have the experience of sixth form.

I have got some overlays recently and she has had a look, not sure yet if any have revolutionised things. I assumed there was some magic way of assessing so helpful to know maybe there isn't.

In any case unless things have changed a lot, schools do not offer FS unfortunately. I had students in my form who were going to struggle to get a grade 1 in English lit or lang but they still had to sit it 😥this is in 2018 BTW so not that long ago

Original poster
celestebellman · 14/04/2024 12:16

Thanks @MrsHamlet - certainly would not use the free stories but good to know!

OP posts:
Evvyjb · 14/04/2024 12:15

Echoing @MrsHamlet. Avoid Mr EE's stories... I have had many discussions at moderation meetings with AQA about these!

I have a question by question instructions and sentence starters I use with my SpLD students. Feel free to PM and I'm happy to share.

MrsHamlet · 14/04/2024 11:59

MrEverythingEnglish has a bunch of "free stories" for Q5 on paper 1 on his YouTube.

Do not be tempted to use them. Exam boards are wise to this, and it's considered malpractice.

Original poster
celestebellman · 14/04/2024 11:49

@bestbefore thanks will give everythingEnglish a look too!

OP posts:
Original poster
celestebellman · 14/04/2024 09:39

@NotMeNoNo I definitely want her to pass GCSE and I think/ hope this should be possible. I understand what you are saying about the challenges of A level, but for us it is not really an option to be downgrading that much to functional skills English. She is in the more able stream at school, has strong subjects and I think she could manage with support and, crucially, her work ethic which has recently really started to develop. I agree I have queries in my mind whether school should be imposing the same requirements on children with a specific learning difficulty and a spiky profile, but I suspect they do.

We are an academic family (firsts from Oxbridge and Russell Group universities, PhD from Oxford) so I appreciate I am probably looking at things through this lens, but I do want her to have the best education possible and to reach her potential, which I feel
is there in the subjects she enjoys and is better at (science and art). I don't think she would be aiming for As at A level, but I think she could get decent grades and I would like her to have the experience of sixth form.

I have got some overlays recently and she has had a look, not sure yet if any have revolutionised things. I assumed there was some magic way of assessing so helpful to know maybe there isn't.

OP posts:
bestbefore · 14/04/2024 09:19

My dyslexic children swear this guy helped them! My dd got a 6 and my ds an 8 https://www.youtube.com/@MrEverythingEnglish

NotMeNoNo · 14/04/2024 09:16

Would Functional Skills English be a possibility? It's equivalent to GCSE grade 4. I really think schools should double enter children at risk of not passing GCSE. Would sixth form really strictly impose the grade 5 criterion for a child with such a specific difficulty?

What you have to know for sixth form is, will she be able to keep up with the workload in her A level subjects given her difficulties? The pace is very fast and the volume of work is high. It might be ok for non essay subjects or it might not.

Or would she be better off at college or on a more vocational/practical course? Maybe this is a discussion for next year but there are other options for studying.

Edit. , also YY to touch typing, if she can learn it, it takes some of the pressure off the mechanics of writing.

Scarletttulips · 14/04/2024 09:08

You can order the over lays yourself and see which makes it easier to read. There’s no apraxia technique.

Typing club is a free touch typing program. Try that. Typing isn’t a skill just for dyslexics and you do t need a special program.

I always looked at the first few questions and they highlight the answers as they find them.

Look up exam techniques and past papers. This will reduce the stress as she understands what the markers are looking for.

Original poster
celestebellman · 14/04/2024 08:57

Hi @OhCrumbsWhereNow thanks, it's good to know someone else has also found touch typing helpful. Think will give it a try, I mentioned it to dd yesterday and she was open to it, fingers crossed it will help with spelling and with getting enough down on the page.

She is using the laptop in English and Geography mainly. They can't use for maths and French I don't think, and she doesn't appear to be using it much for science - at least all the papers so far she has written, as the answers tend to be quite short but maybe I should speak to her about this. She does not like to be marked out as 'different'. The reading pen has, however, been transformative in science and I think will also help in maths, where there can be some wordy questions - but the texts in English are too long for this to be useful as it's quite clunky, so I am hoping the reader software will help.

