Dyslexia

[Poppet1974]

My DS' teacher has recommended that he be assessed for Dyslexia:-( he is 7.
Can anyone offer any advice or positive stories?
I'm quite upset probably because I don't know enough about it :-(

It can help with a child's self esteem to have a label for their difficulties

Getting the diagnosis is really important. It helped my DD as there was a clear reason, not linked to intelligence, for her struggles.

Dyslexia comes in many versions so it can have an impact on reading, spelling, organisation, maths etc.

The diagnosis will tell you what the issues are, so you can target the help. So for my DD, her reading is really good, but she writes so slowly, and her processing is slow.

She qualifies for extra time in exams, which is vital for her to get her ideas down. It really has reduced her stress levels and the extra time means that she can get her ideas down on paper. It also has impacted teachers attitudes to her - much much more patient now.

I'm dyslexic. Diagnosed in 80's. I have a PhD. School was a struggle, but the good thing about the 80's primary school is that I was able to explore my intellectual interests.

My DD was diagnosed at 7. Diagnosis helped her enormously, as PP said, by dissociating her struggles from her own intelligence, capability and well-worth. Since then, it has been up, up, up.... She is a voracious reader now (nearly 10), and has very effective support in all areas. Inform yourself, make sure your DS has all the support he needs. If you want some positive reading material, I can recommend the Sally Shaywicz book Overcoming Dyslexia, and the Drs Eides book The Dyslexic Advantage.

Thank you so much, I'm just feeling a bit down in the dumps about it but seeing your posts have put a new spin on it.
My son try's so hard and his reading and spelling are good, I think he really struggles with understanding what he has read and putting his thoughts in to sentences.
Does this sound familiar?
Definitely going to get those books as recommended.
Thanks so much

Tries!!

Yes...that sounds familiar.

I've started teaching DD how to use highlighters when she reads to remember important stuff. Also teaching her how to use bullet points to remember key bits - then write the sentence (this is how I coped). I started doing this when she was 9.

I also went through her reading books with a highlighter and highlighted high frequency words she was struggling to spell.

Not quick; but it did work and it is helping.

Ok I'll start doing this too to make it more understandable for him.
Any other strategies?
Also is it best to get him tested by an Ed Psych?

Have a look at the British Dyslexia Association's Parent Resource Page.

There's some really good stuff on there and hopefully you can find it helpful

Hi I'm dyslexic I was diagnosed at age 10. My last primary teacher picked it up as I was way behind with reading and writing but well ahead with maths. With a lot of support from my high school and parents I did well and have a Degree in Physics.

Things that really helped yes a Ed Psych report as this pointed out what areas I was really struggling with and where I needed help most. The important thing about this was that it also provided evidence for support for my GCSE's, I had a reader and scribe for most exam's (don't know it this is still how it works but worth finding out). Some children at school missed out on this help as they hadn't been tested early enough as some exam boards required you to have had help in places for a set number of years before exams. So do check this out now to find out how things stand at the moment.

One of the best things for me was learning to touch type. The reason being that you remove a process in writing. When I write I have to think about forming letter and writing words. Typing removes one of those steps, it makes it easier for me to get what I'm thinking down onto paper. I'm quit thankful for the computer revolution really I was one of the first producing written English work on a computer at school, it really helped.

Given him the support he needs and there isn't anything he can't achieve.
Good luck OP.

Thank you so much MigGril, I'm actually crying reading your post
He tries so hard but I think all the covering up and memorising has worn him out.
He is my pfb and I feel really adrift, I want to help but I just don't know what to do.
I'm arranging an assessment and have ordered books to get up to speed. My DS school are very academic orientated and I feel they're taking quite a passive role. The only reason it's become an issue is because I've been chasing it up since the start of this school year. They have just said he should be tested and that we should do this privately as he would be in Y5 or Y6 before resources allowed them to have him tested through the school. It's seems like a very 'hands off' approach.

Poppet you brought a tear to my eye when I read your post to. I remember how hard that was trying to remember things. Go easy on him he's going to need extra time for things and he will get tired. My mum made such a difference for me and I'm sure you can to.

Someone else linked the British Dyslexia Association's we found them helpful to, for information and resources.

I think the school thing is quit normal I've seen a lot of friends with children struggle to get them help. They don't seem to have the funding for this sort of thing and one friend who's also just paid to have her son assessed. He's turned out to be severally Dyslexic, but the school wouldn't do the assessment on him he's Y3 so probably as similar age to your DS.

I feel sad that school's seem very short of funds on this front and nothing has changed on this since I was at school, in fact in may have even got worse. As my parents didn't pay for my assessment, but I was older. They did have to write a lot of letter and push for it though.

Good luck poppet I'm sure he'll do well with your help and if you get the assessment done the school will probably be more inclined to find the resources needed to help him.

Both myself, DD, my DSis, my Dniece and Dnephew are all dyslexic. As others have said diagnosis gets you help and then you are able to achieve your potential.
The vast majority of dyslexics are very bright so are capable of great things.
I have two degrees from Russell groups Unis and am doing a post graduate diploma at another RG uni.
My sister has an MEng.
DNiece got the help in primary and is now excelling at senior school and is on track to get GCSEs and get into one of top sixth form colleges in UK.
DNephew has finally got diagnosis ( it has been a long and very difficult fight) he has only started to get the help he needs, but we are all very positive about his future.

