I am pretty sure my son has dyslexia but .......what to do......

[SuzysZoo]

My DS is 9 and is generally doing well at school with the exception of his spelling which is awful. He reads very well, eg. Harry Potter (and gets all the words right). He can learn a list of words and get 10/10 but during his general writing it is awful. eg. of his recent work of fiction..

"Just then he notesed a sircel a big black sircey wiedanuf (wide enough!) for the woel plane to go throo. And sudonly the plane was going in to the black hole"

He is ok at Maths and is not dyspraxic, I don't think, in that he is good at gymnastics and dance. Should I worry about the spelling? Would it help if we had a diagnosis of dyslexia? Would that help him at secondary? The school seem to think it will just sort itself out but he is starting to get a bit of a chip on his shoulder about it. It seems to me that there is something going on in that he does mix letters up a lot,eg. dose for does etc......HELP PLEASE!

watching closely as one of mine is exactly the same

DS (8) recently had a dyslexia screening at school - no idea really how good they are, but he did an online test which established whether underlying skills (eg visual differentiation) fitted with a dyslexia diagnosis. Might be worth asking the school if they could do that? (Ds' came back negative which means we're no further forwards tbh, but it still felt like a good first move)

Thanks for the replies so far. If anyone knows anything about this, DS can pick out the correct word in a list of 2 or 3 where one is correct and 1 or 2 are wrong. He gets that right every time..... He just cannot initiate the correct spelling himself, but he can read very well, so it's very confusing. He never had a problem reading, only spelling....

DD is 10 and is an excellent reader but oh my her spelling is horrific.

We're in the private sector so no funding for assessment. We had DD assessed by an Ed Psych at Dyslexia Action. They were outstanding. I was told by some people that they always find "something" because it's in their interests to but I felt the assessment was thorough and picked up the problems well.

The only impact is that she has extra time for assessments and access to a spell checker. TBH if she was in the state sector she wouldn't get any additional help either as she's not likely to be bad enough for a statement.

DD feels better for having an explanation for her chaotic spelling.

Dyslexia Action do run Saturday intervention groups for spelling which I know some find helpful. We haven't tried them as we've been working more on her writing speed (she's also dysgraphic).

He is dyslexic. A defn of dyslexia is Dyslexia can be described as a continuum of difficulties in learning to read, write and/or spell, which persist despite the provision of appropriate learning opportunities. These difficulties often do not reflect an individual's cognitive abilities and may not be typical of performance in other areas.

A dx of dyslexia won't get you any extra help. ie school are either going to help him with his spelling or they're not - but a piece of paper saying he has dyslexia won't change that.

If you've got a lot of energy to put into it I have some recommendations here

His spelling is unlikely to sort itself out. It is likely that secondary school won't care about it either because you lose very few marks in GCSEs for poor spelling. And if it's still that bad they'll either get him a computer or a scribe. (therefore there's not much reason for them to care about improving his spelling)

IMO I wouldn't say that writing was necessarily a sign of dyslexia. He is making phonetically plausible attempts at fairly uncommon words.

There is no evidence of mixed letters or sounds; rather, he is using alternative phonemes to create the same words. Not the 'correct' spelling, but understandable.

My 12yo dd is also like this. An excellent and keen reader, good at the creative writing tasks, absolutely appalling at spelling, and poor at organising and formal written tasks. She still writes the occasional letter backwards even at her age. 3s and 5s and Ns.

(e.g. she got a 6 in her reading Sats last yr at ks2, but a 3 in the written English task, though sometimes she does well in written English if it's all about the imagination and spelling and punctuation are ignored).

I did have her informally checked out for dyslexia a couple of years ago but she's not bad enough for a diagnosis, but I am convinced she has many dyslexic traits.

In fact I wonder if she's related to Helenagrace's dd? She sounds a bit familiar?

We have those guides to improving spelling etc but in the end I'm hoping that spelling matters less as they get older. And maybe she'll just always be worse on her written language task than the other subjects. Her father's like that, my DP.

