To think that some parents like to label their children as dyslexic/dyscalculic/dyspraxic or as kinaesthetic learners....

[MrsSchadenfreude]

...rather than accept the fact that their child might not be particularly bright/academic, and by so doing this detracts from children who genuinely are eg dyslexic?

One has to jump through a lot of hoops Belladonna before gaining a diagnosis. So sad that people still think like you. I am aware when I tell people that my son has ADHD and dyspraxia that they probably look at me wondering if I am a bad parent. It puts me off telling people unless they are people I trust or if they work with children and will therefore have the beneift of some knowledge and experience in this field. Yet I am so proud of my son. He is not badly behaved and is highly intelligent although he will probably never excel with conventional educational qualifications as such. I often think to myself that parents of special needs children have to put at least twice the amount of effort into their kids and ironically many parents of non special needs children do not recognise this and assume through their ignorance that the problems of these children are due to the parents not trying hard enough

Labels can be useful. However, a good teacher wants each and every child to learn to their potential. There has been a great deal of research into different learning styles and teachers are aware that 'chalk and talk' is not the best method for all children. Many children are kinaesthetic learners, not just the dyslexic children. In fact, a good body of current research demonstrates that teaching and learning practices which are good for dyslexic children are good for all children.

Funding is a thorny issue. It is difficult to get and it must be proven that appropriate teaching input has been given over a period of time. Modifications to classroom teaching also need to be made and advice from outside agencies sought. A child who is not progressing and who despite timely and appropriate intervention will be a candidate for extra resources whether they have a label or not.

Dyslexia is not just a label for 'bright' kids who struggle with literacy, but is now understood to be an issue for children who are not so verbally adept.

Will have a proper read of this when I'm more awake!

I paid £500 to have my son seen by a educational psychologist in order to get his diagnosis, becasue the school didn't seem to notice that he struggled so much with reading that he was beginning to hate it (they were too busy labeling him as having behavioural issues). Dyslexia runs in my family, so we weren't very surprised to have it confirmed. He is very bright, and his verbal ability is way ahead of his written ability (usually the most important definition for dyslexia). It has been useful for us because we were able to invest in some tailored tutoring and he has now pretty much caught up. Now some might say the fact that he has caught up means that there was never anything wrong with him, but spend half an hour or so with him on any task involving writng and you will soon see that he just doesn't think like "normal" children. It is a big struggle for (and with!) him. However, his diagnosis has not led to any extra help or support at school at all, because he falls into the norms of what a child his age should be acheieving. He does get extra time for his behavioural issues (although I think these are largely caused by frustration).

As most issues fall into a spectrum I think it's very difficult to judge what is genuine or not to be honest.

Belladonna, I think most of us have managed to grasp the statistical concept of the bell curve and I think the majority of teachers and health professionals will have grasped it and take this into account.

Do you have a child who has a diagnosis and have experience of the procedure involved to get it to base your statement of a huge % are given as an excuse ?

Having reflected on this thread I do accept that there may be a small % of parents who would rather have a "label" for their child rather than accept they aren't as academically able as they would like them to be. But the huge majority of parents whose children do have a diagnosis have fought hard to get them for a reason.

Their children have a condition that puts them at a huge disadvantage to other children of their age and impacts more on family life than you can imagine unless you have been through it. With the correct help things can be hugely different.

I guess I shouldn't get cross about posts like this. I had no idea how completely out of synch DD was with her peers until DS arrived nearly 5 years later. The deficits in her development are now blindingly obvious now I have a comparison ie a child who is NT, my experience of children was very limited before I had my own.

And I guess the same is in reverse. Until you have a child with a condition, it is impossible to have a true understanding of the nature of a condition and all the factors that are taken into account to get a diagnosis. And also to appreciate how much difference a dx and the correct help can make to a child.

DD has been incredibly lucky. We live in an area which has a co-ordination clinic, highly skilled in helping children like DD - at one point she had 2 OTs & a physio helping her with her exercises at one time . We don't have huge waiting lists and she was seen pretty quickly. Her school have been excellent - recognised the discrepancy between her verbal and written work very early and were instrumental to her dx. Have supported her well in class, appreciate the difficulties she has in relating to her peers, her literal grasp of language and her failure to understand the simple non verbal cues of social interaction.

She has had a lot of help and is currently a happy 9 year old, with high self esteem, who is learning the rules of social interaction, writing improving and her tendency to bounce off walls is much improved. Her writing is much much better - whether it is good enough to cope with the demands of middle school next year remains to be seen. She can now dress herself properly (still have to check she has things on the right way round), well the list goes on. Her speech is pretty much normal after a course of speech therapy (we paid for this) and well the list goes on.

Without a diagnosis she wouldn't be where she is today. It is not an excuse for clumsy behaviour, it impacted on every aspect of her life.

I for one would prefer it if there were a small percentage of children who end up with a diagnosis for "the wrong reason" but I would much prefer it if they do, rather than a culture of skepticism exist where children who do need help don't get it and the huge benefits it can bring to their lives and that of their family.

Wow belladonna, looks like you've found an ace conspiracy between paediatricians, psychologists, speech therapists, parents and schools. The mere 8 month wait for SALT assessment and 18 month wait to see an ed psych would be enough to tempt any parent to go down the assessment route.

totalchaos.

I do love this idea that people have that dxes are handed out on a plate. We waited 6 months, before going to the clinc 2 hours a week for 5 weeks. We went to two different hospitals for blood tests, then 60 miles for another 2 hour test. We waited 6 mnths for an ed psy, a year for a physio, and 18mnths and counting for a occupational therapist. I've been made to feel almost like I've got munchausen's and ds1 has been poked and prodded by every expert under the sun.

