Dyslexia

[cracknips]

Hi.
We think our ds (6 yrs old) may be dyslexic. We spoke to his teacher at the latest Parents Evening and both she and the Nursey Nurse agreed with us. He is working under the level expected for his age in year 2 for Reading and Writing. DS teacher is being brilliant and very supportive. We have got a meeting with the SENCO on Wednesday next week but she has already tryed to fob us off by telling us that he is very young and the local authority don't like diagnosing dyslexia in childen as young as DS. We could really do with some advice on best way to handle the SENCO on Wednesday, as we have never been in this position before and we are very apprehensive and unsure of where we stand.
Thanks.

Well they will be reluctant to test till he is 7 /8 . the most important thing is that you get more help with him . we ended up paying privately for an assessment which was really helpful to me but the school did not recognise any external input till now ( age 8). Have a look at the nessie web site and if you have any apple stuf you can down load an app called dyslexia quest which is really good i cannot recommend it enough . It is a brilliant game which also assesses them and give you a good "report" afterwards which may help you be more informed with his areas of weakness. good luck just keep battling for what he needs.

We fought -and lost. DS is 10 and in Y6 and the ('very good') primary have side-stepped and fudged with us to the extent we have given up. Sadly we cannot afford a private test, and sort of feel there's no point producing 'the evidence' if the school have little interest in supporting him appropriately.

I banged on about our DS for years and was just told that he was idle and from time to time stupid (both true but not to that extent), having picked this up from really early on. It is true that 7/8 is generally the earliest, allthough some would say that 10/11 is when it really becomes clear. (DS's secondary school picked up immediately). I wish I'd known about that website.

What I can say is that it's important to have a happy child - and learn from our mistakes: do lots of things about stories and imagination so that they are not put off books - cds, plays, you reading to them; go for the specific books that are written for dyslexics; think about a Kindle if you can afford it because you can change the font; buy the the fairly cheap perspex colour transparencies to make reading easier - black on white is notoriously difficult.

Writing is hard but often does come with practice - and we found that drawing was one of the ways in. But get DC to learn to touch type as soon as possible - there are fun programmes you can use and it's a necessary skill in any case.

Most of this means effort on your part, rather than the school's, I'm afraid. And I wish I'd chilled more.

OP - we have had many, many threads on dyslexia here. Particularly on the primary board. Search them to find out the consensus :)

But basically, a diagnosis of dyslexia won't help your child. Whether he has dyslexia, or is just slow to read for other reasons, school will do the same thing with him - loads and loads of synthetic phonics.

So what you want to talk about with the SENCO is not whether or not he has dyslexia, it's irrelevant. What you want to talk about is what school are going to do to help him catch up.

''school will do the same thing with him - loads and loads of synthetic phonics''.

Not necessarily -lots of schools are still using non-systematic, multi-cueing programmes for intervention such as CatchUp literacy and Ficher Family Trust Wave3 and even Reading Recovery

maverick - true. They may not do phonics.

But a dx of dyslexia is still unlikely to change what intervention they do.

I am a adult dyslexic, was never diagnosed at school, had myself tested 15 years ago, it was free at the dyslexia institution in Nottingham.
They run adult education courses and a went to some.
tinted sunglasses worked better for me then overlays,
get a book called "the gift of dyslexia" it is full of handy ways to learn,
don't rely on paper and pens, try finger writing in sand, making the letters out of clay, different smells for different sounds.
the very best of luck.

The SENCO may just be warning you rather than trying to fob you off. Our local LEA, a very rich inner London Borough, refused to test DD at age 6.5 because she was "only" 6 months behind her peer group. After several months of argument we eventually paid for a private test at Dyslexia Action and specialist teaching at one of their centres. I did not want to chance the DIY approach and while the teaching was expensive and she went once a week until the end of year 5 it was worth it. I wish DD had been diagnosed and received specialist teaching at age 5 when I first thought she was dyslexic as her confidence took a real battering and she thought she was stupid! We had the unfortunate experience of a useless primary school and SENCO as well. She still suffers from lack of confidence although she is now 12 and in the top set at her comprehensive school, despite still having various difficulties.

