Possible dyslexia and reaction of SenCo, confused and annoyed. WWYD?

[VinoEsmeralda]

I'm not the best in converting thoughts/conversations to paper but will try to give a neutral picture of current situation.

DD is in Yr2 and last year her teacher (NQT who is v young and IMO lacks empathy and is rather cocky, am not alone in thinking this but has made improvements this year) referred her to the SenCo but couldnt tell me why just that he thought she was not making much progress. She started of as a confident happy girl but very quickly lost confidence.

Possible thoughts of dyslexia but no intervention or extra 1-1 support was offered, other then the usual strategies with low ability groups, as DD was so young ( July baby) and it might level itself out which we were happy with as both are DC are immature or slow starters academically.

Fast forward to October last year, Senco felt she was making sufficient progress and no need for further meetings. Both me and DH disagreed and it was agreed we would meet again in March.

She has made more progress and her confidence has grown a lot. I have pushed hard to get her in a teddy talk time group and we have been doing lots of (fun) work at home. We read every day, use Nessy and generally try to link this to subjects taught at school. SenCo said she was pleased and I again disagreed, teacher agreed with me this time and said he spent a fair bit of time with her and the amount of input she had she should be at a higher level and SenCo said there was likely to be a mild form of dyslexia and now comes the part that really annoyes me.

She will not get any extra support as the level is not severe enough, said dont bother to get her tested as school is aware of the situation and ensure good handover to make transition between classes easier for her. Possibly get her tested so when she goes to secondary she has 'the label' and teachers will have an understanding. She would try and ensure she wouldnt slip through the net but couldnt say what these were.

I just dont get it! So dissapointed, have we shot ourselves in the feet but doing so much to get her to this level? She still struggles with number bonds up to 10, is on New Way reading scheme on the green band.

What are your thought? Would really appreciate feedback if I am overreacting or (as I am currently planning) to take this further.

Apolgies for long post!

I've just tried the dyslexia quest with my 8 yr old (yr 4). He is currently a 2a/3c in literacy, and although can now read (only fluently ish in the last year) he really struggles with spelling. Most of the sections he scored 70-90%, but the working memory was 8%

Any recommendatins for games gratefully received (already got bop it out of the cupboard). Strangly enough though, he's always been really good at memory games (spatial awareness matching card ones)

How was his processing speed?

Pink - obviously I don't know what is causing your DSs spelling issues or working memory problems.

But if you want to do 'games' with him, my first suggestion would be things that improve his visual discrimination (and left hemisphere):

• where's wally
• spot the difference
• word searches

These were recommended by DSs OT to improve his visual discrimination (which obviously has a huge effect on how well you can spell - how well you see the indiv letters in words)

And those same things were recommended by TH to improve his left hemisphere (left brain deals with details and right brain deals with the big picture)

I'm not a huge fan of memory games. I don't think they helped DD at all. But if you do want to go that route you can either do the tray game or I went to the shops and I bought a ...... Or if you want a computer game that has published a lot of research about itself saying how much it helps try 'jungle memory'

His processing speed came out as 93%. He's just done it again and his working memory came out at 0%, I wasn't watching but he said he got some of the questions right so I'm hoping it was a glitch in the program - but he won't do it again

The test is remembering a string of numbers in the same and reverse order.

And he's a whizz at where's wally, and ok at mental arithmetic (apart from remembering some of his tables). I think we might try some more word searches though - thanks for the ideas.

Maybe the app is just rubbish

The reverse digit test is very easy to do with him. It's a standard test for working memory.

Google it. There's loads of tests online for it.

You'd probably know if he had a very poor working memory.

Going to make an appointment with Keith Holland as the more I read this thread/indigo's (fab) website and just by working with DD I get a feeling her tracking might be an issue. Also I had a squint when young and had 3 corrective surgeries and as a result I dont see depth ( over correction).

Why havent I thought of this before!!!

Re the fish oils- what brand do you recommend? I use Eskimo and for a multivitamin we use the brand Solgar. Also will order the TH books but use Patrick Holford as a guideline in our house which works well.

Spoken to DD's teacher and he said he would ask Senco for coloured overlays.

Keith Holland looks good. I was just filling in an update form for my DD's BO. We have been doing home exercises since early December. Very simple stuff, not computer programmes. The most important change has been in her frustration levels. She is now happy to spend time reading and writing and doesn't do anything and everything to avoid a long text! She still transposes small words occasionally (for/from) but this is happening MUCH less often. The other big difference I've noticed is that she is much more aware of what she is reading. Her comprehension levels have always been high but now if she mis-reads something she almost always self-corrects herself. She doesn't start in the middle of the word anymore and is much more confident about her decoding rather than random guess work. She is actually looking at the words now rather than anywhere but! Her spelling has also improved as if she is more in tune with the way a word should be.

She hasn't been doing any specific phonic support, although she did start the EasyRead system 3 weeks ago which she is also enjoying and makes a lot of sense to her.

It's not a miracle cure - we still get some quirky spellings and her reading is still behind where she should be for IQ (her working memory and reasoning skills are very high) but the rate of progress since Jan has been quite surprising to me. And, more importantly, she is now significantly happier about the whole thing :o Of course, a lot could be down to a psychological placebo effect but TBH I don't care!

The best brand of omega is 'vegepa' (which can only be bought on the internet)

Because its the only brand which just contains EPA and not DHA.

Latest thinking is that it's only EPA you need.

I wouldn't read too much into the Dyslexia Quest app's results. I posted on here last week about how worried I was as DS's phonological awareness was awful in comparison to all the other results. IB and other gave me some really useful responses (thanks again that you all take the time to reply)......

I got him to repeat the test and suddenly phonological awareness rose to 94% !

It's an interesting app, but results seem rather unstable.

sunshimes. What does BO stand for in your context?

Sarah - behaviour optometrist.

Thanks Indigo!
Lingo I wouldn't have known myself 4 months ago - it's all a massive learning curve.