Anyone who knows about dyslexia around?

[Flowersforbees]

DD is 7 and her spelling and writing is way behind her other abilities, SATS showed near 110 for reading and maths but low 90s for grammar, punc and spelling.

She finds spelling very difficult. Mixes up letters, still some backwards letters and very messy. For reading she makes many mistakes but seems to be on an appropriate book band for her age (white) but she is extremely reluctant, says it's difficult. She uses a purple overlay when at home but forgets at school and this makes a big difference.

She really struggles with organisation, has lost loads of things since the beginning of term, on one day this week there were 5 things she came out without: cardigan, coat, bottle, new book and snack container. Despite many reminders it doesn't occur to her to think about brining these things home.

School are keeping an eye on it and have screened but say results are good. I've attached the screen results and I'm thinking that whilst working memory is technically 'good' it's a lot lower than the others.

I'll happily pay for an assessment but feel everyone is telling me wait and see. But I feel if she does have dyslexia / dysgraphia knowing this might help more with understanding and self confidence and adjustments might be made.

Any advice from experts or parents who have been through similar would be much appreciated.

Normally scores in n the region of 80 as a standardised score are concerning and SS of 100 is their age. I would buy a copy of ‘toe by toe’ though to address the spelling. True dyslexics have an uneven profile showing high comprehension and low standardised scores on reading and spelling. Her Senco / Alnco needs to do a Wrat2 test to check this and a Ctopp2 to check her phonological loop/working/short term memory. I’m an ex Senco . If standardised scores are 80 and below, I would ask what they are going to do that is ‘different from and additional to’ the normal class work. If they don’t respond speak to your local education authority.

Have you heard of a spiky profile?

A lower working memory than phonological memory is definitely an indicator of dyslexia.

Having been through a situation where school has denied the possibility of dyslexia for 2 of my children who have turned out to be dyslexic I'd say go for a private assessment if you can. You can find good private educational psychologists who can assess and I'd suggest trying to do it that way than going to a diagnostic company, they can then help also with advising interventions.

Senco here too. I’d be looking at a Dyslexia assessment but sadly with funding cuts in SEN you may struggle to get school to agree. There are many independent assessors, in fact we buy in their services if our EP hours have all been used up. In the meantime ask your Senco to purchase a copy of Toe by Toe and make sure it’s done daily at school- that would be classed as an appropriate intervention.

I had a private dyslexia assesment at 17. School refused to help. Be careful what they do though because mine wanted to move me down a band in English and sent me for spelling classes that were a waste of time.
It wasn't until I was 17 that's someone mentioned phonics and it made a huge difference.
It will make things harder for her in a conventional world but she will have strengths and learn work arounds. I think for some people it actually gives them an edge.

Working memory at 62 is two standard deviations from some of the other scores. I would say that you should push for a referral. The more you know the better she can be taught. There are ways to support working memory issues.

Thank you everyone for the replies. It seems to match my thoughts on this.

I'm not sure if those scores are standardised scores. It was the Nessy screener and from what I've found it says 'scores in the dyslexia quest assessment are reported as risk bands. The placement within the bands is determined by a pattern of raw scores'. I don't know whether this changes anything.

But the low score in working memory seems notable, even though it is technically classed as 'good'

I didn't even know that assessment could be done through the school. I'd assumed it was go private or don't get assessed.

She's only just 7 so think she's just into the age where professionals assess. Are we better to see how Y3 pans out or should we try and get the assessment ASAP.

The school say an assessment won't change how they approach it as they will offer her the same support even without it, but I've not seen this support really materialise.

Bumping for the evening

Dts are now 12 and they have finally been diagnosed with dyslexia and one with dyslexia and dyspraxia.

They were screened in R and y3 but nothing for the school to push for anything else. Then covid and it all disappeared for a while. They were screened in y6 and had 'spiky' profiles, way above average in some things and way below in others.

The school have been shit (now in secondary). One also has visual stress and needs to use overlays. This improved her reading speed and comprehension by 25%, apparently 5% is the marker for diagnosis.

Find a recommended assessor and get her assessed. The sooner she and you can figure out how to help her learning style the better.

I would definitely take her for a private assessment- the school will put it off/sat it isn’t necessary because of funding issues.

A proper assessment will tell you where her strengths and weaknesses like and how she can best be helped.

It will be useful for high school for exam arrangements. Also it will be confirming for your daughter to know why she finds some things more difficult than other children and confirm for her that she isn’t stupid etc.

Private assessment (with an Educational Psychologist, not a dyslexia assessment) would get my vote.

