Indigo's depressing update thread

[IndigoBell]

(This thread is for those of you have been following my DDs story so far)

Had an up and down year so far. After telling me she was a 2b in reading last year - she was assessed as a 1b this year. :(

Then I saw her teacher just before the holidays, and she's been doing really good work. For the first time ever I could actually read it. Miles better than the work she was doing at the beginning of the term.

Today had a brief word, and apparantly 'progress is slower than expected' with relearning learning 'split e'. (Which is one of her targets on her IEP)

And then today she came home and wanted to write a novel (great). But once again it is virtually unreadable :(

Catu A trific berthday

Hi I am Bile it is my 6 bthedon mum and dad gin to tac me to the poo I bon see wot cod ow rog larstyar I had a prod tam with sirel

mum gifig me rm dar and nud rus wut dad the opsit He cart wat mum cep on in barsig me but dad was the fos win in I wis we did breg mum

(Chapter A Terrific Birthday

Hi, I am Billy. It is my 6th birthday. Mum and dad are going to take me to the pool. I don't see what could go wrong. Last year I had a problem with cereal

Mum giving me arm bands and rubber ring. But dad is the opposite. He can't wait. Mum keeps on embarrassing me but dad was the first one in. I wish we didn't bring mum)

(And more paragraphs, of a similar standard)

The handwriting is a lot better than it was. Spelling is slightly better. :(

School say the are 'concerned' by how spiky she is. ie the difference between what she can do one time to another :(

I will not give up. Never. But bloody hell it's hard to know what to do :(

How old is your daughter Indigo?

Who has reassessed her as a 1b, Indigo? What's their explanation for the backwards slide and what are they going to do to address it?

I'm so sorry it all seems so down again for you

Hi Indigo. The actual content of your DC story is very good for a young child who obviously has a good imagination.

I dont know your history and unfortunately cant help you, but I hope you get some support

DD is 8 and in y4

Last year (apparantly) she got a 2b on a SATs paper.

This year she couldn't do a level 2 nfer paper at all and got a 1b on a miscue analysis test and they sent her home with a blue band book.

They are not explaining the backward slide - or admitting to it. They just say she is 'spiky'.

They spoke to the EP and she didn't make the list to be assessed this term. (but then her prev report isn't very old)

She has 1:1 with a TA every day and reads to a y6 girl every day.

But I wasn't keen on her doing another year of read, write, in (instead of literacy) so she's not doing that this year.

has she had a hearing check recently?

in barsig for embarrasing is phonetically plausible (is the right phrase?) but she might not be hearing the whole word IYSWIM

When they gave her a sats paper last year is it possible they gave her a key stage 1 test last year and key stage 2 test this year?
Obviously the levels should stay the same but it doesn't always work that way.

She does have auditory problems - but not hearing loss, so nothing an audiologist is concerned about.

What's your daughter reading now, Indigo?

This is tough for you and it must be difficult sometimes not to show your disappointment. I'll copy this and e-mail to my Sound Reading System colleague and also to colleague whose grandson has similar problems, particularly with spelling, in spite of a great deal of very good nguistic phonics input.
Keep your spirits up ...

Do you think she is 'spiky' (ie that can do something, then can't, then needs to relearn) or do you think their assessment is inconsistent?

Thanks AllChildrenReading.

With the TA she is still going through Read, Write, Inc. They are doing blue level (because she finished last year on yellow level). But she is doing this 1:1 for 10 - 15 mins, rather than for one hour in a small group.

With me and the Y6 girl she is reading a proper novel (that I provided). She reads the words she can, and gets told or helped with the words she can't.

But there aren't any decodable books that she can read and that will interest her.

No, I think she really is spiky.

There really are times when she can almost read / write, and lots of other times when she can't.

I saw her unassisted work at school. It was good. Sure this work at home is being done in the evening and is being done for fun, so you wouldn't expect it to be as good as her work at school. But still. The difference between the two pieces is huge. (I don't think school are lying to me. I think the work at school really was unassisted)

I'm not so sure about her getting a 2b on a SATs paper. But she might have? I've never heard her read that well.

Its hard to imagine just how wearing this must be for you Indigo. Gosh, talk about twp steps forward and two steps back.

Dear Indigobell this is probably obvious but has your DD seen a developmental paediatrician? There are all sorts of reasons why learning can go backwards or be spiky. If not, perhaps ask your GP for a referral?

GP did refer her to a paed - and the paed refused to see her.

Learning isn't going backwards - it's just spiky. Very spiky.

Besides diet (which we're currently playing with) I can't think of any reason why she should be so spiky. Do you have any idea?

