if your child turned out to be dyslexic were there early signs?

Telly, Ds is just like that, he needs pointing in the right direction to get started.
I should say the scholarship is only small, about £600, and will stay at his own school. He will be sponsored by a company who may give him work ,experience etc. He wants to go to Southampton for uni

Hi thought I'd join in!
Bruffin your DS is an inspiration.
My DS 13 is doing well at maths and sciences, at the moment, but I get terrible wobblies every time he gets a test that he'll somehow crash and burn! Should have more faith in his abilities. He's chosen Spanish as an option as he always does well in the tests- books are a total mess. we're in Wales so he has Welsh as well. (Welsh isn't considered a MFL), it's compulsory so he's doing the half Gcse. Geography because he thinks it's less writing and computing because he wants to write programs. Hope he can cope as he's doing 12, there's a possibility that he won't have to do ICT as computing covers that so it'll be 1 less.
Organisation is a huge problem, he happily does his homework but needs direction to get it started, it's getting better though slowly.
Right off to watch him playing rugby, time to sit in the sun.
Take care.

Likes art and design as well - which could turn out to be her area of strength and interest

dd (Y8) seems to be very interested in, and doing well in, history and geography.

She likes science too, but I'm not sure it's being taught particularly well ATM as I don't seem to hear so much about it.

I think languages may be her trickiest area, so I think she'll be dropping Latin - though she likes the history aspect. She will most likely be required to do French - unless there's any chance we could persuade school to let her do the more logical (though less useful ?) Latin instead ?

Yes I do think it has got a bit easier for him , but partly because he is now being able to concentrate on what he is good at. One of his main problems is disorganization, which is improving as he gets older.

Wow, fingers crossed for him and good luck for the interview! It sounds as if he is doing brilliantly. What was he like at 13/14? Has he found things easier as he's got older?

Interesting about the German. DS will have to take Welsh anyway so that will be his MFL but he is awful at it and almost as bad at French. DD scraped a C at GCSE in Welsh. I am too embarrassed to tell you his score from last months exam. He likes History too but has rejected it in favour of Geography at GCSE as he thinks there will be less essay writng.

He options for gcse were German, history and electronics. German was a mistake as he has problems memorizing the passages for the exams but hopefully will scrape c. Everything else should be A/A* but will probably be B for english.
He wants to do Math Physics and Chemistry for A level. Would love to do History but unsure if he can cope with long essays.
He wants to be an Acoustic engineer. He has an interview on Tuesday at Imperial College for a 6th form scholarship for children who want to be engineers. The exam was ideal for him as it was designing a solution to a problem ie a machine for clearing snow. The only writing involved was annotating his design. The interview is the second round.

Hi Juggling - I think that the SENCO did a number of tests and applied to the exam board for it. She had to show that using a keyboard was DDs usual manner of working - the school provided her with an alphasmart and all her work was done on that.

Bruffin- She had 25% extra time for all essay related exams but I'm not sure if she had any for science or maths. - will have to ask her.

I agree with what you said earlier about abstract thought and reasoning - DS has great skills in this area, I'm hoping they will help him get through GCSEs. We have been talking about "Thunks" this evening and he has come out with some really profound stuff.
What options is your DS doing and what does he want to do?

Ds didn't get any extra time until yr11, he now gets 25% extra for maths and physics and 10% for everything else. I think it should be the other way round.

your dd ( I may have a touch of it myself - always using double letters in words too !!)

Hi Best - I think primary teaching could be a great career especially for a man (as they are quite a rarity !) I've worked as a teacher myself and may do so again ... I'm reviewing the situation !!

On another matter, how did it develop that you're dd was able to do her GCSEs on a lap top and have extra time ? I'm wondering if these could be a possibility for my dd who's in Y8. It's been recognised that she has dyslexia (not as severe as some people) The extra time would especially help her, as she often doesn't manage to complete papers in tests etc. though does well in what she does tackle.

EFA DD is 19 and in her first year at uni studying History. She never looked back after being diagnosed, was lucky to go to a very dyslexia friendly school where she got lots of support. She did her GCSEs and A levels on a laptop and got extra time for them. She got a mixture of grades at both levels . It certainly wasn't straight A's all the way and she has to put a lot of effort in still, but she is doing well.

DS is 14, in year 9 and just choosing his options. He has found it a bit tougher than DD although I think he is brighter. He still struggles to get his thoughts down on paper in an organised way but has a real talent for speaking and listening activities (according to the school). He's also very good at art and music. However he has short term memory problems and finds maths extremely difficult. I have no idea where the future will take him. He's mentioned primary school teaching as a career - I really don't know if it will be feasible although he is improving all the time .

"HT has today said that she thinks in the future, other skills like abstract reasoning, lateral thought etc will be more highly valued. And indeed it is these kind of skills that will pay off in later school years. "

Most definitely, DS 16 has thrived in secondary school with these skills

BestIsWest how old are your dc now and how are they doing?

YY meant to add, trust your instinct - mine was right and I didn't follow it.

EssentialFattyAcid, I recognise so much in your posts from my own experience with my DCs.

Both were early talkers with excellent vocabularies. Both mispronounced the odd word - psgetti for spaghetti for example. No puzzles or learning numbers and letters and loved art. Both struggled to follow a sequence of verbal instructions. They both found it hard to learn to tell the time and got letters and numbers back to front. DS hated loud noises too. Both were slow to learn to ride bikes and tie shoelaces.

I think I knew deep down that DD was not doing as well as her peers as young as 4 or 5 years old (she had been through play group and nursery and reception with the same children - they were all writing their names etc whereas she couldn't - but in other ways, verbally for example, she was ahead of them). I just thought I was being a bit PFB.

