Benefits of dyslexia dx for home ed child???

[BreadAndJamForFrances]

Hi, I need some advice please...doesn't really fit in special needs children, so I'm asking here....DS and his sisters are all home-educated.

DS is 8.6 and has a Severe Phonological Speech Disorder and Ehlers Danlos / Hypermobility Syndrome and is also severely short sighted. He has been having weekly SALT since September and I have been paying for him to have private sessions every 3 weeks. DS has huge problems with pronouncing words, he leaves the beginning, middles and ends of words, can't 'do' or 'hear' rhymes, can't sound out a word (can manage 1-2 sounds of a 3 letter word with lots of help and prompting) and can't produce some sounds at all, others are produced but not effectively, but some with 4 years of therapy and endless help from me and his family he can now say beautifully :) ) All of these things his private speech therapist says points to Dyslexia and I should ask his NHS therapist about getting him assessed. He also has a lot of the traits that my dyslexic brother and severely duslexic uncle have/had. I would not be at all surprised if it turned DS is dyslexic, but I had never been told about/realised the speech problems could be linked.

Now, DS is not reading properly (he can manage some words, we have given up on phonics as it was completely confusing and frustrating him, and use sight reading, because this has worked wonders with his older sister who also had speech problems, but not so bad) and in turn cannot write much without help to spell. He can remember some basics like dog, cat, family names, some 10 letters long, shop names, etc. BUT, I don't get him to write alot at home as he finds writing painful after a few minutes due to his hypermobility...he wears a wrist splint, has a slope, pen grips, which help a bit and he will write things when playing a game/drawing/adding to a shopping list etc. but I don't make him sit and write for more than 10 minutes at a time as it is not worth the upset! I wonder if not writing as much as if he was at school is affecting his ability to read/write.

Sorry that is long, but I wanted to cover everything...I have spoken to the NHS therapist, but she says that isn't an area they cover and has no idea how I would go about getting him assessed as he is home-ed.

What I need to know is:
With a child who is home-educated, is it worth trying to get him assessed for dyslexia?
Will it benefit him in anyway?
Will he get any extra SALT or other support if he has an official diagnosis?
Will I have to pay or will the LEA assess him even though he is not at school?
I don't want to get the LEA un-necessarily involved (after them asking for a report on the children's education, losing emails, accusing me of not replying and then not even acknowledging the huge report....they don't exactly fill me with confidence ) if there will be no difference in DS's care.
Is there anything else I should know?

Thanks for reading, and any advice/help/comments welcome :)

extremely unlikely to get LA funding for anything to do with dyslexia while home educated, although in theory ed psychs are available to home ed, which is why ed psych services are specifically excluded from alternative provision funding for SEN support when home ed.

shouldn't need dx to get SALT, because should go through health, not education, but might not get SALT even with dx while home ed. (Nor get SALT if not home ed actually)

I must say if you as a parent know of remedial/coping strategies for dyslexia I can't see the benefit of diagnosis while home edding

a private dyslexia assessment costs at least a few hundred pounds i believe

does he use a keyboard?

DD is mow home educated and having a formal assessment has helped us hugely. Her strengths and weaknesses were identified, along with her learning styles, etc. We had 2 pages of recommendations of to support and help her in her learning.
So for us, yes, a formal assessment has been invaluable.
All the best with it all.

If in due course you want him to take public exams, it's worth a dx to get him extra time and the use if a keyboard. But you have to do that a couple of years before the exams and it sounds as though it's a long way off anyway.

The only thing I would say is that our Ds walked tall after his wonderful ed psych told him he was dyslexic. He no longer felt he was to blame in finding reading, writing etc hard. Etc covering organisation and listening skills. I could bless that man because he said in effect, you are just as bright/ normal as anyone else, it's just that bits of your brain are wired a bit differently. It means you are always going to have to work harder, but don't worry about it, lots of famous people are dyslexic and do all sorts of interesting things.

