Dyslexia friendly A levels?

[freefields]

My dyslexic teen DC is currently halfway through GCSEs. They are starting to think ahead in terms of A levels. They are in one sense quite academic but have the usual difficulties that dyslexia brings. I was wondering if anyone has experience with completing A levels with dyslexia and any views on what subjects are more or less dyslexia friendly. Thank you

Just bumping and hoping there are some dyslexia friendly A levels.

I live with stealth dyslexia and have A levels.

Dyslexia isn't a one size fits all thing, it's up to your DC what they want to do. There are dyslexics with PhDs, we all find our level.

As long as your DC is interested in the subject they will give it their best shot, no need to try and make it easy for them. The worst subjects are always the ones we have no interest in.

Thank you. My DCs dyslexia is quite severe and could not go under the radar. Is there any type of accommodation in A level marking/ assignments to disregard spelling for example? I’m not dyslexic myself so had a completely different experience of school and exams myself.

Pretty much all of them make accommodation and extra time for making notes and taking exams as long as dyslexia is disclosed to the tutor. Your DC may or may not want to do that depending on their experience to date.

Thanks that’s really helpful. We are always completely open about it and he has had supports in school all the way. He has very bad handwriting so uses a laptop and very bad spelling but verbally he is much stronger.

Have they had an assessment by an EP, to demonstrate the impact their dyslexia has on their learning and exam performance. This can be submitted to the exam board I think, to ask for extra time/a scribe or whatever accommodations they feel would be fair for your child

Yes they have had Ed Psych assessments. That’s great to know.

I’d say avoid maths if writing is a real problem as using a laptop or scribe for A-level maths is really really difficult to achieve.

Why is maths any worse than any other subject?

OP my handwriting has been described by various people in and out of education as that of a psychopath. I taught myself calligraphy which helps to make it more normal to draw the letters rather than write the words, it slows down the billion miles an hour thought processes that gets in the way.

I will be in the same position with my DS. He is very academic but needs to communicate verbally. If they allowed him to do the exam 100% verbally that would be the ideal. The extra time is not really useful in that it doesn't really matter how much extra time he gets it's never going to make up for the severe dyslexia. I can see how an extra 25% time would be useful for someone with mild dyslexia but they really need to look again to find a better system. It's such a waste because many dyslexics have really high IQ's - it's just a communication problem.

The school can apply for access arrangements for GCSE, such as a prompt, extra time, reader, scribe, rest breaks. use of laptop, but they will need to do show that those arrangements are his normal way of working.

Some will need evidence, like legibility and speed of writing. Have you spoken to the school about your concerns and what they think he will qualify for?

In terms of dyslexia friendly A levels, you might need to reframe and adjust his expectations. What are his interests and what is he good at. A levels might not be the best choice and college courses may be more appropriate, depending on what he wants to do. A levels are a big step up from GCSE and I don’t think there’s a soft option.

Some students with dyslexia find adding in a BTEC helpful to manage the workload. But this depends on how your DCs dyslexia impacts them and also what they want to do after school.

It's not a problem it is a difference.

I don't live with mild dyslexia. extra time can be useful to anyone who needs it but you can choose not to use it too.

Why is maths any worse than any other subject?

Specifically if word processing or scribe are the access arrangements allocated. The software required to use maths notation is cumbersome and not intuitive, which seriously hampers a student’s ability to work with fluency of thought under exam conditions. The guidelines for using a scribe for maths again make it difficult to ‘think onto the paper’ and stilts the problem solving. If a candidate needs to use a scribe for maths exams they really need to do extensive practice with the scribe before hand, extra time or not.

That makes sense, thank you.

I agree with have your DC go for what they are interested in for A levels.
They will require a post-16 dyslexia assessment that will recommend accommodations specifically for A levels, Uni and employment. So don’t worry overmuch.

The good thing is that many resources are available as audio books, videos and so on so he won’t have to read to learn everything in the course.
You’re allowed to have a proof-reader check papers for SPAG before turning in. An accommodation can also be to cap the pts lost to SPAG errors on essay exam questions.

One thing he will need is to be organised and also learn fatigue management and pacing. With dyslexia and a heavy academic workload, the brain can hit a wall that can’t be pushed through and often the person has to take a full day off school work to rest and recover. Pushing through will fail, and risks migraines and burnout. The odd day off now and then actually increases productivity, quality of the work produced and physical wellbeing.

This does mean that say a paper would take an abled person two weeks to research and write, that he should give himself 3 weeks to do the paper.