My DD1 managed to get 2b for reading in her KS1 SATs when she couldn't read!
And pass the headmistresses reading assessment because she let her choose a non fiction book she was interested in. It took till almost the end of Y6 for her to be recognised formally as dyslexic despite her written work barely coming up to Y4 standard.
It drives you mad, you know there's something wrong, but school wants to see only the good days.
Secondary school are not a whole lot better because DD1 is very bright and manages to muddle through. She has just passed an adult evening class paper because it was multiple choice, her tutor would have had a fit if she actually wrote something.
She's in Y9 and I've some notes on what she needs for Rangers that look very like your DDs spellings, I haven't a clue what they are doing the week after next it's gibberish.

Wow IndigoBell, that must be so frustrating for you.

I know you say your dd has had her hearing checked, but it really does look to me like that might be part of the problem - especially if her reading has come on.

I'm sure I read a thread yesterday where a dc had been passed as hearing fine, but the parent had a friend who did a further more advanced test and found that her hearing range was quite different 'to the norm' and was causing problems.

I'll go and have a look, see if I can find it.

I'd insist she gets a full paediatric assessment...how can a paed refuse to see a child? That's wrong. Get referred to a different one. I'd also insist on an educational psychologist report. There's something up. Either the teaching is so crap she's not picking stuff up or she's losing concentration big time, and there's a reason for that. If you are looking into her diet you might also want to try getting her to have more sleep, she may have tiredness problems.

I'd also suggest getting her to drama classes, as they are great for thinking about words and actions and may help with concentration.

Also, try to find books that are interesting, DD hated the school readers so I bought her lots of other stuff and she was fine with that, once she discovered books were fun and not tedious. DD also was a sight reader, phonics did not work for her, could this be the case with your DD? My DD also had terrible spelling because she didn't "get" phonics and so just wrote out words as she saw fit. She understood it fine and was a bit cheesed off that us adults struggled. Luckily she had a teacher who was able to accommodate her sight reading and stopped making her do phonics, I know schools where they won't admit phonics doesn't work, but I understand about 10% of the population don't really respond to phonics.

Just hazarding a guess but could it be the 'normal' spelling goes out the window once creativity is engaged. If she is still at the stage when decoding is not automatic then the 'brain power' needed to write creatively places constraints on the working memory that would otherwise be used to decode accurately...or something like that.

Have you tried a simple dictation with her to see of she can write/spell more or less accurately?

I believe being much better some days than others isn't uncommon with dyslexics. DD1 is much better if she's interested in and understands what she's reading.
She'd do better with Biff and the magic key where she knew the characters names and the set phrases than with something unfamiliar. Strange names and lots of unfamiliar words seemed to panic her and her reading would fall to pieces. Around Y3 she read lots of non fiction and because she can't help absorbing science living here she seemed to find that easier. I think she had enough general knowledge to know if what she read made sense.
I really do wish you luck because I know DD1 will have to struggle to pass her GCSEs because despite knowing the answers she can't write that knowledge down.
Meanwhile DD2 (who is no brighter) will sail through everything in the top sets because she was born with a built in dictonary

She's been seen by the EP. The something is labelled as 'dyslexia'.

I really don't think a paed would find anything. All of her problems are cognitive - and so an EP is the right person to assess her. She has no other issues at all.

Her sleep is fine.

Her concentration is fine.

Teaching is fine.

I have books she likes. She just can't read them.

DDs sight reading is even worse than her phonics. She is absolutely unable to learn sight words.

Part of the problem is definitely auditory. As well as diet this is another thing we are working on at the moment.

If it was a spelling test her spelling would be much better.

And school are saying she is now able to spot her own spelling errors and correct her work if they tell her to check it.

So, she really has made huge progress from a year ago. A year ago she couldn't have spelled things correctly even in a spelling test. And she certainly couldn't correct her own work.

A year ago she couldn't read CVC words, and still struggled with the 45 HF words. Now she can read quite a lot of words. And she is much more fluent with the words she knows.

Can she repeat non words like woolagamic?

she really has made huge progress from a year ago.

It probably feels like running through treacle but just keep reminding yourself how far she has come in the last year

She probably couldn't repeat a long new word accurately.

She certainly struggles immensely to recall new words. (ie to be able to use them in a sentence later - even though she knows what it means.)

Indigo, she wanted to write a novel.

That, in itself is so fantastic.

Yes, it's frustrating for you, but she obviously doesn't feel completely knocked back by her difficulties, which is brilliant.

Sorry, I have no words of wisdom, but your DD is very, very lucky to have you as her mum.