I've never seen such a changed child. And it took pressure off me. The money we would have spent on a holiday was worth every penny.

spendthrift, ive very recently had my 8 yr dd diagnosed as dyslexic, im a lot happier, as so is she, in now knowing that its not just 'her' not been able to get it right. i must say though that we are paying for a tutor each week, she's good, and giving me some good ideas to play around with , but they dont really seem to be that different that im doing with her anyway tbh. we have also found out that she has dyscalculia as well, but there doesnt seem to much research into it, but ive had some fantastic tips on here.
i do feel at times that i am labelling her at times, or is it an excuse to give people(im not quite sure).
my mil does make me feel guilty in that as im home edding her its my fault, and if she was at school theree would be no problems, im not teaching her correctly. ive got a 17 and 15 ds doing fantastically, eldest now at college, and 15 yr math genious lol. so i do get moments of total guilt complex ( is it really my fault?) maybe i need to get a backbone and stuff them all :0

Mumette, I'm so with you.

There are, however a couple of books I would recommend, one that you can get through the dyslexic association called something like surviving a dyslexic child, which is funny and full of good ideas. On the teaching side, I think it's finding out what works. My Ds uses mind maps, more verbal than most and appallingly spelt, with mini cards for vocabulary etc he was only picked up in year 7 by which time he had learned to hate all books and reading. The ed psych said that had he been younger it would have been with teaching him phonics properly , he'd had a useless nqt at the relevant time. A v sensible mother I know spent an agonizing summer holiday teaching her Ds aged 9 to read. He's now passionate about books but can't write for toffee. Laptops take a lot of the agony out. Get her to do a touch typing course, will stand her in good stead all her life. We deal with fiction by us having bedtime reading, theatre, cinema, v
Dvds of the classics etc.

On discalculia, my sister, a specialist teacher, tells me that the best stuff is coming from the US. But she recommends a book by Steve chinn of mark college called Sum Hope3. It's written for adults but it is completely enlightening. I found it fascinating, I gave it to a friend who has a v dyscalculic son, who stayed up all night reading it, and it transformed his relationship with his son. He emailed Steve chinn on the off chance to ask advice and got a response within 48 hours. I really recommend reading it and going on from there.

thankyou spendthrift, i'll have to look out for his book, it sounds like a fantastic read, and how wonderful to get a reply from the author as well , oh my word!!!!!
ive been searching the internet, colleges and uni courses for doing some sort of course on dyscalculia, on helping to teach it, but i'll be blowed if i can find a course on it. if ANYONE can enlighten me or help me in anyway in pointing me in the right direction i'd be delighted, obviously i'd be paying a small fortune , but i'd be worth it it for the children at the end of the day, and my dd of course :)

I don't want to take over this thread but feel free to pm me.

Spendthrift, thank you!

Hi - my son is 8 with EDS, is also Home Ed-ed due to LEA's abismal attitude despite a SSEN - I could, and have gone on, and on, and on!!

He has several co-morbid syndromes and diagnosis, but amongst these are now also Dyslexia and Dyspraxia - another report from GOSH confirming this came in today.

His dx's for these came via Neurodisabilities at GOSH, will they help - well I know I can't Home Ed forever, and his dx's will help us get through the Tribunal for the independant school that we have found who can care for him and all his medical as well as educational needs.

It has also shown that he has real problems when you combine dislocating fingers, hypermobile wrists, shoulders, hips and spine, which in themselves make writing a nightmare, but add a specific learning difficulty and this becomes a massive hurdle to overcome. We still push him, but it makes the extent of his difficulties real and I hope will show that when we say he is trying hard, people will maybe understand a little more and be a little more accomodating.

I've just posted a thread about the Nessy educational programes - I'm pants at putting on a link, so wont try again now - but I found this via a google search - its aimed at Dyslexic and Dyspraxic children, but also used for mainstream - it looks good so far, we're using the Times Tables and will buy the typing and full program when pay-day hits!!