School dyslexia/SEN testing- at wits end

[Lilibobo]

I don’t even know where to begin, I’m so frustrated. I’ve had various meetings with school teachers who are also concerned about my daughter but we keep getting fobbed off by SENCO over and again. Because of covid. Because of a new class teacher needing to observe her first. Latest thing is they just didn’t screen her for months because she got ‘missed’, even though it was one of the first things her new teacher brought up.

They’ve finally done the dyslexia screener and it came up as unlikely she has dyslexia - testing as over or above average in all areas. Including spelling.

She is 8, coming to the end of year 3. No matter how much practice we do she scores 0/10 every week on spelling tests and it’s killing her confidence. She wrote a little note for me yesterday, in which ‘this’, ‘our’, ‘speak’ and ‘same’ were spelled wrong. She puts capitals in random places, doesn’t leave spaces between words (or will randomly put a massive space in), reverses letters constantly. Even when copying them directly off another paper she still reverses b, d, q, p. Yet she was classed as the high end of average for the spelling element of the screener? She can’t spell ‘you’ at the age of 8. I feel like I’m being gaslit.

She scored above average for reading. Even though all her friends are reading chapter books, and she is still on picture books. Her reading is better than her spelling but while she is now able to read ‘little bunny’s bedtime’ and Mr Men fluently, her classmates read Horrible History books independently. And she is supposed to be above average?

We have a lot of concurrent difficulties that make me suspect ADD. She has articulated what it’s like trying to concentrate, her behaviour has always suggested it. But that’s not measurable so they won’t test for it. But they screened her and she came back as having no difficulties with writing? I don’t know where to go from here. We practice so much and get nowhere. Getting her to go to school in the first place is increasingly fraught and no wonder when she gets marked down all the time for her writing. She does her tests and gets 0, every week.

Does anyone have any advice? Has anyone been through this? It’s so hard.

Can you afford an Ed psych assessment? It really is the best way to get an overall picture.

My DS is dyslexic (and other SEN) and has a very spiked profile. For example his individual word reading isn’t great but his reading comprehension is good. An in-depth assessment was really needed to get the whole picture.

Some people may say that a private report won’t be accepted by the school but no one I know has ever had an issue.

@5pioneers that’s nonsense. Without my DSs needs being correctly identified he wouldn’t be in a specialist dyslexia school. It’s so important for him to understand why he finds some things difficult and to learn what his strengths are. The assessments have been essential.

If you can possibly afford it, if it were me, I’d take her to see an educational psychologist? SOS!SEN have the names of some, who charge a reasonable price iirc?

I’ve not been in your situation; but DD2 was top of the class in spelling, and could decode anything you put in front of her. However, ask her what the story was about and she had no idea! She was diagnosed with ADD at university!

Murphy’s law applies imo. If something can go wrong in the higher cognitive processes, it will - such as attention, working memory, short term auditory or visual memory, speed of processing…..you name it. Hopefully an educational psychologist could tease it out - there’s a difference between a dyslexia screening and a full psychological assessment?

@5pioneers my DSs EHCP was written using private reports from an ED psych, OT and S&LT as well as NHS OT and S&LT. The LA accepted the private reports, no one has ever disputed the needs identified as quantified formal assessments were used.

I’m a single mum on a low-ish wage, don’t get much in the way of support or maintenance from ex.

School are giving very conflicting info. First thing the new teacher said when I asked for a meeting was ‘right, about (dd)’s writing.’ He has given all the support he can with a class to teach but school says she does not need any additional support as she is apparently testing average. She is just disruptive enough for the teacher to see the issues but not so disruptive that they will intervene.

In what way is she disruptive? Is her behaviour impacting on her progress?

Now schools have no budgets for all of the assessments required parents have to go private or else they don't get a diagnosis. We are waiting till our daughter is 7 and we will be going private and the school have said its the best way. Times have changed with the way schools budgets are.

Hi OP, we were told that the cheap dyslexia screeners they use at school aren't that useful.

We've had to get all assessments done privately. Good thing too as now we have them as evidence for EHCP.

In many cases it is the exact same professionals doing the assessments privately (they also do NHS work).

We haven't had a dyslexia assessment but now we're finally in the NHS system (only took 3.5 years...) they've been complimentary about the quality of the private work.

It should be that you get help at school according to need but in reality it is often only forthcoming if you have a diagnosis.

Are there other feasible schools?

I agree @OhhhhhhhhBiscuits . What @5Pioneers is saying used to be true to an extent. Now though, schools can't get their own reports for love nor money and both schools and LAs are accepting private reports as the new normal.

In my LA the Ed Psychs are now doing statutory work ONLY. Not seeing any other children.

