has my son got special needs please help

[Upsetmum]

my sons teacher is very worried about him.He is 7 1/2 and is a slow reader he still is not very good with his sounds,he is not to bad at maths until he has to read instructions,he has poor concentration,has trouble see in seeing the white board even tho i have had his eyes tested and are fine just poor eye concentration they said,He goes crazy in p.e lessons and in the school playground really imature and has a bad memorie.Do these sound like anything I can put a name to and get help for him?He also has low self estem and seems to be angry alot of the time

Some of what you said is 'familiar' to me too! The memory bit i'm curious about.....does he remember things from a while ago- ie when he was younger realy well- and yet unable to walk upstairs to bring a pair of socks down??? etc or is his 'whole' memory poor too? Does he have something that he can concentrate on or play with for hours- or is his concentration poor at all times? Can he actually see the white board- but infact his problem comes in copying whats on it down onto his work book/ or more importantly 'keeping track' of where he's up to/remembering where to look on the board. And in the playground- does he interact with his 'friends' or does he try to dominate them- or is it really when they say 'immature' is it really that he doesn't understand the 'rules' of the games they play so 'acts up'.
Theses are the kind of questions you need to look at- and the one thing i've learnt having 1 son definitely (and 1 son possibly AUTISTIC) is how many 'behaviours' can feature in a child with special needs- so what i'd do is visit this website-
www.cafamily.org.uk/home.html

which is Contact A Family- then select from the index for example A and D to give you info on conditions such as Dyspraxia,ADHD,Aspergers etc and just see whether you identify with anything more than another- my gut feeling is that you've read all our postings and 'something clicked' with what your cild does and what you read- also check out the 'special needs ' threads- and most of all......be proud of yourself!

Have a word with the school SENCO and ask if an assessment can be carried out. We've had this recently with DS, similar 'symptoms', the lady that carried out the assessment picked up problems with tracking and convergence, the school recommended an optometrist (not your run of the mill high street type like specsavers etc.) He has been referred for 'reflex conditioning' which is properly called 'neuro developmental therapy'. This was picked up through a more detailed eye test which lasted 45 mins and cost £35. The optometrist recommended a lady that carries out this type of work but does it on a private basis which is very costly, but the school SENCO has managed to find someone that works for the LEA that also does this 'conditioning', ds has his first assessment for this at the beginning of January.

This is part of what the optometrist wrote in his report to the school (for which he charged them £55 - less than one side of A4 paper).
Ocular motility is very poor with exceedingly jerky tracking movements, saccades and jump convergence. When pushed, his near point of convergence is well with normal limits but is highly unstable and, from choice, he will not make the effort to align his eyes. He has an exceedingly short attention span and poor concentration and co-operation which contribute to him not being able to understand and/or obey instructions. His field/ground skills are very poor. Investigation of his gross motor system reveals that he is significantly homolateral. This is to such a degree that the more subtle aspects of this type of problem, as exhibited in the visual system cannot be properly addressed, because he is receiving too many conflicting messages to his brain.

Hope this helps, keep us posted on how you get on.

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found this yesterday, have a look.

Is there a history of dyslexia in your family? Some of his difficulties sound like they might be symptoms. He might even have a cluster of dyslexia / dyspraxia / ADHD type difficulties. What does his class teacher think (and what did previous ones think?)I agree with Ailsa that you should talk to the SENCO if you haven't already, but they may not be able to do any detailed testing due to lack of money / expertise. If you don't get any joy, try talking to the Head.

I agree with the dyslexia/dyspraxia idea. Have a look at this site
www.ddat.co.uk