What has been most helpful for your dyslexic child?

[Curlewwoohoo]

That's it! Things at school, things at home.

hand writing practice. every single day.

I would love to hear to suggestions here. My lovely DS is now 30, has a first class degree and his own flat but life is still tricky for him at work and home

In what way @Newwindows ?@Newwindows ? I'm at the beginning here, newly diagnosed 9yo daughter.

Touch typing

How did you teach touch typing?

BBC dancemat

but it is absolutely critical not to neglect handwriting practice. Over reliance on laptops prevents development of organisational skills

Coloured paper or overlays can help and a child with the dyslexia often takes longer to learn things like spellings then children without so practicing the same words 10 times can help. What age is the dc? and depending how the dyslexia affects them could depend on other strategies.

Find something she is good at possibly outside school and praise her. My son's was woodwork. It is now his trade.Self esteem is all. State School was just awful and he only learnt to read with one to one help in a specialist unit. Getting him into the unit literally drove me barmy. If you have funds send her to a private specialist school. My son is now in his thirties, he uses you tube videos to learn things I would use a book for, uses the calculator on his phone to check his estimates and has the self confidence to ask for help with stuff like mortgage application form. He learnt to work very hard early on and bought his own house at 23. He is the kindest most thoughtful person I know and any problem that involves spatial stuff he will come up with a unique and workable option.

Please dont fall for any of the Irlen syndrome rubbish, it is a syndrome invented purely by the people who were selling the diagnostic tests and treatments for it - it is a complete con

It doesn’t work for all children but it has helped my dd and has also helped some of the children I work with.

but irlen syndrome doesn't exist!

If a child struggles with brightness, then turn down the contrast on the computer, or print on dull paper, or even use sunglasses. Prescribed "coloured overlays" have no value what so ever, but if a child likes this way of gutting out glare from the paper, ANY tinted plastic wallet for 99p is fine.

DO NOT pay for coloured lenses. They are useless, and damaging if your child should be using normal glasses.

DS is doing his GCSEs now and the most useful thing has been buying him the audio books of his GCSE English texts. Of course he still reads the books, but the audio books have really cemented the content is his brain as he’s not having to concentrate on the actual reading. In terms of spelling, I have no suggestions unfortunately!

Honestly for both of mine it was the official diagnosis.

I know many wont agree here but for my 2 having struggled for years to get this the diagnosis showed them they were not stupid/lazy as many said.

More practical
For dd2. The coloured lay overs helped a lot and for dd3 being allowed to type answers not write.

I have dyslexia, I vastly prefer writing with pencil vs pen. I currently use one these: Uni Kuru Toga Roulette Mechanical Pencil 0.5mm don't forget get good quality polymer leads.

Also, I find it incredibly difficult to listen and write at the same time, so note taking is almost impossible. Some educational establishments will give out lesson/lecture notes. I also find web casts really good as I can pause them while I take on board what is being said

There's several different types of dyslexia - it might to figure out which trait is most difficult.

Being able to touch type was absolutely amazing for me (dyslexic adult who typed all their gcse / a level exams) - my handwriting is ok but I type nearly everything. I agree loads of fun websites/ games that I use with my dyslexic son. Definitely recommend learning organisational habits too. allowing plenty of time as I know I’m so much worse when under pressure. Accepting help from others to proof read and recognise that will never be a strength is also important life skill in my opinion!

Time and space. Reading every night, encouraging, but never forcing them to read part of it, then reading to them for 10/15 minutes. Telling them it is ok that only get 2 our of 10 for spellings sometimes, as long as they are trying.

Building a love a reading through relaxation and enjoyment. They will always be dyslexic. DD struggled so much until about year 5, now in high school and well above average in English. There is more typing in high school, for sure. She is a total bookworm.

DS is year 6 and still struggling in terms of speed. His content is brilliant. He has the love of stories and a love of creative writing. Not yet an independent bookworm, but we still read every night to wind down.

Agree dyslexia is a spectrum and people don't have the same difficulties as the next...

My son struggled with spelling and found the ACE dictionary very useful.

He's now almost 18 and off to university in September so confidence building is huge and teach them to not let their dyslexia hold them back if they have a dream.

One of mine uses a laptop in school, the other one has pink paper to write on, she has visual stress as well which is very common. Waiting for an appointment with a specialist optometrist to pinpoint the best colour overlays for her and possibly coloured glasses.

Reading is non negotiable on school nights even though they are in secondary now. Neither of them would chose to read for pleasure.

Should you go down the route of trying to get an EHCP and employ your own experts for reports make sure they are willing to accompany you to Tribunal when you have to appeal. If not they are a very expensive waste of money.

For my child it was getting the diagnosis in the first place. We waited until Year 6 to properly go down that route and once we realised just how much she'd been compensating in other ways to get on at school I think it was a real relief to her to know how and why she learns differently.

Once we got to secondary we had a meeting with an amazing SENDCO teacher who spoke to her about being dyslexic and what practical things she can do - learn to touch type, use speak to text function in word and to celebrate what she excels in and focus more on those areas. She has been set the Lexia program to do online but she finds this quite boring.

Also we get her to read to us everynight and then we read back to her. So all the books that she finds overwhelming (basically anything with a lot of heavy text) we read together so she enjoys it and also gets a sense of achievement for having managed a book she would never pick up because its 'too hard'. There are some amazing books out there for the pre teen/ teen age group, so actually continuing to read before bed with her is a realy pleasure still.

Can I hijack and ask at what age you all realised something was 'wrong'?

My son is 7 and I strongly believe he is dyslexic. He knows the alphabet but simply cannot read, not a single word really. Even words like 'in' he needs to sound out the letters. His writing is slightly better but he is way way behind his peers, despite a lot of effort on his part and ours. He gets very panicky and upset when asked to read and has developed some coping strategies at school which we've only just found out about.

DH is severely dyslexic and he says a lot of what DS is doing is familiar to him. I've no idea if there is a hereditary factor here but it seems like there might be.

Anyway, I don't know if he's still too young to assess? The school are aware of what's going on obviously but haven't done anything about it.

Sorry to derail, but all I read is threads about kids reading by age 4 or whatever and there isn't much support out there.

There is a software called Mavis Beacon Teaches Typing that's very good.

Computer games development was a really good way for me to understand maths.

DS was diagnosed (quite late) at 11-12 as he was successfully masking in primary. Is now in his 20s.

My suggestions would be:

• formal diagnosis - helps them (and you) understand that they are not 'stupid/ slow/ lazy' etc (and yes, sadly these attitudes still exist 🙁 ) and may get the extra time for exams / assessments (even if they don't use it, it takes some of the stress/ panic away)
• don't overload with extra curric & after school activities - create time for them to 'decompress' as school is exhausting for them
• find out what they are good at - it might be something creative like art/ drama etc as dyslexic thinkers can be very creative
• notice how they prefer to learn. DS is highly visual. He did most of his GCSE revision via YouTube and did fine (mostly A*/A grades!)
• re reading - keep an eye on their learning of phonics/ blending etc as DS just didn't 'get' this at all
• check out your library (free) and audible (££) for audiobooks. When older, and even now, DS loved 'reading/listening' to an audiobook while following it on the page. Ignore any stupid/ ignorant parents who tell you that this is 'cheating' (yes, AN, I'm looking at you...) The most important thing is that your child understands that they can access and enjoy books and storytelling
• do look out for famous people who have dyslexia - there are lots! Especially in the creative communities

? "Masking" makes absolutely no sense in the context of dyslexia. You cant act as if you dont have it!