My ds is almost 7 and can barley read and write - help!

[Slippersmum]

I am so worried. He has not hit any of his literacy targets. I just don't know what to. He has had a number of interventions at school, at home we read, write and practice numeracy everyday in bite sized chunks and always have but nothing is helping. He has had eye test to rule that out as an issue. School do not know what to do anymore. Has anyone had any experience of this? What should I be saying to school? Anything more I can be doing to help him more. I have even considered home educating him??

My friends daughter is severely dyslexic, the Mum described how she doesn't remember one word again on the next page. Reading is exhausting for her. She has a private dyslexic support tutor outside school to try and help her keep up. She is very bright and well spoken.
They have found that reading on a Kindle was much easier for her.
They found the Tom Gates books were good for Dyslexia.

My Mum's friends daughter is very Dyspraxic and writing was a huge issue for him until he was diagnosed and got the right support.

Could contact these organisations for advice on assessment help?
www.bdadyslexia.org.uk/
www.dyspraxiafoundation.org.uk/
www.youngminds.org.uk/for_parents/worried_about_your_child/dyslexia_dyspraxia/about_dyslexia_dyspraxia

sorry I meant son

I've been given the run around by my DC school with regards to dyslexia - despite a strong family history of dyslexia and I say that despite being very positive about many aspect of my DC school.

She tested borderline in yr 1 with some kind of dyslexia pre test done by then school SENCO - and that has frequently been used as a reason not to look further.

DD1 has often not been struggling enough for help - and some of the interventions she has had at school are not appropriate or not based on good practise.

We've done www.engagingeyes.co.uk/ - took 13 months to complete and while I can't say for sure it helped - we think it did.

Despite my older two having daily phonics interventions at school both have hugely benefitted from doing various dancing bear books at home daily with us. We've also started the apple and pear spelling books - every day and their teacher have noticed a marked improvement with their general spelling over the last 6 months.

With DS handwriting is a huge issue - trying this at the minute
www.amazon.co.uk/Write-start-Programme-Perceptual-Handwriting/dp/1855032457 as DS does form all his letters correctly. If your DS doesn't form letters correctly then you need to practise that as well.

There are various activities that can help strengthen muscles used in writing - cutting out - button threading - stuff that used fine motor control.

We haven't yet gone down the dyslexia testing route - we pretty much know where the DC problems are and what we are doing seems to be having a positive impact. It does sound like your not sure what the issues are - so an assessment and report detailing issues dos sound like a good move for you.

Good luck.

We also have a handwriting slope at home which helps - and DS started using one in school. We've also tried a range of pen types and holds but not found much that helps DS.

You could be have been writing about my son who Is now 10. He has had all the same problems. Just like you I picked up on his difficulties early on but was told he's a boy and they take a bit longer to pick it up!!
You need to ask the school to screen him for dyslexia. This happened for my son when he was 8 . They won't give you a diagnosis of dyslexia but my son was '"at risk of dyslexia" . From then on he has had 1 to 1 help for a specialist teacher( not a TA) every week. He had now reached his reading age and is loving it - never thought the day would come . We have found graphic novels brilliant as they break down the stories with loads of pictures making it accessible. The hand writing is still a big on going problem. He still has plenty of help and the school had organised a scribe for his sats this summer . The school put him on a touch typing course as they think that's the way he will be pushed at senior school. The biggest thing we had to do is stop his self esteem from falling through the floor. He needs to be reassured he is not thick but that his brain work is in a different way. Keep on at the school and make yourself unpopular if you have to. He needs specialist help and assessment but you will have to fight for it. Push for a meeting with your senco and class teacher the sooner you get a diagnosis the sooner they will get you the help he needs

I was going to take the just out of that sentence, Maizie. Perhaps I should have done. Given his difficulties are across the board, I suspect there is an underlying problem, which is why he does need to be assessed. But he seems to have been hit by a double whammy of that and some not very effective interventions (RR, computer based stuff), which is making me think some of the initial teaching perhaps isn't great either.

I don't think that the interventions I suggested are going to totally unmuddle him, but they are almost certainly better for a child with difficulties than what he seems to have had so far.

My nearly 7 year old has very similar problems.

He did reading recovery for 13 months, just finishing at the start of this year. He started on red level and 'progressed' to blue. He recently has a specific learning difficulties assesment and infact still on red level. He has learnt bad habits such as using pictures for cues and guessing. I am annoyed as I voivced my concerns from the start.

He now has a 1-1 for 20 hours per week who is going back to phonic basics with him. He has just completed phase 2 ( again). He does have phonological awareness issues and verbal dyspraxia so blending phonics is very difficult for him, sight reading also doesn't work for him.
He also has support in maths but is slightly stronger in this than literacy.

We are finding it difficult to know how to support him. He is so keen to learn and really feels proud of every achievement he makes but can not seem to retain what he has learnt,or apply his knowledge.

Assesments show he has the underlying skills but can not access them. I'm sure it's the same for your DS too. It's really going to be a case of trial error until we find a way for our sons too learn.

He has learnt bad habits such as using pictures for cues and guessing

They are still trying to teach my youngest to use these methods - which is very annoying.

I don't know if maths is an issue or not for your DS OP - but have found computer based programs very good there. We use mathsfactor - lots of video lessons and worked example and lots of practice - seems to help my DS who was struggling to remember maths stuff - though there are other programs out there.

Problem is you can't fix or work on every problem at once.

