dyslexia - I suspect my 10 year old DS suffers. What do I do to help him?

[riabutterflew]

My DS has massive problems with spelling, not keen on writing and HATES reading. His homework can make him quite aggressive, I believe through frustration.

At parents evening a couple of years ago, the school claimed to have tested him for dyslexia (should they have even done so without our consent?) but as he can spell phonetically his problem is "laziness" and "lack of concentration". They put him in an "anger management" group instead.

I have no experience of dyslexia (though believe DH to be undiagnosed also) so don't know what steps I should take. He goes to secondary school next year and I don't want him to be held back.

DS 11 & DD 9 both dyslexic but manifests itself in different ways for both - and hence the problem with diagnosis. There are as many forms of dyslexia as there are children IYSWIM.

My advice is to have your son assessed by a "proper" Educational Psychologist - not some test administered by school. An Ed Psych will begin to unravel exactly what is going on with your son and from a diagnosis you can begin to implement action.

I am afraid I can't give advice on how to have Ed Psych assessment done through state system as we pay privately for hours.

But also be prepared for other news - sometimes children are lazy (especially boys), sometimes ones child isn't the brightest spark in the world etc but whatever it is an assessment will give you a good start on going forward.

thanks. will have to approach the school then.

My DS (12 last week) has similar problems with spelling. Fortunately his primary school were very helpful and did not label him lazy etc but he never got a proper diagnosis of dyslexia, but I was told by the SN coordinator that he does have traits.
They did a scheme called Stareway to Spelling which you can also do at home but it is quite intensive. It did help and he improved quite a lot in Year 6.

I was worried like you about what would happen at secondary school. I didn't want him held back because of this problem, but he did really well in his SATS with 5's in everything but Written English which he only just managed to scrape a 4C. His comprehension and vocabulary are very good.
His secondary school did CATS tests on him before he started and he has been put in the top tutor group for everything.
My only concerns are is that he is doing both French and German and we have already had a problem this week with a german test where he had to do it again because he had problems with the spelling of the words. Will probably have to go and have a word with his language teachers.

My DH is also probably an undiagnosed dyslexic and didn't learn to read until he was 12. He is now and electronics engineer so obviously very clever

good luck ria. I sympathise as I have thoughts about my ds possibly being dyslexic, he's only five so I'm trying not to think about it too much yet.

Ds has had a screening in reception for dyslexia so I think it is a standard test schools do nowadays. However, i tend to think that whatever they have done, cannot be a specialist test so I would certainly pursue a proper test if I were you.

My ds had the school eye test and was passed fine but just a few weeks later at the optician it was found that he is colour blind. That's what i mean about not relying on the school test.

Have you googled dyslexia? I believe there's a UK dyslexia organisation which gives on line info.

thanks christy & HG.to their credit his school did pick up on sight problems, but they have had a succession of HTs and seem more intent on behavioural "labels".

He has massive enthusiasm for everything but literacy and is fantastic with conversational skills and vocab, and that affects his comfidence.

I will look at the websites you mentioned. Thanks again.

Rx

Hi

I don't think schools do a 'proper' test for dyslexia - a proper dyslexic assessment takes about two hours and costs about £180. In my borough they will only consent to fund an assessment if the situation is dire and you've gone through a couple of years of IEPs and the child is significantly behind...so the poor kid has to work twice as hard to catch up.

In my experience schools/teachers are not proactive in identifying dyslexia. We had our suspicions re DS since nursery (seeing as DH is dyslexic too) and the school kept palming us off with excuses, until we took matters into our own hands. He was found to be severely dyslexic and really struggling at school.

We funded the test ourselves and also pay £30 per week for tuition (I am a full-time student so we don't have much disposable income). Although he gets help at school, we have been privately told to continue with our own tuition because you can't guarantee continued LEA funding.

Plus everytime he starts a new year we have to hand over the report because the teachers never seem to get told about his situation.

So basically, if you are worried, then follow it up yourself, don't rely on the school.

blimey spillage. That's a sad situation. I must admit though I was trying not to focus on this, maybe I should! My brother is dyslexic so it is in our family...and ds definitely has a huge gap between his understanding and his obvious 'brightness' and his output, which is just not really happening...I do wonder.......

Well done to you though, your ds is lucky he's got such switched on parents who are obviously dealing with it for him

Sorry, didn't want to come across all doom and gloom, but it was a stark lesson for me that schools (given class sizes and resources) can only really deal with average children. The problems with dyslexic children is that often their ability exceeds actual attainment, which must be hugely frustrating for them.

The plus side though, is if dyslexia is diagnosed and sympathetic tuition is given, the difference in the child is amazing.

spillage, at what age did you start to get your ds assessed etc? I know that from the websites I've seen five (as my ds is) is seen as too young to test. But I'm like you, have had my suspicions that this could be an issue for ds, for a while already, and I already see that his confidence is being knocked because he can't read at all or recognise many words, and can't really form letters well at all, etc.

I know that this can be the situation for some kids at five who then just 'get it' at 6 or 7 but I hate to think that if ds is dyslexic, we could have helped him NOW before he gets way way behind and loses more confidence.

Like I said, we had our suspicions at nursery, but we were advised that there is no point testing before 7 because some children might just be slower learners when it comes to reading/writing.

In hindsight, compared to our DD who's clearly not dyslexic, it's bleedin' obvious he was dyslexic.

Our tutor advised me that we started tutoring at the right time (just before his 8th birthday), and it's true, he's really doing sooo well.

The British Dyslexia Association are very helpful.

Thank you so much for that spillage. I certainly hadn't thought of tutoring but it's sounding as if it's wonderful for your ds

I will monitor closely for this year, then, and go from there.

Thanks again.

Ds didn't get reading until he was 7. He reads well now, but needs a ruler to keep track of the words on the page. He also complains that when he is trying to copy from the black board he often forgets what he has just read before he can get it onto paper.
Like your son Ria, he is very enthusiastic and interested. He is reluctant to read novels and prefers to listen to story tapes. He also prefers non fiction for reading, like Top Gear Magazine or Horrible Science.

One benefit of having poor spelling was just before he left primary Year 6 could do a project on any subject.
His teacher said she knew that he had not cut and pasted because of the spelling! He got an award for the best project.