Dyslexia advise for GCSE English

I will PM you.

The waiting lists on the NHS are awful - 3 years in our area, so GP advised we went private as it was a case of when not if we got the diagnosis.

It took about 8 weeks to get a private appointment, but that gave time to get all the questionnaires completed by school and external teachers (generally it's one teacher at school that does it, so if they only teach DC for a couple of hours a week they may not know them that well, so we got long-standing extra curricular teacher to fill it in as well), plus send pack of school reports, family history etc.

Psychiatrist gave us the outcome at the end of the assessment and started meds the following day.

It is horribly expensive, especially if you are also paying for the medication. Check GP will do shared care as we've moved to that and it's now free rather than £60+ a month.

Check ups are every 6 months once they are stable, can be more frequent in early months if they struggle with the meds.

They have been life-changing for DD and she is so much more focused and less fidgety on them, and big difference in grades.

Dyslexic parent of a current y11 dyslexic child here
Make sure school are assessing him against his weekest skills - mine didn't qualify for extra time on the "most people have these weaknesses" testing they did at the end of Y9. But when I pointed out his weaknesses centered on X, and they assessed against that, he qualified for extra time - and engish, german and Geography are where he really uses it.
English Lang isn't too bad if you learn what they ate looking for. English lit is his real weakness.

Not for english, but other - especially science - bullet points are more then adequate for most answers of 6 marks and less.

This was in last 12 months for us, but it's a very small specialist university college so they're not dealing with thousands of students.

Considering just how good the notes and systems are, and the particular specialism, I suspect a very high percentage of students are SEN and ND (most of the staff are certainly are... DD spent part of her first 1:1 tutorial comparing ADHD meds with her tutor) and so they just design everything for people who need chunking, scaffolding and multiple learning paths as standard.

We're also lucky in that DD doesn't actually need any support IF things are delivered to her upfront in this kind of format, and has no mental health or social issues.

Duh, realised I'd already posted my tutor finds...

This is brilliant advice. The English Language paper for most exam boards is very formulaic. There are specific ways to answer the questions and exact timings for each question which will ensure he doesn’t spend too much time on the questions with fewer marks (which is often what happens in their mocks).

@Foxesandsquirrels DSA has tightened the rules compared to in the past, but most still find support more forthcoming than support at school.

@DarkLindt @BreakfastClub80 @OhCrumbsWhereNow
That's all really interesting, thanks. My DD has been very lucky and has had lots of support. I wonder if what you all describe at uni is still the case given the massive influx of SEN and the issues with uni funding.

Can you check if he qualifies for rest breaks and a prompter? Have you looked into ADD assessment? We got lucky with a really lovely psychiatrist who felt it's worth trying meds for my DD because it's so much harder for them to focus after processing everything. It made a huge difference. She also gets a prompter and rest breaks which makes a bigger difference for her than extra time.

I teach very strict timing for each question - and then to move on. The high value questions are at the end, so it's not a good idea to stick to one for too long.

If it's AQA, please feel free to pm
me and I'll share some pointers.

I've been teaching and examining English for more than twenty years.

In English Language, vocab is more important than spelling - use the best words you know even if you're not sure the spelling is correct.

A friend of my DH has severe dyslexia and still went to Cambridge to study Physics, he has worked for an investment bank ever since. My DD is mostly academic too, though this has revealed itself slowly over the years. At this point, I have no idea of her capabilities going forwards, but I would always say never underestimate them!

DD was/is good at swimming and we did encourage that to help build her confidence when she was younger. Not to a high level but enough and it did help to have something to compare to everyone else’s reading ability!

In our experience:
Superb course notes on VLP. All pre-chunked.
No more than 2 short paragraphs per page and accompanied by a picture, audio file and/or video clip.
Interactive quizzes every couple of pages to test and check understanding.
Links to chunky chapters for those who prefer ALL the content in academic style.
Everything geared up for tech. Every lecture recorded and available to rewatch as often as your like.

All assignments can be presented in a variety of formats. Don't want to write an essay? Make a video presentation instead.

Above all, total acceptance that some kids are SEN and that doesn't make them stupid or any less capable than any other person on the course. They just have learning differences.

A SEN department that doesn't run and hide but is keen to help.

And once you are full-time then DSA.

DD was only part-time doing ad hoc modules, but we had more support there than in 12 years of school education.

There is Disabled Students’ Allowance that can be applied for through the government website. This usually entitles the student to 30 hours of specialist study skills tuition per academic year for dyslexia. This is outsourced to private ciders who can source the tutors, as the qualifications needed are extensive. The student contributes £200 to a laptop and is allocated specialist software with assistive technology training to show them how to use it.

Autistic/ADHD students can have academic mentoring as well as study skills tuition. Most universities give disabled students a reasonable adjustments plan (RAP) and tutors are informed (if the student consents) of their disability.

Additional time of 25% for exams is given and most students will be allowed a week’s extension for assignments.

Really? How? (I'm genuinely curious)

Thank you!

How relevant GCSE scores are, are entirely dependent on university and course. No one rule.

DD's specialism is music and nobody has the slightest interest in her academics and grades beyond getting the maths and English over the line and having 5 in total (this includes some big name institutions) - they're only really interested in what she can do on the composition/performance front.

We were possibly lucky that she was so severely dyslexic that it was obvious by Y2 in primary (had to wait till 7 to get the official diagnosis). She was already very upset and feeling stupid next to her peers as she couldn't read or write till nearly 8.

So I just took what she seemed to be naturally good at and decided better to put what resources I had into music lessons and not into boosting academics.

For anyone with a dyslexic child, it's so important that they have something they are good at - art, drama, music, sport... whatever. There are a million jobs out there in areas most of us have never heard of. Find their niche that they really enjoy and celebrate that, keeping self esteem high then helps with academics as well as they're not defining themselves by their grades.

Universities are much better at supporting dyslexic students than the GCSE and A-level system.

As far as I know they are sent to any examiner. If your DC gets to university they have a reasonable adjustments plan with a front sheet or sticker stating words to the effect of, “This is the work of a student with SpLD, please mark accordingly”.