With DS we started with the reading - as that was most concern when that was more under control his maths was so bad we couldn't ignore - so started with maths - then his spelling - stopped and had to work on letter formation - then back to spelling while still doing reading and maths in background - now all that and trying to work on his handwriting.

With DD1 its depended on which teacher she's had as to whether reading or spelling has been the most concern.

Our DS has moved from bottom sets to top over the years though and DD1 has moved from middle sets up - and both doing very well though we are still working on a lot of stuff at home which is hard on us all.

Both my DC are now pleasure readers - something I never thought would happen and that's come slightly behind there increasing reading abilities.

Ok writing, have you been to an Occupational therapist and asked what the problem is with the pencil?

Waiting lists are long so you could try a weighted pencil grip and an angled board.

Reading: reading eggs programme online is really brilliant, more fun and less stressful.

Has he been assessed for dyslexia?

We use a teaching intervention called precision teaching and find it highly effective especially in year 1/2/3 - give it a google. It's only short bursts every day and make sure it is fun as they start to retain and learn sounds and words. Lots of active running from one word to another, using sand/glitter and paintbrushes to write with. I do understand your concerns but try not to put too much pressure on your ds- says the dyslexic primary teacher who needed speech therapy as a child!

This is so useful. Thank you. He was quite early with toilet training and not clumsy and he also began to talk quite young and as I mentioned has a great vocabulary. It's all very well piling interventions on but if they are the wrong ones ......

I think you need to investigate further - either through the school or privately. I've got friends with Dyslexia, Dyspraxia and forms of Autism/Aspergers and all of them have experienced differing degrees of struggle with learning to read - being able to retain and process the information on a page as written.

Missed answering some questions there - sorry. Orange pudding they do sound very alike! He is continuously asked to look at the pictures for clues which leads to him guessing. When I asked about dyslexia screening they said he was showing no traits so it wouldn't be worth it. However, after reading all your wonderfully supportive posts I am not going to be asking now. I need to insist!

Slippers, I have found that the school need to try interventions and prove they don't work so they can access more help. So frustrating!

If school are not as supportive as you would like try the Parent Partnership Service or Sendias for your local authority. They all have one but kecel of provision varies from place to place.

He is continuously asked to look at the pictures for clues which leads to him guessing.

If the school is teaching reading like this - it's a major problem.

While some DC pick up reading fine despite such methods a significant percentage like my DC it cause big problems. Their school insists it's teaching synthetic phonics but also pushes these methods still.

At home I do dancing bears - and discourage looking at pictures and guessing and encourage splitting up and sounding out words. Once they started to get decoding they naturally stop looking at pictures - and DS stopped guessing. Reading comprehension is a separate skillset.

DD1 seem to struggle more - skipping words, lines and compensating by guessing etc hence us going down the engaging eyes route. She knew her phonics but somehow didn't apply them when reading and writing - well not all the time.

There probably underlying issues which you should push to be investigated - but good place to start with the reading is Dancing bears - 10 minutes every day.

Give you a good idea if he can hear the sounds in words - an issue for one of mine - if he knows his phonics like a-e and oa sounds and if he is breaking words down and blending correctly.

How on earth can the school say he is show no traits - he is showing classic signs. How bloody frustrating

My son was very similar - finally after assessments by occupational therapy and educational psychologist he was diagnosed with dyspraxia, dysgraphia (which affects ability to write , putting it in very basic terms ) and ndd (retained reflexes). It has taken years to get a formal statement of need . I had to become 'that parent' at his previous schools. Thankfully we have found a school which works with him to help him. There is no way a school can say there is nothing more they can do if they have not had assessments by outside agencies done. Keep fighting for him - there is still a lot that can be done.

Spoke to school again snd he is going to be discussed at the SEN workshop on Monday, which is a meeting with SENCO senior teachers etc. I going to have him assessed myself rather than waiting any longer and this way I also feel I will regain some control over what is happening. Then I can go in armed with some facts and the assessment will give actions for the school.

Good the school are taking him seriously.

Be aware that schools don't always follow recommendations made on a private report. Hopefully they will ask the ed pysch to see him.

I'm glad the school will be discussing him. Write a note of what you understood the school agreed to do after you spoke to them and email this to the school; this is part of your paper trail that you need to build. Then email again on Monday to ask what actions they agreed would be necessary for your ds following the meeting. If you are not happy with their answer ask for a meeting with the SENCO and class teacher and take someone with you to that meeting.

The problem is that even if you do have him assessed and get a diagnosis of dyslexia it is unlikely anything will change. The school will still withdraw you child and send him off to do "Nessy" or "Lexia" with a TA as they are both used to support "dyslexia". The fact that they are ineffective won't be a consideration.

It isn't unusual for children your son's age to reverse numbers (41 instead if 14 ... the teen numbers being more common than others) so its really important he is taught what the digits in two digit numbers represent. It's often a case of finding a method that works for the individual child but I would recommend lots of practise with concrete resources making teen numbers.

Sounds like my ds (7) we moved him to another school, long story, but I would say that he doesn't recognise words but has now been taught sounding out properly and so can read, but sounding out every single word.

He has read like this since Christmas and is now recognising words, it's a long process and I'm not sure if he's dyslexic or not but what I have found is that proper teaching methods have helped him.

He is a lot more confident now and doesn't have the TA constantly with him. I'm just happy that he's feeling like he can read and is so much more positive. Honestly used to upset me so much

That's interesting mrz as that's what ds is doing now with numbers. Thanks for the advice