My 16yr old was exactly the same at that age. He did get a lot of extra one to one help for spelling in yr5 using Stareway to Spelling and Wordwall. I was told he got the help because although he was not that far behind average he was a long way behind the rest of "him"
He narrowly scraped a 4c by one mark for writing in yr6 sats but got a 5b for comprehension and 5A for Science which shows the difference in his abilities. He obviously has a bit of a memory problem and recently got extra time for his gcses.
Ds has never had a proper diagnosis, he has just been on and off special needs register. They took him off when he got his level 4 in yr6, but when started secondary school he had problems with MFL. Because he was in top set he was expected to get 70% every week in tests and he was learning french and german at that stage. I saw the SENCO and she put him straight back on the SN list which at least made the teachers aware that despite the very bright boy in front of them, he did have problems. His MFL teacher was then thankfully took the pressure off him.

Thanks again to everyone taking the trouble to reply here. Spelling is important in my own job, and of course I hope his spelling does improve. If it does not, however, will this affect his gcse results then, or not? I am sure the content of the exams would be ok, but obviously not the presentation or spelling. Does this not matter these days? I am so old I took GSEs!

There are many jobs (and academic subjects) where spelling isn't so vital. One of my closest friends was reduced to tears by her Oxford tutor who told her she'd never get a job because of her dreadful spelling. It didn't stop her getting a very nice set of good academic qualifications and a good job. Lots of her family have dyslexia or tendencies.

My 18yo niece was apparently also poor at spelling and written English in primary, but is now taking A levels in history and Spanish etc and getting very good marks.

my dp is another who's dire at spelling but great at maths, science, computing.

And I teach on a postgrad course which is massively competitive but has a lot of people with dyslexia on it. They struggle a bit with some of the writing assessments but they get support or proof-readers and they do fine.

So I am perhaps being a bit fatalistic in shrugging the poor spelling, and even the poor writing, aside and thinking it's not the end of the world.

Suzyszoo, I am similar to your ds in that I can usually pick out the correct one in a list but fail to spell the word even close enough for spellcheck to work out which word I'm trying to spell.

My dm reckoned I was probably dyslexic, but because I was a very good reader it carried me over the point where they would bother testing.

I have a Oxbridge maths degree, so it hasn't held me back.

Wow DeWe - you have to be soooooo clever to get an Oxbridge maths degree. I got an A at A level maths but I could not understand one tiny little bit of what my friend described she was doing at Cambridge!!! Good to hear that it should not hold DS back, but I still wonder about the gcses - anyone have recent experience of that for dyslexic older children?

My dd1 is very similar (aged 8.5). She can get top marks in a spelling test, but in her general writing gets letters muddled up - usually phonetically correct, but not always (if she's tired).

My bil is dyslexic, dh's neice is very dyslexic, it runs in the family (does it??). So I'm pretty sure she is mildly dyslexic, but as it is really mild it never gets picked up on at school - plus its not too hard for her to look 'good' in her peer group, I think.

Will definitely watch thread with interest, and read links...

DS went on study leave today for his gcses
His targets are A/A* for everything
realistically he will get A/A* for sciences
A for maths
B/A for English
C for German
B/A for History
A for RE
on target for distinctions in electronics

He does struggle to organize his thoughts in an essay but got As in his mocks for History and RE and a B for English. Role in August 23 for final results

School think he is capable of going to Cambridge for science, although he wants to go to Southampton to take acoustic engineering.
He has got to the interview round for Arkwright Scholarship Hopefully will find out in July if he gets a it.

I do think dyslexic problems hold him back a bit because he can't organize his thoughts on paper the way he can verbally.

So, Bruffin, does the dyslexia mean that spelling can be ignored in the gcses then? I am still confused, since when I took my exams I seem to recall that presentation and spelling were as important as the content. Your son sounds very bright.

The only concession Ds gets is extra time. From what I can gather spelling counts for no more than a 2 or 3 points.

While your son couldn't be described as a naturally good speller, you are thinking a bit too far ahead if you are worrying about secondary school and GCSE's. I am not sure what, if anything, a diagnosis of dyslexia would achieve at this stage.