She wasn't tested until Y3 when she had a brilliant teacher who'd done an MA in Dyslexia and spotted it within 2 weeks of having DD in her class. From then on she had extra help and blossomed. When DS started school a few years later we were on the case from the start and the school were supportive.

I also recognise whatEFA says about her dd realising that she wasn't stupid. This made a HUGE difference to my my dd.

Very interesting thread.

Looking back there were a lot of signs : bottom shuffler, late walker (search other threads for dyslexia & cerebellum) , never really interested in learning about letters, never went and looked at books of her own acccord, 'nonsense' play writing went on until she was nearly 7, mis-pronunciation of words, highly interested in making patterns, keeping crazy busy arty sketchbooks, slightly obsessive about some things, inability to recognise rhyming sounds, all the word/letter muddling stuff, took a while to decide on dominant hand, premature birth, only just starting to swim and ride a bike now (age 7), crazy energy levels... I think all these are involved somehow.

But a lot of these things are things that most children do. I wouldn't look for signs, but I would learn to trust your instinct. I knew something wasn't clicking by halfway through reception but school were, understandably, wary of making any early judgements as children develop and mature so differently. But it does lead to a very frustrating first 2 years of school. Made easier for me, and her, once I accepted that there really was a problem, that no one was going to acknowledge it yet, that we could only go at her pace. Now in Yr 2 she has been assessed at top 4% in working memory and reasoning so things are starting to change in terms of the way she is viewed.

HT has today said that she thinks in the future, other skills like abstract reasoning, lateral thought etc will be more highly valued. And indeed it is these kind of skills that will pay off in later school years. It is just unfortunate that in the first few years at school so much emphasis is put on reading progress which can make children for whom this is difficult feel at such an overall disadvantage.

In fairness Bruffin, my son did also get some extra help with maths and spelling. I think it depends on the school and how many other children are in the queue for extra help. My son got a Level 3 writing and a Level 5 reading and has also now been picked up by the G&T co-ordinator.

The difference between primary and secondary is incredible. I totally agree with everything Essential has said. Primary schools won't do anything unless you are say 2 years behind. All the emphasis on Levels and SATS means that creative abilities get ignored and receive no recognition. These kids are putting in loads of effort which will hopefully serve them well in the future and the lack of recognition will give them a hunger to succeed. My son is now getting really good marks and comments like "outstanding" on his work because they are looking at the content and not at the spelling. Primary school had him sitting on the bottom table.

I don't necessarily agree that they will be left to fend for themselves if they are not underchieving compared to the lowest achievers.
DS wasprobably just under average for english, but they gave him one to one help for spelling using Stareway to Spelling and various other schemes. I was told this was because it was obvious that his writing was a long way behind the rest of him IYSWIM. I was told if the rest of him was average he prabably wouldn't have got any other help.
He ended up scraping a 4 by one point for writing but a high level 5 for reading, which shows the difference in his abilities.
In secondary he is on the g&r list for a number of subjects as well as the SEN register.

My dd was pleased to know she was dyslexic as it made no sense to her that she tried probably harder than anyone but still got just average to low marks in primary. She still thought she must be stupid despite everything I tried to do to make her think otherwise. It was awful. She tells me now that although she was happy that I always told her she was clever, she never ever thought it was an objective opinion .

Finally, in Y7, she has realised she is not stupid, which is awesome. I would have given a lot to have managed to get her to believe this at an earlier age. Be mindful, all of you with dyslexic primary schoolers - get help for them as soon as you can, don't wait for the school to help them as unless they are significantly underachieving as compared to the lowest achievers in the class they will be left to fend for themselves and untold damage may be done imo.

Thanks you for that lovely reply, Juggling! And for telling me about your daughter's story, I'm really glad she's doing so well now

He does make a big effort with his writing, at least at home, he has some of those Letts activity books, he loves the ones that are all magic and wizard based and genuinely he really enjoys ploughing through them. When he's had a particularly difficult week at school, which is usually when he goes back after a break, he asks to do extra work at home to get better. So it's difficult because he really WANTS to do well, but something is making him struggle. I really hope that an assessment will give us some answers so we can help him, then I feel awful for almost wanting him to be diagnosed with something!!!

He definitely has an interesting mind - hes a bit out there sometimes , hes lovely - aggrivating but lovely

thanks for your advice it's really helped!

It sounds to me like your DS is putting in a huge amount of effort in his written work geraldine

I wish there was more understanding from, and less pressure on, teachers and teaching assistants (having worked in both roles)

• It makes me cross though to hear of teachers so often telling children that they have made a "poor effort" etc.

IMHO Those that are struggling are often putting in way more effort than those who find it all plain sailing (and are NT without the challenges of dyslexia or other learning disabilities)

I so wish there could be a more sympathetic and individual approach to children. I'm sure that extra year of play and experience based learning you found for him in the other school will have done him a lot of good at an age where he would have found more formal written work even more of a struggle.

Glad the school are positive about seeking an assessment for him.

With my daughter's IEP I always spoke up for keeping her love of learning and providing opportunities for her to express her ideas through her drawings as well as in writing - I was keen to try to take some of the pressure out of the situation, and to make sure the school knew there wasn't any coming from me.
When she was ready (in Y5 & 6) and she found some good authors she wanted to read her reading took off !

At the end of primary both her reading and writing were better than most !
Children with dyslexia have interesting minds -
They don't follow the bog standard learning curve of their class-mates.
A lot of trouble caused by too much emphasis on targets IMO

Try to keep a love of learning alive outside of what happens in school - through visits to interesting places and lots of talk.
This would be my strongest advice to surviving and thriving through primary with a child with dyslexia