Dyslexia help

[mummyof2boys30]

My son is aged 8. He has a diagnosis of Developmental language disorder however i have queried dyslexia with the school but my concerns keep being brushed under the carpet. Attached is two pieces he wrote tonight.
1 says - I love my family and halloween and christmas cause you get presents. I know all about it is all about of spending with your family.

2nd says - everybody is a special person. God made you, even jesus. This is for god.

I am considering a private assessment however it is a lot of money so want some other peoples opinions first.

Hi, my son had a language delay. In primary school, dyslexia was mentioned as a possibility, but was told that it was only very mild if at all. In secondary school his very poor spelling, grammar and structure really worried me. I had him privately assessed at the end of year 9 and he was assessed as dyslexic. He will get 25% extra time and he can do his work on a laptop.

I believe that there is a strong link between language delay and dyslexia. Once I started digging I could have kicked myself for not picking up on the signs earlier. The secondary school didn't want to know about my dyslexia concerns and said he definitely wasn't as he was keeping up at school. Turns out he is particularly bright and his 'keeping up' was under performing for his actual ability.

From looking at the things you child has written, I would say that there is definitely a distinct possibility of dyslexia. The sooner you get a diagnosis the better. There are loads of resources online and strategies that can be adopted to make things easier for your child. Funding is an issue in schools so they really really don't want more dyslexic children...hence trying to bat you away.

My DD has severe DLD comorbid with dyslexia and Dyscalculia. This is a very very common mix. My DD is in Y8 now but would produce something like this in Y4-5. Without support she just stayed stagnant but we didn't get a full diagnosis till Y5 and that wasn't until we went private. The LEA EP and SALT didn't do the full assessment, just the bits the school said she struggled with so it was never that helpful. Does your son have an EHCP?

We are based in Nortern ireland but no he doesn't have a statement. He is on level 3 IEP. He previously went to a speech and language unit for 2 years however that's all he was allowed to do and then had to move to mainstream again. It has been since lockdown i noticed how poor his spelling and reading was. School always tell me he is doing really well etc, but i just dont believe them. We are in a new 2 week lockdown so will speak to school when he returns but i am definitely steering towards private assessment. He gets sent home spelling activites almost daily that he hasnt had time to finish in school and also on the days he has literacy homework he is kmown to cry even as early as that morning about it as he knows he will struggle. The problem is he gets his weekly test almost perfect but if u asked him those words a week later he will of forgotten them. We spend maybe an hour every night doing them

This sounds like my life 3 years ago to be honest. I personally would stop spending so long on the spellings, they are too hard for him. Insist the school gives him appropriate level work and explain how long this is taking him. It's great you're so involved but this is going against you as he seems to be doing well and so the school are not keen on taking action.
My DD is really badly affected in maths and I was doing something similar to you. It meant the school just didn't listen to me and kept sending her hard work that was taking her hours to do and she wouldn't remember it anyway.
I ended up putting my foot down and we just didn't do it until they gave us appropriate scaffolded work.
To be honest it only get better for us in secondary school where she received much better support. She still really struggles with memory and this seems to be a common theme with DLD kids. It has got better since she's been on DHA and inulin but that doesn't have an effect on all kids.
I would personally pursue the private assessment I'd you have the money. A specialist dyslexia teacher can do them too and they are cheaper than an EP.

I would pay for the assessment and in the meantime use word wasp or similar to get the basic spellings in place. Doodle spell good too.

So when my son was assessed his report said that he had a very poor working memory and poor processing. This is so common with language delayed children (my son also had a stammer - again a dyslexia 'red flag') - that I really wish speech and language practitioners would at least mention it to parents. I think my brother was probably dyslexic too, but back then no testing. I probably have dyspraxia and also had unclear speech as a child. If you start reading about it and digging online there is loads of info.

Touch typing has been proved to really help reduce the cognitive load and free up working memory. My son spent the summer learning to touch type and it has proved a game changer. Not sure how helpful your school will be once you have a diagnosis, but the good news is that if he does have dyslexia they will at least have to do something. If it is dyslexia, PM me as I have links to sites that you might find helpful. Please don't despair - there are loads of strategies that can help nowadays.

I remember leaving my sons parents evenings in tears when he was in primary school as he just couldn't 'get' phonics no matter how hard I tried with him - and like you, I really put the time in. One teacher told me that 'Well, some children have it and some children don't!" Ahhhhhh. Turns out he is in the top 3% ability, just hampered by the dyslexia.

It makes me so angry that these wonderful talented children are not supported by an education system that will only teach in ways that work for neuro typicals. My son's assessment has proved empowering for him so definitely worth doing even if you have to save up for it.

Looks exactly like my daughter's spellings at the same age. She was a very early talker and no language issues verbally, but is quite severely dyslexic (assessed in Y3 and again in Y6 with identical scores on everything) with very low working memory and slightly below average processing speed.

What has worked for us:

• touch typing and moving to using a laptop for everything (HUGE improvements in everything, above all her confidence and enthusiasm).
• a cheat sheet on her desk of all the most common words so she could refer to that for spellings (no earth shattering improvement but definitely helped).
• school ignoring all spelling errors and focusing on content and ideas.