Let him be assessed and get him all the help u can by all means, but u can also help a lot yourself. I did with my dyslexic son who ended up going to Oxbridge and is now a uni lecturer.

Not all, but many bright dyslexics have very logical minds and therefore have above average difficulties coping with the inconsistencies of English spelling. My son certainly did.

So i helped him by drawing his attention to the regular and irregular (or sensible and stupid) spellings in words, such as 'and, sand, stand, strand' and 'any, many, apron, father', going over the latter sort repeatedly and explaining that they make no sense but just have to be learned anyway.

The silly words which kept giving him trouble (e.g. trouble), i used to write out on little cards for going over again and again, with a mixture of phonics and sight reading.

I think that what helped him most was being made aware that English spelling is so often silly and therefore makes learning to read and write much harder than need be.

My child aged 7 has just been assessed and diagnosed with dyslexia and a speech and language impairment. It has made no difference to the school as they are only concerned with those well below average. However, it has helped me so much as I now know why reading has been so laborious, why writing is so impossible to follow etc etc and has helped raise his self esteem sooo much. I have bought the sound foundations scheme-reading bears and the spelling apple and pears. Im only doing reading bears at the moment and it has made a huge difference. He actually said the other day one of his friends said hes stupid because he only did level 2 SATs ( alot did level 3 at our school and no they shouldn't know but they do!) but that he doesn't think he is anymore, its just because of the dyslexia. That to me is priceless and worth the assessment money alone. It wasn't easy for us to find the money but we could. I just feel for those who can't and get no help but I think if you suspect dyslexia then following the advice some of the other posters have given and making your own phonic resources is a very good start. It wont do any harm even if dyslexia is not the cause of the difficulties your child is having.

Thanks to every single person who has posted on this thread.
I have suspected for some time that something was wrong as he's very bright but reading is not coming naturally to him at all.
I'm in the process of arranging an assessment and hopefully this will shed some light on the problem.
I will be helping every way I can and putting a positive spin on it for him.
Thank you, the posts have made me see that an assessment and possibly dx may actually be a very positive outcome.

My DS 8 was diagnosed last year with moderate to severe dyslexia. His self esteem was rock bottom and he would hit his head saying he was stupid. Knowing he has dyslexia has changed all this and he really enjoys us looking up information about successful dyslexics!

My husband decided to get assessed too as he recognised a lot of the same difficulties in himself. He wanted to do this to show DS that it's ok to be dyslexic and you can still achieve. My husband has a MSc in advanced engineering. Even though my husband is successful he has still found the diagnosis has helped him.

The assessment for my son had helped with schooling as it showed how intelligent he was as I had known all along. School had been grouping him based on his literacy ability which was causing frustration and boredom. The testing showed his understanding of the world was on the 84th percentile but his spelling was on the 2nd!

I have found the whole process so frustrating. Dd2 is in yr 3 and struggles to read. She is meeting NC levels so school aren't too concerned but like sazale she is on tables with children of the same literacy level which she finds frustrating and disruptive. She has a small restbite for maths when she is on the top table. I have started doing as Mashabell says and helping her to make up her own rules. She loves logic and rules so trying to help her find her own way to understand words.

She finds it harder when text is in prose rather than just the individual letters and words.

We had a brief screening for dyslexia which didn't show anything concerning and have done some convergence training which has helped a bit.

Don't know whether to bite the bullet and get a full assessment or whether to just get some individual tuition. She finds it all so tiring and frustrating.

I hope that you find a way to help your ds, Unfortunately much of the push seems to need to come from the parents so he is lucky that he has you on board to find out what he needs.

I wondered if people had seen this news report www.bbc.co.uk/news/education-32836733#?utm_source=twitterfeed&utm_medium=twitter

Shoddy BBC reporting. Much better coverage in the The Northern Echo. My DD falls into the small category where vision problems are linked (poor convergence) but has found coloured overlays very helpful when she's had visual stress. I'd like to read the full study because I suspect that its details are being lost in the summarisation.

pediatrics.aappublications.org/content/early/2015/05/20/peds.2014-3622.abstract?sid=62786c01-f022-4a10-aa17-56f6b67bcaba unfortunately the full paper is behind a paywall

www.bris.ac.uk/news/2015/may/dyslexia-sight.html

It's totally at odds with the long, long term research the dyslexia research trust has done.

Hmm just read that BBC article, we are seeing a hospital specialist for dds dyslexia/visual stress/nothing wrong with her according to her teacher, dds eye sight is very much inherited from me, short sighted with astigmatism and her dyslexia, if indeed inherited and some studies say it can be, will be inherited from her dad. Reading without her overlay was 60 words per minute while with the overlay was over 100 fekin teacher still refuses to believe there is an issue

Thats interesting Mrs, because my dd who does have convergence problems is not dyslexic and learned to read very easily despite seeing double, where as my ds who has no eye problems (other than shortsightedness) is dyslexic.