school will not let dd have a dyslexia test

[Rory786]

Hi everyone.

My friend's daughter is in yr 6, she joined the school in yr4 and the word dyslexia was always bandied about at parents eve. My friend thought the school's SEN will be able to get an ed psych to do an assessment but they keep fobbing her off.
She cannot afford to get one done herself, what are her options?
Thanks in advance

Check whether the county policy is to do dyslexia diagnostic assessments. Our county don't do them for anyone.

I expect the school sadly can’t afford to pay for one either.

Lots of schools and local authorities don't do testing anymore. Basically because being a dyslexic friendly classroom is beneficial for the majority and should be in place anyway. The diagnosis is not as important as what is being done to support her to progress.

Any Ed Psych would want to know what the school has done by way of support, whether it has been reviewed and how effective or not it has been before they would assess. It will also depend on whether there are other children deemed to have greater need.

Resources, including EP time are extremely limited and schools must prioritise children in most need of additional support. It depends on the difficulties that your friend’s daughter has and how much that is impacting on her performance in school.

maskingtape is right. There should be enough in the classroom to offer some support for anyone with a specific learning difficulty.

Thank you everyone,

My concern, is that how can she have help if she doesn't have the diagnosis? She will be going to high school next September and things like extra times for exams or laptop support.
At the moment she is just seen as a struggling student rather than one with learning difficulties.
I know not everyone likes labels, but a diagnosis can also bring help and support.
The school in West London has not given her any support. Just spoke to my friend and she is going to get a loan from her parents to get the testing done.

I think parents can pay for the test themselves - not sure how you go bout arranging it though! If the school is saying no to the test then it's fairly reasonable to assume it's a money thing. Sad but true, every budget in education is cut down the the bone and beyond at the moment.

OP

1. you don't need a diagnosis of dyslexia to get support at school
2. There is no single test for 'dyslexia'
3. EP's (well apart from those working privately) are unlikely to 'diagnose' dyslexia. They may do assessments that identify specific areas of difficulty and provide strategies to support. As others have said school would use EP for children whose needs were most significant (not saying that the child in question wouldn't be that 'child')
4. School need to show what they are currently doing using a response to intervention model or assessment for intervention model and evidence based interventions
5. Schools have many assessments that they can do to ascertain the nature of literacy difficulties. Find out what assessments have been done and what progress the child has made

You are right to think that you need a proper diagnoses for special exam arrangements such as extra times, scribes and readers. This won't be needed until formal external exams but it would be good to identify a child's particular difficulties and what might help such as coloured paper, overlays, single sided worksheets, repetition if ideas etc. The average cost for screening is around four hundred pounds in my area. I think it can be important for the child, too, as it gives them a proper label rather than the one many give themselves of being stupid.

I teach 16 year old who gave failed the important subjects at school and the resounding think I hear from them is that they are rubbish at school work. It shouldn't be that way.

Please ignore all typos above, no bloody edit button.

A) you don’t need a diagnosis for exam access arrangements. The SENCO at secondary can get them without a diagnosis.

And B) any tests done for access arrangements for GCSEs must be done in Y9 or later.

Thanks everyone, it just seems crazy..when you go to high school you are put into sets fairly quickly. How do they assess for this, I know people who have got A's for English GCSE with dyslexia and the right support. It seems like some schools just lump all the children with learning difficulties together. It doesn't feel right, where possible they should be integrated into the mainstream sets.

Salty, that may be so but I have to have a diagnosis done to provide access arrangements with City and Guilds for Maths and English assessments.

I’m a trainee EP and someone on my course asked why most local authorities won’t diagnose for dyslexia these days. The key reasons were -

1. It’s not cost effective - it takes a very long time to do and schools get such a small amount of EP time that it is more efficient to put support in place as if there’s a diagnosis.
2. As already stated, support can easily be put in place without a diagnosis.
3. Essentially, in a world of funding cuts, dyslexia screening is seen as something not available ‘on the NHS’ so to speak and so if it’s desired it’s required to go privately. Not saying this is right and the EP didn’t agree either but that’s the way of the world at the moment.
4. Schools get a very small amount of EP time, if any. They have to pay for more. Unfortunately just as your friend doesn’t have the money, neither does the school.

Lastly, who does it? Lots of EP service don’t offer this service unless as said privately.

Junior schools don't want to diagnose dyslexia because they don't have any money to put any provision in place. You'll probably have more luck at secondary school.

I just spoke to another friend who is a primary school teacher and she said when SATS fever hit her school she was told to focus on the achievers and "give the dumb kids busy work!" by her head of year. Her head of year went around stressing the teachers and the kids.

The more I hear about primary schools the more I am in shock.

I can understand why people home school but not everyone can afford to do so, or have the skills to do so.

I just want to point out that people are getting dyslexia diagnostic assessment and dyslexia screening mixed up. A diagnostic assessment is done by an ed psych or another person who has the correct further qualification. Dyslexia screening shows the likelihood of having dyslexia. A teacher can do the screening with eg the Nessy programme or another paper/computer based test.