dyslexic but compensating - more assessment required?

[baconsandwich]

I strongly suspect my 10 yo is dyslexic but compensating. School has done an assesmsent and they say he's above average for everything. But he has says the words swim when reading and a coloured sheet helps with this; also has some speech difficulties and ticks the box on a host of other clues added to which there's a strong family history. School is OK at the mo though last year was a disaster. DH (who is dyslexic himself) and I disagree about whether or not to fork out £350 for a fancy schmancy more detailed assessment recommended by scottish dyslexia charity. he thinks he's doing OK at the mo why bother, and that we ahouldn't "make a fuss" about it. I think I would like to really understand the level of any difficulty if it's present and how we can help. Any views?

Is it Irlen syndrome? The swimming letters thing is separate to dyslexia. You can have it but not be dyslexic.

Is there more the school can do? I would be tempted to go private if you are getting nowhere but first check with the British Dyslexia association.

thanks - don't think irlen syndrome but had never heard of that so will read up in more detail

dyslexia is a name that covers a whole range of problems and no 2 people will be affected the same way.

letters swimming etc is commonly referred to as Irlen Syndrome/eye stress/scotopic sensitivity but many people link it in to dyslexia. you can be dyslexic but not have it or you can have it but not have some of the other dyslexic symptoms. from what we have been told it is generally still classed in with dyslexia though.

my daughter is only just turned 6 but she has coloured glasses. we got them for her because the white board was making her cry it was so hard for her to look at it. she could already read well (this was back in the spring) but we had noticed some odd things starting to happen when she was. We didn't really link it all together but were looking for something to help with the glare from the board. The glasses seemed to be the solution and when we went through the tests we were stunned to see how much difference they made to her reading too. Without them she can still read, she can still work but she gets tired very quickly, words come out in the wrong order, writing is more messy, she sees letters in the wrong order, skips words etc. She too has some other dyslexia type symptoms but because she is so far in advance of where she should be in Yr1 academically noone seems very bothered about it at school which is frustrating. She is very bright and is working with her problem but I don't want it to hold her back. At the end of the day my view though is that dyslexic or not, visual processing disorder or not they have to learn to work with it and live with it because no work place will make any allowances for it so we try to come up with things that will help her, that make it easier for her to focus on things or remember bits etc. We don't officially have a family history of it but now I look back I can see I had/have a huge number of the signs of being borderline but compensating.

Whether to push for more testing I think is up to you. If you can afford it then go for it, but will a diagnosis make any difference? probably not. the school will generally only do something if they child is behind. a diagnosis can help boost a child's confidence because then they know there is a reason, for other children it can make them think there is no point trying then because I have this and it will stop me doing well.

Hi baconsandwich:

A learning disability is a learning disability. The school just don't want to pay for its diagnosis.

My advice is go have an eye test with an eye doctor and discuss this - they may be able to refer you to a specialist via the NHS or even prescribe glasses themselves.

Children's eye examinations are free. Eye glasses with coloured lenses should be possible.

I'm not sure what the glasses will cost - but then if it helps your daughter (as I imagine swimming letters is headache inducing - or will be ultimately) - then go for it.

If he is 'above average' for everything with undiagnosed dyslexia and little/no help, think how well he might do with diagnosed dylexia and the correct, properly organised, support.

It may be that, if nothing else, he is allowed extra time in SATs/GCSEs to enable him to show what he can do. It may be that with diagnosis he can access extra support with strategies on how to cope etc.

(My DD1 has struggles with handwriting for years, her brain slows down massively as soon as you put a pen in her hand, but she was still getting 'average' results. we have recently been informed that following assessment she can use a word processor for her GCSEs. this will enable her to write faster and show what she really knows).

Yes all good points. I mean it may be that I am wrong and that there is no dyslexia. I feel there is something going on though. DH says if there's no major problem now why push it but I think let's find out before he goes to secondary school and then if we never need any extra support great but if we do we're off the starting blocks straight away. What do you all think about the sort of assessments schools do? Dyslexia Scotland implied to me that they were fairly "quick and dirty" (my quote not theirs!) and not as detailed as a full assessment to include 'cognitive ability' I think they called it. The test they did was called the 'Dyslexia Screening Test'.

my hubby also thinks 'but she is doing really well, she must be managing ok so don't worry about it'

Just so you know I have a feeling there was something said a few months ago that in Scotland you CAN get an NHS subsidy for coloured lenses but that might be me remembering wrong. certainly you can't in England. Ours was £45 I think for the colorimetry test. the frames were £50, the lenses were £37.50 and then it was £50 for the coloured tint so between £150 and £200 even if I have got the actual amounts a bit wrong. WELL worth it.

The proper test you could get if you paid for it will be much more detailed, the question is whether the school would take much notice of it. that is where I am not sure. I am leaving it for my daughter at the moment to see what happens but that is partly because she is so young still. I do expect I will pay for proper testing in the future though if she continues to have problems.

Interestingly when she got the glasses she went from level 7 books to 11 within 2 weeks at school but literally just suddenly started reading early chapter books overnight when she got the glasses. the difference in things we hadn't realised there was a problem with was huge. We never tried overlays but the glasses must be easier I am sure.