cracknips

Dyslexia is a man made problem, cognitive issues when decoding and recoding a man made communication system the visual notation of speech, or the graphic symbols society chooses to represent speech. There are two types of dyslexia; Developmental Dyslexia which has a genetic origin, and Alexia (acquired dyslexia) which results from brain injury, substance abuse, stroke, dementia, or progressive illness
There are three cognitive subtypes of Developmental Dyslexia: auditory, visual, and attentional. Which means that an auditory processing disorder, a visual processing disorder, an attention disorder, or some combination of the three can cause the dyslexic symptom.
Each of the different underlying causes of the dyslexic symptom require different types of support and remediation, and what may help one cognitive subtype of dyslexic may conflict with the support required by another cognitive subtype. So you really do need to identify the underlying cognitive cause or causes of the dyslexic symptom, especially as these clinically diagnosable conditions will have more serious symptoms than the dyslexic one.
You could also have a look at
CiteULike Group: Reading: Acquiring and Developing the Skills and Abilities - library 263 articles
and my Dyslexia and Reading links list

cracknips is right...some kids have optical probs(not bad eyesight )need to see a special kind of optician for it to do with reading which aren't the same as 'classic dyslexia'....avoid generalising about solutions and symptoms.... btw the shades/transparencies dont work for all......as they mature it can get easier c/o coping strategies etc....find something they really like to encourage them about themselves......GOOD LUCK!!!and remember they may not have it

demisemiquaver

There is no such thing as 'classic dyslexia'. (could be part of BDA mythology)
Dyslexia is a man made problem a social construct, and is language dependent, which means the underlying cognitive causes of the dyslexic symptom will vary according to the structure of the language being used, and the writing system being used to represent the speech in the form of graphic symbol or symbols.

There are three cognitive subtypes of developmental dyslexia, auditory, visual, and attentional, and each dyslexic needs to identify which of these underlying cognitive issues cause their dyslexic symptom. The disabilities that cause the dyslexic symptom are life long, and yes on a good day we can sometimes use some coping strategies we have developed, but this can be very tiring and stressful, and sometimes we need to develop new coping strategies for new words, and small group jargon.
It would be better if others could communicate on our terms, and not always stressing us out expecting us to use their preferred form of communication.

The coloured overlays and coloured lens are required by those who have Scotopic Sensitivity Syndrome as the underlying cause of dyslexia.

i come from a family where we are all dyslexic (or thought to be)
my grandad is severly - cant spell his address and other day to day basics)after nearly thirty years living in same house although he was a successful engineer . he relied on my nan to read and write EVERYTHING for him. she passed away three years ago

my db was thought to have dyslexia but never wanted to be tested. handwriting, spelling and overall ability to retain information.

my dsis is moderate to severly dyslexic (only became apparent when studying for her a - levels and was tested. she was in all topsets and expected to do extremely well. in her assessment she was told that her brain had difficulty processing information and learning in a different way to how she would have done in her gcse's.

my mum has an auditory processing disorder (only last year when she went back to college she was tested) she always thought she was thick. shes 56!

my dd is thought to be dyslexic but school will not test her as she is gifted in english. they will only test her when the problem becomes too much. her handwriting is shocking and her spelling is not what it should be.her ability 'masks' the difficulty. the schools view is there is only so much money allocated and those who are behind will be tested which i understand and fully accept. if personal funds become available i will get her tested myself.

with my post i am trying to say that each family member has been affected differently and to either a greater or lesser degree! when i was asked to sit a test for dyslexia at uni i refused also but am aware of the problems i face and try to overcome them myself. its all about educating the person who suffers on a daily basis to overcome the difficulties and giving them ways 'to cope' but not alllowing it to be given as an excuse to give up. positive reinforcements are needed as when learning any new skill.

blossomhillontapplease

I am a fellow dyslexic, and like your mum Auditory Processing Disorder (APD) is the cause of my dyslexic symptom.
The real issue with dyslexia is to identify the specific underlying cognitive cause or causes. so that you can avoid the areas of disability, and focus on the alternative compensating abilities to work around the cognitive disabilities causing the dyslexic symptom. We need to also self advocate so that others communicate using communication systems more suited to our abilities and not our disabilities.
Your Mum might like to join the OldAPDs a Yahoo group for adults who have APD currently there are some 500+ members and many like me found out they had APD late in life.