writing + reading advice please

[3duracellbunnies]

I posted last week about dd1 reading, but been ruminating more and wondered if this sounds familiar to anyone. She is doing v well in numeracy, she has always been very articulate. By 2yrs she could hold a full conversation with an adult on most topics. She has always been reluctant to read, though she could recognise most letters and blend three letter words at 3 and a bit. At the start of yr 1 she was on ort 3; at begining yr 2 was ort 12. She is v resistent to reading, she will read signs no problem, and will read picture books to younger ones, but even if I suggest rainbow fairies she will read a page or two and give up. She always says she is too tierd. In reception she had a red filter for a bit which helped a little, but it got lost. When she reads the teachers comment that she needs to put more expression in, but they are happy with where she is. I find it frustrationg because I feel that she should be practising her reading, but she won't

Anyway, writing she loves, but her letter formation is still v poor. The teachers have finally agreed that she is slow on this and take her out for extra ta support. We still often get letters and numbers backwards, g, p, d, b, 6; 3, 9, s, also the rest are all over the place. The teacher has said that she can do them all when practise on their own, but not when she writes generally. They have just started using a new handwriting sheet, with rhymes like 'round the apple, down the leaf, they use it throughout the school now, she will say the rhyme, but still write it backwards or start in the wrong place as she says the rhyme. The teacher had suggested we maybe asked her to teach the younger ones so she gained a sense of mastery but we had to stop her teaching dd2 (reception) as she was trying to correct dd2 whose letters were correct, ds only just 2 so his writing just scribbles.

Dh has indecipherable handwriting too, I can read about half of it if I really concentrate he has degrees and higher degrees but feels esp in exams he has been disadvantaged. Should we be trying to get an assessment, what should we ask to be assessed, and by whom? Is the school likely to be able to arrange it or do we have to pay. She certainly isn't 'failing', but if there are things we can do would like to help her before she gets frustrated, she already often says she wishes she didn't have to go to school. We are getting eyes checked sat. She will be 7 in feb.

You need her eyes checked by a behaviour optometrist. (not a high street optician) She may have eye tracking difficulties or something like that, so that she can read individual words but finds it very difficult to scan her eyes across a line of text.

If this is the problem you can do vision therapy, and correct it in about 5 weeks.

These kind of problems are fairly common.

Thank you, do you know how it differs from an orthotic dept. She used to go for 6 monthly checks at the hospital, they did quite a lot of tracking things etc, but was discharged 2yrs ago. When she was v little one eye was smaller and she had a slight squint but didn't need treatment. Will try ringing the one near us, any idea on cost?

The way it differers from the orthotic dept my DS went to - as the behaviour optometrist actually did something, rather than saying 'come back in 6 months' :)

I think costs varies wildly. The place I go to charges £75 for the initial assessment, and then if you need (and want) vision therapy, they charge £350 for that ( 5 X 1 hour visits)

All 3 of mine have done vision therapy, and I'm very impressed with the changes. DS2 had problems focussing near or far - he had a sweet spot where he could see fine, and nobody had picked up his focussing problems. DS1 has eye tracking (and other) problems, so found it very hard to go from the end of one line to the beginning of the other. And DD had problems with near fouccssing.