English teacher said literature is a 'relative strength' (I would say word relative being key here though!) She is still probably around a 4 though, also hoping for a 5 in this. I only recently realised entry to 6th form needs 5 in either, as previously I had it in my head it was language. But also aware that at least last year the trend seemed to be for people to do worse in literature than language. Advantage of the literature questions is there is less new text to read (though not done much on the unseen poetry yet, which I think will be a challenge) but on the other hand I think she feels overwhelmed by the need to learn quotes and be ready to apply them to a variety of themes. What is really unhelpful also is that she really dislikes English as a subject, she hates reading (understandably) but also doesn't really like audiobooks either - even when trapped in the car with one she seems to switch off to
extent she doesn't follow what is happening - I have even wondered if there is some auditory processing issue as well. I have been trying to reread Frankenstein with her, as they read it in class, but I think she found it difficult to follow - but it has been really hard, and she hates doing it.

On the other hand, she is extremely good at art, so the visuospatial part of her brain is well developed - in complete contrast to me, I am terrible at art but loved English literature and found it an easy subject to do well in. It's just unfortunate that this is the skill that is most valued by society in order to progress with pretty much everything!

I just wondered also if anyone has any knowledge of using coloured overlays? The service that assessed her didn't seem that into this and didn't recommend but I have only thought about it after when so many people have mentioned it. Thing is, she doesn't have a problem with the letters seeming to move or with writing things back to front - it is definitely phonetic awareness and processing that are the issues so not sure this would help with that.

OP posts:
OhCrumbsWhereNow · 13/04/2024 23:49

DD (15) in Y10 is severely dyslexic but was diagnosed at 7 (it was rather obvious).

She learned to touch type in Y6 in lockdown using English Type Junior which is designed for dyslexics. I think they have one aimed at older kids too. It took DD about 2 weeks on the course to be pretty quick and then she has used a keyboard for all subjects except maths since Y6.

Is your DD using a laptop everyday in every lesson?

Despite the dyslexia, DD has a target of 8 for both English papers - her spelling and punctuation are extremely 'creative', so I suspect a 9 is not going to ever be on the cards, but they have reassured me that she's better off not just losing the SPAG marks by using spell-check etc.

We're focusing on extending vocabulary, and exam question strategy - audio books, films and YouTube as DD finds reading exhausting and not a good way of retaining information.

We've started using reading pens to help with chunks of text - verdict was that they're not great but might help a bit. Definitely get the touch typing sorted and that she is using it for absolutely everything - it makes a massive difference.

What's her English Lit on track for? I think they only need the 5 in one of the English exams.

Original poster
celestebellman · 13/04/2024 22:07

Thanks @Octavia64 - it did look maybe aimed at younger kids when I had a look just now. It's good to know your experience that touch typing was helpful though, will have a look at the different programmes available to compare.
I have broached touch typing with my dd and she seemed open to it - just aware that she has so many other things to be doing so don't want to overwhelm her!

OP posts:
Octavia64 · 13/04/2024 20:24

He used nessy when he was about 10 until he was about 12.

It is quite childish,

Original poster
celestebellman · 13/04/2024 20:20

Thanks @MrsHamlet - I think we will need to do that, with timings, although also need to try to embed the skills first.

There just seems so much to do for both English language and literature, for tutor coming once a week at moment for a couple of hours but even that doesn't seem enough!

OP posts:
MrsHamlet · 13/04/2024 17:36

I make my exam classes do questions in timed conditions repeatedly. If they know what 12 minutes feels like (or whatever) it really helps.

Original poster
celestebellman · 13/04/2024 17:23

Thanks all - getting the impression it is definitely at least partly about technique and strategy with regard to order of questions/ timings etc as well as knowing how to answer the questions (and doing it!). I don't think she needs a scribe, think that might be more off-putting, and I feel a bit reassured about SPAG. Time is probably going to be the main challenge.

OP posts:
clary · 13/04/2024 15:59

I agree as so often with @MrsHamlet - AQA GCSE Eng language, especially if aiming for a 5, is very much about learning what you need to do to answer the questions.

Agree about just reading the relevant elements if the text. Also learn the kinds of language needed for the longer answers- metaphor, simile etc and language about structure.

And hard agree with timings - move on once you have spent the allocated time. If in 6 minutes you have 3 answers to qu 1, much better to move on than spend 15 minutes looking for one more mark.

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