You could be describing my oldest at primary. He also HATED crafty stuff - never picked up a pen to draw/scribble. Didn't paint. That was the dysgraphia coming through.

He is bright, so isn't massively below expectations, but if you look at where he should be given his underlying intelligence, his weaker areas are massive discrepancies.

"Wait and See" is quite a normal approach for schools to take at that age to see whether it's just a natural variation in skills or whether there is a problem. There is always a huge number of diagnosis when the child reaches secondary school, but you are right if it was my daughter I'd want to know sooner rather than later.

Things you can try at home:
Buy a reading pen, this allows DD to scan sentences and hear them through a ear phone giving her some independence to enjoy reading.

Continue to read to her until she's much older than you would expect too, keep her love in books by keeping the pressure off.

Match old style books she can handle manually (ie not ebooks) to their audiobooks counterparts so she can follow along.

Make sure she has something she is able to get really good at outside of school, something she can do with her hands or with animals is often very popular, it's essential to her self esteem and confidence to know she is good at something when she struggles all day with things at school

You could try some specialist teaching. She’s very little at 7 and a good specialist teacher will assess, for learning, see what needs addressing and put in a programme for her. Then if she goes forward for assessment in a few months the response to intervention can be measured. Otherwise consider assessment with a specialist teacher assessor.

You can get the details of specialist teacher assessors, Ed psychs and specialist teacher tutors on the PATOSS website. The British dyslexia association also have an assessor list but they bung on a £100 referral fee which does not go to the assessor.
FYI I’m a former senco and current full time dyslexia assessor.

Thank you. As a dyslexia assessor do you think 7 is on the verge of too young for assessment?
Would you say that screening profile indicates an issue?

Thank you. We do read to her lots and intend to do it as long as she wants. I have a feeling we will be reading her a bedtime story into the teenage years!

She does love stories. Particularly Enid blyton, And audiobooks too.

"wait and see" does seem the normal approach fit school inspite of everyone knowing that the earlier the intervention the better?

But I guess it's easier to push the problem further down the road and perhaps why, children are leaving school unable to read.

Re spelling op try the mnemonics spelling approach and also get a white board and coloured pens and show her root words.

Then add on prefix and suffix.

Use the mnemonics for madder words.

Also op and as staggering as this is to believe Google it / dyslexia has become politised

I would act sooner rather than later. My DS had undiagnosed dyslexia and just got sadder and sadder in class as he got left behind his friends. It took years to rebuild self confidence and even now it crumbles sometimes

Even now being 20 years later!

I would be looking at DCD (what used to be Dyspraxia).

I think you have had some really good advice in this thread.

As a dyslexic woman that was diagnosed at 7/8 I just wanted to write to say that it feels big at the time but I am so pleased to be dyslexic. My mind works differently and that has been really powerful with problem solving in my professional life.

I will always struggle to spell 'received' but technology has been a huge help.

I also found mind mapping an invaluable tool. It help me through my degree and I wish I had found it earlier than A Levels.

When at school, my mum had to advocate for me as there was no funding and I was not as bad as other children's needs. At age 8/9 she came into school during assembly to do phonics with me using a specialist programme (it was a the 90's and not available at home). I also would not engage with writing if not in a school setting at that age.

It’s definitely worth getting a formal diagnosis as it will help get any extra support, exam time etc that may be needed later in academia.we paid several hundred for diagnosis via a specialist centre at Aston University.

My DD is also dyslexic and dyscalculaic, with support from the school and some one to one teaching, she is now ‘average’ for her age, which is a big achievement for her.

The screening profile indicated difficulties in working memory and the speed of processing. Both fall with dyslexia although don’t rule out other splds

7 is young and I’d discuss carefully with a parent before assessing at that age - but I don’t rule it out.

has vision been tested? Does your little one skip words and lines, do they comment that the text moves or shimmers? Could be visual stress (not dyslexia but a visual issue).

A poster mentioned dcd dyspraxia, is she a little more clumsy than expected? Did she crawl?

lots of good advice on this thread.

We visited a specialist optician to test for visual stress. They did find that she read better with an overlay but she doesn't notice it makes a difference. She doesn't say the words move.
She is better and less mistakes are made with the overlay. But because she doesn't notice this she doesn't use it at school.

She is clumsy at home, well, it's more like she always dithers like she needs the toilet. But she is excellent at gymnastics so think it is controllable. At home she tends to bounce off the walls with endless energy.

The more you are saying about your DD the more inclined I would be, when you go for assessment, to use an Educational Psychologist, who will be competent to look at a range of potential SEN than just a dyslexia assessor.

If there are issues then early interventions are really helpful.

Good luck