How bad his spelling currently is, would depend if he has just turned 9 in Y4, or whether he is nearly 10 and in Y5. The school don't seem concerned and they would know how far his spelling differs from the average for his age and to what extent it has improved over the past year. From they short example you have given, it seems he knows all the everyday words and it is just the less common words that are wrong (there is only one mistake in the second sentence). All the spelling is phonically plausible and he has also a good grasp of the grammatical side of spelling eg the 'ed' on the end of 'notesed' and the 'ly' on the end of 'sudonly'. Actually from your example, one of problems it has highlighted is knowing when an 's' sound is spelt with the letter 'c'. So a spelling progamme, as recommended by Indigobell might prove helpful. If he is getting a frustrated about his spelling, a useful gadget for him to check words he is not sure of is a pocket spellchecker.

Can I just say when they are at primary the concentration is on getting them to read and write and add up and that is what gets reported on, although they are doing so much more at school.
So if there is a weakness ie literacy it seems all encompassing.
Once they get to secondary other abilities are take into account and it is the time the likes of my Ds who excels at analysis and design appear to start to fly.
I also saw a programme on dyslexia in new Zealand. They interviewed a marine engineer who said he was more likely to interview people with spelling mistakes in their cv, because he felt they were people who were better at seeing the bigger picture.

Then he might have missed many suitable applicants who had got their CV checked by a friend who was a better speller.

Just as someone who dismisses a cv for poor spelling might also be losing an excellent candidate.

Can't argue with that, bruffin!

My DC were diagnosed at 15 & 12. Both were excellent readers even before they started school & my eldest's reading never dropped below at least her chronological age. Was told DS scanned words rather than reading them all through junior school and was fed up with being accused by his teachers of not reading at home. We read recipes and ingredients as bupy this point the pressure to read was putting him off.

DD was also always a good speller. DS was terrible. Both had concentration issues and both find it hard to organise their time. DD has been quite dramatically affected and lost much confidence in herself. We moved her school in year 9 and I doubt that helped much. Her brother's school realising he had dyslexia helped her though! We paid for a private educational psychologists report on both DC which indicated DD's dyslexia was difficult to assess. She has an auditory processing disorder and mild dyspraxia also. DD passed all her GCSEs at grade C or above but has not taken to sixth form education and she's tried both traditional A levels and BTEC. DS has a more textbook diagnosis of dyslexia. His reading has come on leaps and bounds and he's predicted A-B in his GCSEs (includes A in English Lit and Language IGCSE). His intelligence is considered higher than his sister ('extremely bright') and he has a place to study Maths and science subjects at sixth form. He has very high expectations and hopes to gain a place at the best university he can possible attain.

Dyslexia held DD back because the longer it went on, the more her confidence suffered. If you have any concerns it may be worth you exploring things further. DD was supposedly assessed at school twice, however they were under the impression anyone with dyslexia has a problem with spelling; this is not always the case. The most common symptom is concentration issues.

Both DC have coloured tinted glasses which have helped their reading greatly. 50% of people with dyslexia have word blindness and either coloured overlays or glasses can improve the understanding of what they are reading to cpvarying degrees. My husband also now has a diagnosis of dyslexia and coloured lenses and between the three of them, their reading has improved by 15-25%!

On the plus side, DC are very creative and view the world differently to their non-dyslexic buddies. My son's left handed and has read many genius are dyslexic left handers - yes it has gone straight to his head!

Good luck with your child. He may not have dyslexia, but it may mean he can get extra support now. DS will be reassessed when he starts sixth form and it's likely that he'll lose his 25% extra exam time as he really doesn't need it anymore. DD may always struggle academically, but her wonderful personality should help her to one day overcome it. I do regret not getting a diagnosis earlier though.

I agree with Juniper the example you gave doesn't necessarily mean he has a learning problem. I would be more inclined to think he hasn't been taught how to spell.

Hi again all. Thank you so much for the interesting and thought provoking replies. I am certainly going to keep my eye on this, and may well consider getting a private diagnosis (how do I find someone?). At least then I might be able to work out if there is a problem I can help with..... Otherwise I will try and relax and concentrate on the things he is good at, at the moment.

Ds has some practice papers for gcse biology. It says that phonetic spelling of correct scientific terms are allowed