5 year old DD dyslexic

[Itsonlybridget1]

I have 5 year old twins, currently in year 1. DT1 is really advanced, reads and writes really well. DT2 is very creative, loves to draw and create things but her reading & writing is very behind, she struggles with concentration unless it’s something she’s really interested in.

when they were in reception I brought up DT2 reading & writing but was always told they weren’t concerned and I was just comparing my girls.

now they’re in year 1 the teacher is being great. She’s started putting ear defenders on DT2 to help with her concentration which is working well, but the teacher has said although it’s too early to be sure she’s showing a lot of early indications that she could be dyslexic.

I’m not at all surprised or upset I just want her to get the right kind of help.

my question is, when she writes backwards - for example she will write to the left rather than to the right but her letters will be the wrong way around too - for example let’s say she had a friend called Pippa - she would first of all do the P the wrong way around and then all other letters would be the wrong side - this isn’t her writing but it’s an example of how she would write.

How do I deal with this? Do I correct her and show her how it should be done, or will that confuse her and just make her feel bad? I had this meeting with the teacher just before we broke up for the October break (we get 2 weeks) so I haven’t had a chance to discuss further with the teacher.

wow that was long, I didn’t expect it to be that long so thank you for reading and any help you can give.

TIA

Have you talked to SENCO to see if they can advise you on to help?

No I haven’t had chance yet, we had the meeting just a few days before they broke up for 2 weeks

Speak to her teacher, and also do try correcting when reading and writing.

You won't get a full assessment until the age of 8 (the latest guidance from the British Dyslexic Assocation) and you will most likely have to go private for this. No schools that I know locally are funding a full assessment, but may do a very unreliable screener in school.

Try and see how she learns and what works for her. This is what I have done with my daughter. Spellings and grammar is still appalling but reading changed massively when we stopped with phonics and breaking words done to sounds, and started sight reading. She can now read a chapter in a book by herself (like a david walliams book etc....) we have booked her full assessment for next summer.

Is she right or left handed? My left handed brother used to do mirror writing like that when he was learning.

I think showing her the right way won't confuse her as the teacher will being doing the same (as would her YR teacher). I don't think you're wrong for comparing either, who else are you going to look at as an example for progress on reading and writing when you don't have access to the rest of the class's work?!

It's perhaps understandable that school have said not to worry as they will wait to see if the child has a developmental spurt and "gets" the work when they didn't before, as some children do and "grow out of it". Personally I would welcome early intervention rather than the wait and see approach, on the grounds that more support won't do any harm and will more likely help.

First question, is she left handed??

My DS is dyslexic and it hasn’t held him back, he’s doing his GCSEs at a grammar school now and is on track to do really well. DS’s top tip is to download the audio book of any book he’s reading if it’s available and read along, which really helps him.

Yes she is left handed, which I thought may not be helping. Both my niece & nephew are lefties and my sister never had this issue but I suppose they’re all different.

With the reading it’s just terrible, we both get frustrated at home. The school have started using flash cards with one single word on which is definitely helping, and I’m doing the same at home. So she’s great at the single words but when it comes to reading in a book it’s like she words get all jumbled up. Even worlds like “it” and “feet” she just can’t do, then she ends up crying, it’s heartbreaking.

It’s not helping that my other twin can read a book (age appropriate of course) by herself with very little (if any) help from us.

I find the don’t compare so frustrating. All of my family have said the same and that I’m just being paranoid but there is just a vast difference between them I can’t help but compare 😔

Was just wondering if left handed because my left handed mum always says she did mirror writing until she was maybe 5/6. She also couldn't see how it was different to how the other kids were writing!
Dyslexia wasn't really known about when she was younger but as an adult she doesn't think she is dyslexic and just eventually grew out of the mirror writing and did well in school.
I think 5 is really too young to worry but it's good that the teacher is keeping an eye on things. Just something to monitor as she gets older I guess.

Ah I knew she’d be a lefty! My brother wrote his name as MOT (Tom) for a long time and I still sometimes read analogue clocks backwards (eg 3:00 as 9:00) if I’m tired or not concentrating!

Hi Mums,
Would love anyone’s advice on this!
My daughter has started in Year 1 and I’m concerned about dyslexia. Last year in reception she was writing all her letters and numbers in reverse. We spoke to the teacher but they keep telling me it’s because she is learning Arabic too. However Arabic she only started with reading not writing, she is also left handed.
Currently in YR1 her reading is good but she is still segmenting sounds and then blending, I practiced over the summer so much letter and number formation, but when she writes freely it’s still has reversals. I spoke to the schools Senco who say they are not worried but I am, my family has history of dyslexia, my husbands nephew and niece were diagnosed and he himself feel he was undiagnosed.
My question is how to get the school to give her some support without the diagnosis done privately before she is 7?

• What support can I give her at home?
• Where do I go for dyslexia diagnosis?

You will need to go private for a diagnosis as schools don't have the funding to do the testing anymore. You won't get her assessed until she is 8 years old though due to a change in the British Dyslexia Associations guidelines.

You could ask school to do a screener, but they may say she is a bit young yet (my child's school don't do them until Y3).

What you are saying so far isn't out of the realms of normal though, especially with being bi-lingual. I would carry on as you are and keep an eye on it, but don't rush to any judgements yet.