Y3 teacher here, this doesn't sound above average and would cause me concern. A good teacher will put support in place for your child's difficulties regardless of diagnosis but you aren't guaranteed good teachers every year. For what it's worth, a private dyslexia assessment has been used as a basis for applying for an EHCP for a child in my class with significant dyslexic difficulties - and for those saying that private reports wouldn't be accepted - almost all of our speech and language assessment and therapy for example is contracted out to private companies as there is no way to access it via the local authority. Also check which member of staff did the screening - again, due to budget cuts, my school had TAs doing screening tests instead of the senco, and they'd only had about 30 mins training in how to do it. It's possible that your child finds it easier to use each skill in isolation - e.g. single word reading- but struggles to combine multiple skills to make sense of a longer text etc. Keep pushing the school - it's a sad fact that this often makes a difference.

Hi OP, sorry you and your daughter are going through this - I’ve been through it too with my DS and I totally understand your frustration.

I went to our GP when I couldn’t get any sense from the SENCO. The Dr was really understanding and referred us to a department at hospital who checked my DS for all sorts of things. Audio processing, hearing, vision, ADHD etc.

Yes. Silly things. Today she was told off for sitting on her chair like a frog. When she looks at the board she doesn’t read the words, she imagines little people falling down and running all over the letters. Instead of listening, she squishes her squishy pencil grip.

At home, she will take a very very long time to do anything and be so easily distracted. I have to remind her to take bites at dinner even when she has said she’s very hungry, because she puts the food on the fork then gets distracted fiddling with things or making silly noises and forgets to actually put it in her mouth. It can easily take an hour to have a small meal.

I agree you need a private Ed Psychologist to do a full screen. It might be dysgraphia not dyslexia anyway. She needs a full battery of tests.

5pioneers has no idea what they are talking about. You cannot pay for an assessment to say whatever you want, that’s not how private assessments go. The schools also have to treat them as they would a school commissioned assessment- they cannot ignore them. So they are actually very useful.

Once you have that you can push for an EHCP. The Ed Psychologist may also know of specialist tutors you can contact to do extra tuition with your DD to catch her up on her reading and writing.

The school screening for dyslexia is very basic compared to an assessment by an Ed Psyc. My son who was assessed through Dyslexic Action charity as severely dyslexic at 7 was told he didn't have it by the school. His diagnosis helped him get extra time in his exams and at college and has allowed him to understand more about himself and that he's not just "stupied".

Whatever the outcome it's what they put in place to support him that matters. In my experience the schools, including the SENCO still aren't all that clued up about dyslexia and think a covered overlay is that answer to everything. Keep pushing for support and best of luck.

*coloured

We have a lot of concurrent difficulties that make me suspect ADD. She has articulated what it’s like trying to concentrate, her behaviour has always suggested it. But that’s not measurable so they won’t test for it.

Schools don’t test for ADHD-you will need a paediatric assessment. In my LEA, this takes places via a referral from the GP.

The GP has said they won’t refer without a supporting statement from the school. It’s honestly like going round in circles.

I’ve only just got a promotion taking me above the poverty line, I’m so stressed about all this and looks like the only option is private. It’s so upsetting. I’ll think of ways to save.

If you are concerned about ADHD/ADD (ultimately the same thing diagnostically, just different ADHD types) then your first port of call is your GP (for referral, preferably armed with evidence from the school to support your request for referral, which I would expect them to be supportive with if they have such evidence).

Waiting lists are crazy long though, so much so that I think schools and LAs are now much more accepting of private reports than they have been historically. So long as you go through correctly qualified professionals that follow NICE guidelines schools/LAs have no basis to reject private reports.

It is expensive though, and it's a real travesty that children like yours are unable to get assessment they need quickly via the NHS.

So it sounds like, when school test her she is ok and can perform ok, but when you test her she makes mistakes and finds things hard

I don't want it to sound like I'm blaming you but is there a possibility your anxiety about this is rubbing off on her? Is there a family story about spelling difficulties so she unconsciously feels to fit in or belong she shouldn't be able to spell well? She doesn't want to prove you wrong?

We went for a private Ed Psych assessment because school said the process was going to be so slow otherwise. DS was well behaved so very low priority for them. He was not so 'below average' as the least able children, so was very low priority for them. When assessed, his profile was extremely spiky and clearly met dyslexia criteria. The benefit of the assessment was (a) some helpful practical suggestions were also made (b) school put him down as 'difficulties similar to dyslexia' which was their cop-out for for not accepting the private assessment while actually accepting it (c) school came with some additional helpful suggestions.

To be completely honest, the openness of school that he was low priority because not disruptive was shockingly disappointing to us (naive we were...) and prompted us to start looking at private options, which we too at top end of primary. I know we are fortunate to have that option.

Check your area - in ours school can refer directly and the first thing the GP will do if you go via them is to get the school to fill in the same referral form that the school can fill in anyway (...and then lose the bastard form if they're my GP).