If you suspect a child is dyslexic, what should the school be doing? Is there an online screening tool?

[BoobiesToTheRescue]

When I was diagnosed it started off with an online screening tool.

Is there such thing for children?

I keep asking the school about my son being screened and I'm met with blank faces.
They referred him to an OT who we saw yesterday, they said he's absolutely fine but needs screening for dyslexia.
More blank faces at school.

What should I expect from the school at this point?

Can I get him screened myself to give us more welly (if he does have it, he may not)?

You can pay privately for an assessment by an educational psychologist.

That's a couple of thousand pounds, I thought?

They can and do screen in school, but to be honest it's pretty rubbish. DD was screened and came out as no risk of dyslexia. She has since been properly assessed by an EdPsych and has significant dyslexia difficulties.
Based on my experience I would recommend bypassing the school if you can afford to. Ours was about £600 but I know there are cheaper ways as well.

Schools budgets are such they won't pay in most cases you need to pay yourself

Sorry no help with what the school can do,
There are pre screening tests. Lots of indicators including balance ones for pre readers. People do these privately or you can buy testing packs ( at vast expensive) before you get your child officially diagnosed.
I always found it interesting that a common sign is a baby skipping the crawling stage and going straight to toddling. Co ordinating four limbs is difficult so they shuffle until ready to go into two legs.

He never crawled. He did bum shuffle though.

I'm struggling to find a private one.

Could anyone help? I'm in Brighton.

some schools have the phonological assessment battery which can give a bit of helpful information - might be worth specifically mentioning that
the helen arkell centre (isn't near you as such) but they might be worth a call

This school has nothing.

They are painfully useless.

You need to see the educational psycologist, I am in Scotland and the system is a bit different but getting a primary school to listen or take action is a slow painful process, i am ashamed to say i eventually threw a tantrum and lost my shit then the school took action, that was after 3 years of asking for help for DD, she was the oldest child in primary school who still couldn't spell her 5 letter name but the school kept telling me she was lazy...my shit was lost!

Much better help at high school but was a bit too late for my DD

How old is your DS? My understanding is that screeners etc aren't generally done until they're about 8.

Where I am (south east) the private diagnosis is £450-£500. It usually takes about 2-3 hours. The screening that schools can do (if they’ve bought the resource) can only show traits and not diagnose. As for what school should be doing, it depends on what areas the child is struggling with. A private diagnosis will highlight these. Many of the strategies to support dyslexic learners are part and parcel of strategies that are useful for all learners. A diagnosis is also helpful when it comes to formal exams and having extra time. At the end of the day a formal diagnosis won’t necessarily give you more ‘welly’ as schools should be addressing the needs of a child and not the diagnosis. It would very rarely result in more funding for a child. If you know some ways that would help your child then talk to the school and work with them. Something else to bear in mind is that with such intensive screening of a child’s strengths and weaknesses will often result in a diagnosis of something.

Try the Nessy App if you have an apple device, i'm not sure if its on other devices.

How old is your son?

@Boobiestotherescue If you PM me then I can recommend someone.

We apprached the County Education Service but he did not qualify as his reading age wasn't 3 years behind his chronological age. I am afraid it was a Private Ed Psych . We paid about £550 about 5 years ago..D'S didn't crawl either and is still not very good at trying shoelaces and as for reading a timetable.....

Get a private assessment via a Patoss assessor. Should be £450 or less.

Get school to get the Ed Psych in to observe, or for speed commission your own EP report.

Then if necessary, apply for EHCP.

Thanks I will do so now.

My son turns 8 in May.

And before anyone says “you can’t get EHCP for dyslexia” let me assure you, you absolutely can. My child has 1:1 and will probably name a private dyslexia school (SpLd school) for secondary, funded by our LA.

Nessy is good. www.nessy.com/uk/screening-for-dyslexia/

But it is certainly hard to get an EHCP for anything!

Path, it’s not easy but it is absolutely do-able. The trick is realising that the appeals are just a part of the onerous process, and don’t mean that you’ve failed.

Happily the law will prevail.

I know. I just hate that you have to go through this farce to get one. It’s draining and expensive. I spend 2 days a week dealing with EHCPs and the whole rigmarole.

Seconding Nessy - and we’ve just got the book from their website which DC has declared amazing. I think their online tests are probably a good starting point for getting the school to take notice.

Ahh we probably know of each other then!
Yes, rigmarole is the right word. And the LAs profiling parents so they really take the piss out of the ones least likely to fight back. I don’t know how they sleep at night.