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 :-(

Could you point me in the direction of the research Lonecat?
I can only find www.dyslexic.org.uk/research/vision-coloured-filters

You don't have to be dyslexic to be affected. See here:www.ioo.org.uk/appoint4.htm link to London clinic here is good summary. Especially answers to questions 13 & 14.

The clinic's where we take our son. He is dyslexic, but also has the visual stress problems - I think that's the way to think of it, rather than see it as part of the dyslexia iyswim. We didn't realise until he was 8, as he has 20/20 vision, so normal eye tests didn't pick it up. We took him to the clinic off the back of him struggling to read a white board - he just couldn't see it as the words were moving/ blurring.

The Clinic assessed him as profoundly affected, so he now wears tinted glasses for all lessons - they've been brilliant and have stopped the distortion. To give you some idea, one of the tests they do after they've found the tint that helps, is to get you to read a random list of words against the clock. With the tint he read all the words, with 98% accuracy. Without the tint he read 63% of the words and made all manner of mistakes including missing out several whole lines. He no longer gets headaches and he loves reading.

I found this

www.newscientist.com/article/dn27588-forget-colour-overlays--dyslexia-is-not-a-vision-problem.html#.VWMf54akqrV

How should we be treating the condition?
Evidence suggests that the best methods for helping people with dyslexia are the same as those that help anyone learn to read. The old-fashioned "phonics" method teaches individual letter sounds, then how to blend them together into words. People with dyslexia may just need a lot more of this kind of tuition than others. "But if you're spending time on eye exercises, that might be time not spent on phonics," says Creavin.

This paragraph taken from one of the articles you have linked to mrz I totally disagree with, the only thing teaching phonics has done for my dd is allow her to sound out words which are phonetically correct and she spells and writes phonetically, a word that it not phonetically correct is beyond her and she can't work out silent letters at all...none of these articles mentions maths either.

I am finding this absolutely fascinating as we have another hospital appointment this Friday and I'm a nervous wreck!

That's great ... since all words are phonetically correct

pediatrics.aappublications.org/content/early/2011/09/15/peds.2011-0314

The was your first post on this thread mrz and it is so true

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

The change in dds attitude and confidence has totally changed now she realises its not that she cant do things its that she has to do them differently.

I am sitting here raging at the phonics comment in the articles I do not get how they come to that conclusion.

When I was looking for the article from the BBC report I found this quote
"A study by Dr Simon Gibbs found primary school teachers responded differently when asked questions about teaching children with “dyslexia” to children with “reading difficulties”.

The research indicates that teachers felt their efforts in the classroom would be more likely to help children with “reading difficulties” than “dyslexia” – despite children often receiving different diagnoses for very similar behaviours or symptoms, depending on how they were tested and who carried it out."

Which is probably the opposite to parental expectations

There is very little research evidence to support the use of coloured lenses or overlays for dyslexia. Support for the use of lenses is an throwback to the belief that dyslexia was visually based disorder - now disproved. However there is some evidence to suggest that dyslexia and visual stress can be co-occurring disorders. This article from The Lancet discusses recent theories and research on the causes of dyslexia www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3465717/

To read in English children need to be able to access phonics to decode new and unfamiliar words and to have a store of words that are not decodable that they can read by sight. With practise, typically developing readers will have an increasing number of words (decodable and non-decodable) that are in their sight reading memory but will still need a knowledge of phonics for new words.

Children with dyslexia will need more help linking letters to sounds and poor short term verbal memory may lead to problems with skills such as blending and segmenting. Over learning is the key to help automaticity and storing information in the long term memory. This reduces the load placed on short term memory.

DD re-writes key spellings numerous times until they become automatic. She is at a Russell Group Uni studying an essay based subject which involves lots of reading. She copes well but has to work harder than her peers to get the same results. She was relieved to get an assessment.

www.spelfabet.com.au/2015/05/how-the-brain-learns-to-read/

www.pitt.edu/~perfetti/PDF/Coltheart%2005.pdf

Explains the lexical and non-lexical routes for reading

Be aware that 'dual -route' (lexical & non-lexical) theory is just that, a theory. It has been influential but is not a proven fact and has been queried by other cognitive scientists.

I have always been puzzled by it as I cannot see how one can possibly decide on the 'meaning' of a word without actually identifying what it 'says' first.

Mitzi, that's the same as we were told. Our son's dyslexic, but he also happens to have the visual stress problems. The two aren't connected, but apparently a higher proportion who have the vision problems are dyslexic.

If she's having trouble writing and it's really affecting her confidence it may be worth having a look at the trial for this www.cricksoft.com/uk/home-users/clicker/home.aspx
I use it with a boy with large gaps in his understanding of phonics in my class, but it's also great for kids with dyslexia. It's been a huge confidence boost for him and it's definitely not a replacement for writing and learning how to spell, but it's a great boost for kids to see what they can achieve once the issue of spelling is taken out of the equation!

DS has been diagnosed as dyselxic but school are not interested - he is doing well enough not to be a concern to them! He had a bad year last year & had his confidence destroyed but since diagnosis we have been able to rebuild his confidence. He now reads for enjoyment which I never thought he would!

I would really recommend a book called toe by toe if your DS doesn't get phonics as it really helps.

IMHO Bear Necessities is a much better option than Toe by Toe for primary aged children

Oh, also, this is a great website! www.doorwayonline.org.uk/