Yep, piece of cake!

I don't think that any children are diagnosed who don't have a special need. The system is too rigorous, the criteria is too stringent. However I think there are many children who do not get the diagnosis they should. Belladonna - you're not from the TES website are you?

Good post chocolateteapot

Ds has had a statement for nearly 3 years but we are still waiting on a dx as his needs are so complex. We are very lucky that he is getting the support without a dx as this is a rare occurance. Without the extra support he gets in the classroom he would not be able to access the curriculum - not because he isn't capable as he is actually very bright but because he is so distractable and impulsive that he needs support to stay on task. This is beneficial to everyone in the class as the teacher is able to focus on the other children and ds is much less likely to disturb the rest of the class by noisy outburts.

ROFL at the idea that it's easy to get a dx.

Do you ever read any of the threads over on the SN board, Belladonna? Or perhaps you know so much about SN that you just don't need to, eh?

DP is dyslexic and in the top percent of MENSA.

I am slightly dyslexic and can't spell for toffee.

I do think school are a bit to quick to label children though these days.

I have linked this to the special need thread.... lets see what they think of it...........personally i was happy my son was diagnosed as dyspraxic so he could gett the help he needed, i totally disagree with the op.

darn, and there I was thinking dd had cerebral palsy. Belladonna probably thinks she is lazy and clumsy.

Oh look, what I was getting at is the sort of parents who start shouting about their child being dyslexic because they are not on free readers by the time they start Year 1.

NOT children who genuinely have a problem and who have been diagnosed, or those whose parents are concerned that their children may have a real problem.

You didnt say that in your first post though did you MrsS???

I think some of the latest posts have been in response to belladonnas post mrsS

Well, more or less, although perhaps it wasn't expressed quite as eloquently as I might have liked. What most people on this thread seem to have ignored is that I did say that these sort of parents, by baying for their DC to be "diagnosed", may detract from those children who actually do have a problem.

belladonna loves posting inflammatory and nasty stuff about SN on these sorts of threads.

mrss, that last post might have been better in the OP !!

trust me , school SENCOS don;t just test DCs on a whim, due to parents demanding it

Lulumama, yes, sorry. Have terrible cold and brain is full of snot!

Mrs S - parental concern is something which is valued by teachers. Any concern should be discussed at the earliest opportunity with the teacher. Schools now have to assess and track pupil progress and (certainly in our county!) schools advisors come into school and examine data with teachers and senior management teams.

Identification of special needs and funding, as such, is evidence based and extra funding is extremely difficult to get. Children need to be significantly behind their cohort and to have had intervention from outside agencies such as the Ed Psych team or speech and language and to have had that intervention recorded and acted upon in an iep for a reasonable duration of time to ensure that any progress made can be made. As such, identification of dyslexia or other learning difficulties is a lengthy process and due to the analytical and evidence-based process, should 'rule out' any child without significant needs.

However, there are children with mild dyslexia or with dyslexic-type difficulties in every classroom. These children may have speech and language processing difficulties and it is useful to have an assessment from SALT. Good teaching practice will enable these children to access the curriculum and a carefully differentiated reading and spelling scheme should help them to progress. These aspects should be on active review by the classteacher in conjunction with the senco should a child not be making appropriate progress.

Oh I just love all the assumptions that can be made regarding statements and diagnosing. And lucky, lucky me, because I'm Aspergers and my son is also on the ASD spectrum, so I guess I've really hit the jackpot there, haven't I? .

Dh is dyslexic, he's also running a small business designeing digital light electronics- I wonder how many people could do that? I am a kinaesthetic learner, and am bright enough to be doing well at Uni. DS1 and ds2 have both been diagnosed as dyslexic- ds1 has an IQ of 130 or so, and a verbal age of 16- 21, he's 8. He had the additionals done as a result of his ASD, ds2 hasn't got an official IQ but he's bright enough.

I love the idea that kids can easily access a statement witha dyslexia diagnosis- I know kids with severe autism who can't get one, non-verbal kids. Do mea favour!

And btw Ia lso know people who pay fordubious tests to get the extra 20% of time at uni for exams etc and have nothing but contempt for that practice but testing in our ocunty at elast is done by teacher referral not parent referral. And it's not just about spelling either- involves complex memory issues for a start,a nd organnisational issues.

wihtout reading the thread, caould someone please explain "kinaesthetic learners". Sorry

'and can anyone explain why children with dyslexia should be entitled to more support than those who need help because they are not particularly bright?
'
The currenta im of the system is to enable all children to reach their potential. That's why a G&T child gets extra help as well, despite the fact that they would be at the can cope level easily enough.

DS1 (I shall focus on him as ds2 is less marked) is very bright and fluent with words, can come up with poetry etc- but can't yet spell his surname or even the full version of his Christian name. That's a marked difficulty isn't it? How is he going to achieve the career he could do without input?

As it happens, Dyslexxia is nto on his staement- will be in a fortnight. the wait for specific help is until April NEXT year- sot ehre's no immediate answer, his ASD needs have to come first with his current funding / therapy.

people with real dyslexxia face very definite challenges. if I sit with Dh and read his work as he does it, correcting spelling etc, then he produces the most marvellous things- but he cannot do it alone. Without the 1-1 I give him there would be no chance of him getting a degree, but with it he is hoping to go in 2009.