DS now Level 3b in English, how bad is this?!

[Chandon]

He is 10.

He has mild dyslexia, but now is really starting to lose confidence fast. Has IEP, 1-2-1 twice a week, but TBF it does not make much of a difference we think.

Have meeting with teacher, but not sure what we can do, really, he just struggles. He just cannot remember the words or the order of the letters.

It all just feels like such hard work and no result. It takes him so long to do his normal homework, it seems cruel to add too much extra writing practice...

So, level 3b. How bad is that for y5?

They teach mindmapping at secondary school.
Also there is research done at my Ds secondary before he got there that shows that boys learn spelling better through typing. Will link later.

DS has related problems, though not dyslexia. He goes to a private tutor who showed him mind maps last week and they seemed to help. On Nessy fingers, he went from 5wpm to 10 in an afternoon and then 12wpm a day later. So, its already faster than his writing speed.
I'd recommend you try something like this at home first. Mainly because it is so expensive to hire tutors to each anything but also because its more fun this way and less stressful than having to go out to see a stranger who would sit and watch while he types.

Mind maps can be very helpful to primary age kids and the concept is not difficult:

mind maps for kids

spelling link

DS (9) has dyslexia. I understand the struggle. They work so hard and if they didn't have dyslexia they would be flying given the work they have to put in just to stand still at times.

Ds has 1 2 1 three times a week from the school. We investigated irlen syndrome and he has it. Unfortunately its not on the NHS and it is expensive for the glasses but the difference in his reading is unbelievable. He's now at 3 c which I wouldn't have imagined this time last year he was struggling so much.

The British dyslexia association have a list of tutors, some of whom teach touch typing and spelling. The touch typing ds does uses different colours over the keys so he knows which fingers to use on each colour Again this seems to be helping although he has only just started so we'll see how he goes.

Additionally he was referred for a salt assessment and they have put him in a language group to develop working memory and verbal skills. It is hard work for ds but he is responding to it and seems to like it. I think because he is starting to see the results himself.

It is really hard to know where to start to help them, half of the stuff ds is doing is because I have colleagues whose dc have dyslexia and have lots of tips. The BDA is a good website to refer too as other posters have said.

This has turned out to be a very useful thread, thanks for the links.

The mindmapping book looks good.

Agree with the article and how boys learn. It is all a bit of a learning process for me too, he is my pfb so it is all trial and error I guess

Thanks for the help! I love getting practical advice, now have to decide on nessy fingers or dancemat typing...