My left handed dd did the mirror writing thing, did the same with numbers. She was behind age related expectations right up until the SATs in year 6 but has finally caught up. It corrected itself gradually over time and she now does fairly neat joined up cursive which is astonishing because in y1 I was convinced she would never be able to write. Keep hold of examples of her writing so you can see progress over time. Dd's school were rubbish and have never suggest any issues. I don't think my dd is dyslexic but had some fine motor issues which caused some of the delay.

The first thing I would do is have a proper eye test done with a behavioural optometrist to rule out any visual issue (but don't go down the route of colour testing as this hasn't got a reliable evidence base).

@LuckysDadsHat

Same we dropped phonics and did sight reading instead. Phonics was actually a barrier to my dd and in all the research I've done since it's a barrier to many dyslexic dc. The problem is the bloody phonics testing forcing school to do it.

A small percentage of children do have a problem with phonological processing. This is one reason why I would be keen to find out before children hit eight years old. It is one reason why a dyslexia screen is valuable not just as a diagnosis, it gives an idea of how to teach the child more effectively by knowing where the issues lie.

Getting a diagnosis doesn't mean you will get help either because unfortunately many teachers and Senco have no training or understanding of sen at all. So op, do your own research.

Yes, I have done an eye test it all seems okay. I will keep a check on it.

I am thinking the same. I work as an early years practitioner and using my early years techniques to support her.

I have been reading on the dyslexia website and I am thinking of using audio books to support her reading, and focussing on more practice at home. I do worry that now the standards in Reception and Year 1 have been lowered making it seem she’s okay but then when they go in to year 4,5 & 6 the standards rise so much I wouldn’t want my LO to be anxious and overwhelmed.

Oh I'm so glad you said this! Could not get to grips with phonics at all and my son was diagnosed with moderate dyslexia. However he had no issues with learning German and Latin where I presume they don't bother with bloody phonics!! I have no issues with reading but never got to grips with a book recommended by the educational psychologist 'Toe by Toe'. I couldn't help wonder if I had to do phonics if I would have struggled to read as it really made no sense to me. 'Red lorry, Yellow lorry' may have been bloody boring to read but at least it made sense!

I knows my DD was dyslexic when she was 5. I got her tested in year 3. Just keep on working with her.
Read lots, repetition, drawing, playdoh letters. There are online programmes like Literacy Gold but she is very young.

I thought my DD would never get anywhere but she is at a top university. She still gets some letters round the wrong way when she writes!
Colour overlays can help - some Optitian offer visual stress tests but not every dyslexic child is helped.

Sight reading does work for a work for a lot of dyslexics in my very small experience. My daughter looks at the shape of the word and works it out from that. If she gets stuck on a word we don't ask her to sound it out, break it down etc..... we just tell her the word and move on. She has gone from being 2 years behind to 6 months behind and only 1 reading level below average for her year group (Y3).

Spelling is a massive mountain for us to climb and I am struggling trying to find the right way for her to improve this. We will get there, but she spells very phonetically so "with" will be "wiv" or "wif" or "wih" and you can have all e spellings in one paragraph of work.

I think the spectrum is pretty vast for dyslexia. I was diagnosed at university after getting straight As through school. My daughter is being assessed at the moment (due to me pushing) and is similarly bright but can’t spell. She was always a good reader but did it by memory and not phonics. She just scraped a pass for the y1 phonics check despite reading chapter books fluently at that point. Most of her class did better on the check despite her being one of the best readers.

There are others in her class who are clearly more profoundly affected by dyslexia. I suspect my daughter will have a shit time in year 6 with the focus on spag and then be much happier at secondary.

Have you tried any reading apps? We use reading eggs it's £7 a month, but they often do offers or teach your monsters how to read is free on a laptop. My daughter made huge improvements doing 10-15 minutes a day and it's actually fun. She's just turned 6. She's not dyslexic but she does often do her letters backwards. I discussed it with her teacher and she said it's common at her age

Have you tried coloured overlays. Different colours work for different people buy I found them helpful. They stopped the words moving for me.

https://www.amazon.co.uk/Studyteq-Professional-Dyslexia-Coloured-Protective/dp/B07YVMZQKB/ref=mp_s_a_1_4?crid=1K8IGUMMEETWZ&dib=eyJ2IjoiMSJ9.ZF325Fxq8EXVOJCJlwVe5QApcKWJh7CFYcvOUiS7tHZUvIQYTPgOGbgi1-MUMkZyQC_jIy495p1PuPVrMSqJ8adXZPLKNQy7NACZS-mK57a7Xm1TuwCFW6M69fcSmURbce0dRX4_6gtxBX_RromtVhf5qkANo7pJFu9IDtr9WsEhadbgpMzcctxmDN-ZEot2Z2tF4ukX4bu6pXqNykMiRA.vlgXNLBtdsYfy1Vz6Ml1xAMWVZxP-8cBItjQtVNQmzE&dib_tag=se&keywords=coloured+overlays+for+dyslexia&nsdOptOutParam=true&qid=1735832083&sprefix=colored+overlays%2Caps%2C76&sr=8-4

Nessy is also good.

The reversal of letters and numbers is common up until the age of about 7. Left handedness can be an indicator of dyslexia but not necessarily.