what age to start worrying if your child constantly reverses letters

[whathaveiforgottentoday]

I'm wondering if any primary school teachers could shed some light on what age you would expect children to stop reversing letters and numbers (3 and E, b's and d's, p's and 9's).
My dd has some other issues and struggles with spelling (doesn't apply phonics knowledge) and writing in general. Her maths, reading and other subjects are above average on all her reports so far. School are not worried, but I am, so I would like to gauge when she should be growing out of the reversing letters and what age you would start to be concerned.

Laura, you don't understand. Many LEAs and academies FORBID staff to act on private assessments. We can only act on assessments sanctioned by the school. because there are so many charletons out there that give the assessments they think they will get the best pay for. Therefore schools only act on assessments done by professionals they recognise.

Certainly no private assessment could legally be used for exam consideration or anything like that.

One of my school, as I said, filed the assessments, and staff could read them if they chose to, but you are talking about thousands of pages, of course no one read them all. A few people skimmed through a few of them.

Well I have never heard that and have worked in a number of LEA's plus have carried out assessments for a lot of LEA's . Obviously that is the case in the place you have worked thats a real shame and perhaps they should be recognising based on qualification. I can tell you there aren't many clinical psychologists and educational psychologists who are chaletons. If so, you don't understand their rigorous training.

Laura, it sounds like you are a source sanctioned by the LEAs, that is entirely different. You sound like a real professional working with other professionals. Unfortunately there is anther whole world out there where people are setting themselves up with minimal training, or without any training at all. - read a few books, charge a few hundred pounds, say whatever, and sitting in a school, we are inundated by these reports, and have no way of knowing who's report is actually valid, hence the rule that unless the report has been sanctioned by the school, disregard it totally.

rule of thumb, ( in the state sector) - if the parent paid for it, ignore it.

Since the experts can't even agree on a definition of dyslexia (or the existence ) it can be an expensive route to explore. Of course having a label can help self esteem but what does it mean in ral terms?

mrz = you are so right. The definition has been extended and extended and extended to the point where it has become meaningless. No assessment done at my school, or requisitioned by my school ever now uses the word "dyslexia"

I am dyslexic. I was diagnosed at a time when it meant specifically malfunctioning corpus callosum. Since then It has come to mean short term memory problems, or difficulties processing information, or difficulties with time, none of which I have.

Also when I was diagnosed, dyspraxia was seen as one of the possible symptoms of dyslexia, where as now people use dyspraxia to mean a form of ASD - which it isn't.

I have a neurological disability which interferes with my visual and spatial perception and expression, but I am reluctant sometimes to now refer to it as dyslexia or dyspraxia,

I am very clumsy and cannot "read" well, be that words, or certain views, such as a road full of street lamps or a staircase. Goodness knows what that is called now! I recently applied for a new job and wrote "perceptual difficulties" in the place for disabilities.

Just because something can't be defined as a clear entity, doesn't mean its to be ignored/ dismissed. Many physical illness can't be either but we treat the symptoms. I think everyone would agree on a 'dyslexic profile' and there are strategies that can help. Having these can point teachers and parents in the right direction to be able to help the child, surely?

Dyspraxia isn't seen as a form of autism. What nonsense.

I'm not so sure about there being a n agreed dyslexic profile.

Assessments done where I work list specific difficulties, and suggest supportive strategies, although quite often they are strategies that are used commonly in most classrooms anyway.

Exam consideration is applied for again on the basis of teachers describing specific issues that a particular child has, and describing their normal way of working.

The word "dyslexia" is not used.

I wonder if I would fit your dyslexia profile, Laura.

Caronaim - you may have convinced yourself that state schools ignore private reports. Thankfully SEN tribunals do not.

Ohmygrood thank you!!

I keep saying that - you would not believe the number of poster on MN who keep trying to insist it is.

Of course it isn't.

You can have both, but they are not related. In fact, I think just yesterday I posted somewhere it is like a headache and a broken ankle, or similar - nothing to say you can't have both, but some people having both does not in any way mean they are linked.

ohmygrood, in my 20 years experience, in 9 schools across 4 LEAS, they all do. One let you read them if you wanted to. The others didn't even allow that.

Yes I've also worked in schools who ignore private reports so I know it happens. It doesn't make it right and it's not good practice. The fact that tribunals do recognise private reports and will act on them contradicts your charlatan theory.

They don't always, it depends how they rate the person who did the report. anyway, I was just throwing that in to the discussion as a warning to parents not to pay out hundreds for an assessment which is likely not to be of use.

i;m not saying it is right, I am just saying this is how it is, and this is why.

Having been through the diagnosis and statementing process with DS, who incidentally has AS and dyspraxia, which I do know are separate, what I have learnt is that professionals in the field of educational psychology are extremely highly qualified and their status as a professional would be in tatters if they started dishing out un-warranted diagnoses. I'm sure there are charlatans out there but choose your professional with care and you will have a valid assessment. There is the question of whether school will act on the findings, but unfortunately there's only one way to find out. It's perhaps wise to proceed with precaution if money is tight and you suspect your school may have the poor practice described in this thread. If you are happy to proceed in the knowledge that it might only further your own understanding of your DC and how you can help them then that is ok.

I have been told by a well respected Ed P?ych they would write whatever I needed it happens!

of course it happens mrz don't be so nieve.

The problems can't be ignored but a meaningless label can be.

I'm far from naive ... I'm the mother of a son with ASD and I'm also a SENCO

I agree with whoknows. Interestingly (and I don't agree) but ASD has been said by many to be a meaningless label also. A spectrum along which we all could fall.............but if we highlight the difficulties we can help and support. It all depends on your viewpoint, if your child has dyslexia or ASD you see it very differently from a teacher who may have limited resources to do anything about it. What whoknows says completely, ' its perhaps wise to proceed with caution if you suspect the school may have the poor practice described above'. As a parent I think its sad that a desire to find out what may be going on for your child is met with such derision as 'theres no such thing as......'.I certainly wouldn't pay someone to say my child has dyslexia, I would be hoping that they said she didn't! As I know that dyslexia could mean that that school is going to be an uphill battle.

Sometimes in this journey you are made to feel as though you are pursuing these assessments and diagnoses just for the fun of it. Believe me I would give a great deal to have never had to find out about any of this.

Yes ASD is an umbrella term .. I could have said my son is high functioning autistic which hypermedia and hyperactivity as comorbidity

Hyperlexia iPad predictive text!

In fact the more I think about it, the more I believe it's the other way round. The reason schools / LAs will only accept reports they've commissioned themselves is purely to save money. They will have instructed their EPs to carry out the minimum amount of assessment necessary and to state the required provision in as vague terms as possible within their professional remit, to ensure that they have to make minimal to no provision. That's if you can get your school to commission a report in the first place, because access to the LA EP service is strictly rationed by budget. Whereas an independent EP is free to make recommendations purely based on the child's needs with no budget constraints, which of course is what the parents want to hear. Neither are charlatans, they are just doing their job as required by the people paying them.