Accommodations at A levels and above also include extensions on written work for this exact reason. For example, my DD (severe dyslexic) has been offered (without asking) a month extension on her Masters Thesis deadline because it is understood that a dyslexic person needs more time to produce quality written work. At A levels she would typically get an automatic 3 day extension.

See this is exactly what shouldn't happen. Just because someone has dyslexia doesn't mean they need to do an easier course. They are just as capable ( usually more capable) of the work. It's just the way the work is assessed that's the problem, and the answer to that should never be ' we'll do something easier then'...

I'd say any essay based exams would be best avoided. What would be better would be any A Levels that are coursework based. Although I'm not sure they exist anymore.

Although surely the A Levels they're picking should be based on their next step after A Levels, rather than just subjects based on the skills needed in the A Level. So no point doing DT if they don't have any intent or interest in engineering/construction etc.

Depends - what are your dc’s favourite subjects and are they the same ones they are good/best at?

For example - my ds has severe dyslexia (along with dyspraxia and dysgraphia) but is great at maths so is currently rocking maths and further maths a levels now her is in y12, having got 9 for both at gcse and predicted A* for A levels. But I know lots of kids with dyslexia also have dyscalculia so maths would be a rubbish choice for them.

He’s also doing physics and computer science because he enjoys the maths within them too but also because he realised that computer science has a project that you had to do in y13 which he has chosen to do as he liked the thought of backing some marks in advance that weren’t dependent on exam performance - he is good at putting his mind to something and doing it, so I suspect he will do very well at it when the time comes (unlike his non-dyslexic brother who did badly on his GCSE subject that involved a long project because he just never managed to get into it).

Make sure when he starts in y12 that you talk to the senco to make sure that he has his dyslexia registered and find out what help or support they can provide during lessons and in exams, so that he has it all the way through - eg Ds uses a laptop to type his exam answers because teachers couldn’t read his writing - apart from maths as it’s easier to do that actually in writing compared to on a keyboard, but he knows he has to be really careful about what and how he writes to ensure it’s legible. And luckily because he is good at maths he has time to go back and check it all through and rewrite bits that aren’t clear enough. But they are happy to let him do this for exams because he had the documentation from earlier in school and it wasn’t something new introduced just before the exams.

worth asking if the need any different info or documentation for his a levels so that you can get that sorted and put into place early. (Hopefully you have this in place already for his GCSEs!)

if there are any courses he enjoys then figure out how he enjoys learning and see if you can use any tech to support them - over the last few years there have been massive advances in for example AI can be used to create supporting materials, flash cards, dyslexia friendly summaries, PowerPoints etc that might really help too - try variety and figure them out early to get best use of them and work out if there any other thing that will help - having a large timetable on the wall, having files to put all ongoing support and revision material in and so on…

They shouldn’t be put off doing any A level because of dyslexia, because special accommodations should be made like extra time.
However my brother is dyslexic and did maths & physics A levels where there was hardly any writing involved, and squared paper helped him keep things tidy, he was allowed extra time in exams but never needed it.

Of course they’re capable, but it’s useful to know what all the options for post 16 study are. It isn’t simply one route into higher education. What’s important is that he has whatever support is needed for GCSE and that means talking to the school and SENCo, so that arrangements can be applied for appropriately. Then further study of subjects he likes and is good at.

Dyslexic DD did maths and history at A-level. History issues included managing the course literature - a lot of reading which took much time (using RNIB bookvault to access the materials helped). The easier aspects of this included being able to using a laptop to dictate essays.

Maths was much less reading, but text to speech doesn't really work well with maths so the reading that was there was much harder. Same with writing answers - though using equation editor is reasonably quick once you get the hang of it.

I would say choose the subjects by interest and then find out what works to support. There is a lot of help available once you start to look into it.

I think probably courses with a coursework element. My DS did Product Design. I went through his NEA (that's the coursework bit) to check his spag. Most of the exam was fairly short questions and fact learning. He didn't feel confident enough to do history or English even though he was really good at history and loved it. I wish he'd done history with some support. He did maths and physics and hated it. Found it hard to understand questions and it's 100% exam assessed.

Stick to what they are good at and interested in. The interest carries you through a lot of frustration and helps you put in the extra effort. I’m dyslexic and did physics, chemistry, biology and maths and coped fine….thats not to say everyone could, but just focus on their strengths-you’ll already know what they are

I would agree about following passions and interests. My dc just completed A level Art, which you would have thought would be great if your dyslexia affects your writing/ expression in written form. Not at all! All the art work has written annotations explaining the how/ why/ influences and journey. He worked extremely hard because he loves it! Ended up with a grade we are proud of but he's really disappointed. He's the most resilient teenager I know though!!