Supporting 12 year old with dyslexia & dyscalculia

[Zoraflora]

As the title says my 12 year old has dyslexia & dyscalculia.

She struggles with all aspects of reading & maths. She gets extra help in school & has a language exemption. I help her with homework, reading & maths every day, however as she approaches the end of primary school she doesn’t want me helping her any more.

She seems to have lost all interest and motivation in learning.

Her self esteem is very low and she often says “whats the point, I don’t understand”

Ive never put pressure on her as she has up until this point worked hard to keep her head above water so to speak.

She enjoys sport and I encourage her, support her with this.
I worry how she is going to cope in secondary school with the increased workload,longer day, new subjects etc.

Any advice or experiences from parents in similar situations or maybe with children further down the road.

Sorry post was very long!

Anyone?

I have severe dyslexia and dyscalculia. You have no idea how long it just took me to spell those words and in the end had to copy and paste the spelling from your post... that's how bad I am.

Try stimulating more than one sense at a time

For example instead of just reading or just doing maths try

PowerPoints

Flash cards - and dominos - make your own

Even let her use a fidget spinner while your going through questions

Try and get her to write out notes/ calculations that she doesn't know or understand and each one in a different colour and on different pages so she can try and visualise it in her minds eye so when asked that question again she may be able to think 'oh yeah I know this answer it was on the love of paper I had in pink pen and the answer was X' . This can also work with different music on in the background . I've heard people mention using different scents aswell. Like lavender in the room when learning a subject then lemon when learning another.

Bubble charts are good all different colours per question!

Does she likes sports? Could do a sports game like run to certain points in a park like in a map and has to find the answer before moving onto the next questions which obviously you can help her find the answer she doesn't have to suddenly know the answer because she's outside and not stressing at a table with a price of paper

Have nothing related to school work AT All in her bedroom so her bedroom acts as a safe space from learning which is hard for her at the moment. But when she's feeling for comfortable in the future have her write up notes and have them doted around the house, just never in her bedroom she will subconsciously take it in

Have a look at online games specific for what she has there's loads out there

Maths or spelling questions on the car

Also speak with her school when she's start in September about use of laptop in lessons and products such as claroRead ( have a look on google it will explain)

Has she had her eyes tested? Could get reading glasses with coloured lenses or a coloured overlay sheet

And above all tell her all is not lost. Once she finds out the best way for her to learn then things will really start to improve and even if it doesn't so what you don't need to be a mathematician or the best speller in the world to be great as she already is.

I survived, passed uni, albeit with several meltdowns and now have a brilliant job. Can I spell now? Absolutely not! Does a math question make me sweat absolutely yes! But perseverance is key.

My dd13 with dyslexia has found secondary school a bit easier as she could do a lot of the homework on a laptop and use the dictate button to help write longer text. More work is online, There is also less emphasis for her on learning a specific set of spellings which she used to hate. She enjoys the different types of lessons aswell like DT, art, drama, p.e eta. My DH has dyslexia and has done well for himself using tech so we try and use this to encourage her that she can do well in her own way

@quietnightmare thank you so much for your reply. Its given me lots of ideas to work on.

I never thought about keeping her bedroom school free zone but it makes a lot of sense. Im also going to get her eyes tested.

Im delighted to read you were able to get to third level & get a good job. I think this is my main worry that she will lose interest in education and not reach her full potential.