Dd1 did not pass the Y1 phonics test

[Molotov]

I wrote on here last month about my 6yo dd, who I suspect may have dyslexia or perhaps dysgraphia as there are problems with her handwriting (in short, she frequently confuses b/d, p/q, s/z; her handwriting is untidy; there is no uniformity in letter size; she mixes upper and lower case letters and cannot write to lines or margins). My dd is bright, has an amazing verbal vocabulary, is sweet, sensitive amd artistic

I raised the issue with school who have been monitoring her. She has had extra sessions with the SENCo.

However, she failed her Y1 phonics test (24/40). School phoned today to ask for my consent to get the Specialist Inclusion Support Service involved during the first 1/2 term in Y2. I have confidence in the school, I'm glad that they are intervening and that any problems should be identified within the first 1/2 term in September. But I feel a little sad about it, tbh.

Can anyone offer any advice? How to prepare/support dd; what I might expect from the intervention? I'm just feeling a bit low after the phone call earlier, then her pleasing school report which has shows this glaring problem.

Perhaps go into school and ask to speak to the SENCo about the intervention? I think the fact that they are getting someone to come into school to help with specialist support can only be a good thing. I would say, enjoy the summer holidays, encourage her (if she wants) to keep a Summer diary of what she does, try reading menus, signs etc if you go out.

Don't think of it as "Failing at a test" think of it as having had potential problems picked up by a screening programme.

My dd was diagnosed at 7 with severe dyslexia (and a genius level IQ). 6 years later she's at a ridiculously academic selective school where she is about average for everything but languages and 9th in year in maths. Ds, diagnosed at 7 with dysgraphia and still with appalling handwriting is about to join her having easily achieved the required standard and received the RS prize for his amazing philosophical thinking.

We've had lots of intervention - did a programme called FastForWord for a couple of years which seemed to really help dd, taught both to touch type (with the fantastic Amanda Mcleod in Pimlico) so that all written work of more than a couple of sentences is done on laptops, and had coloured lenses for ds (he was seeing everything to the left of the midline as smaller than things to the right) which corrected the visual processing problem- handwriting still messy but a more uniform size and in straighter lines.

There are lots of things you can do to help her - relax over the summer, but try to make it clear to her that her brain isn't worse than other people's, just different. And with different techniques she can overcome any SEN she has, and more importantly embrace the difference.

Although this may seem like a blow for you, it's actually a good thing that we have a y1 test which identifies children needing extra support, and your dd will get that support. Without that test result, or with a scraped pass, your dd would be going into y2 at risk of getting further behind.

Some kids take longer for phonics to click. But this way, your dd will get intensive help through y2 to help her catch up before going into KS2. My ds2 has shocking handwriting - or had shocking handwriting, but a combination of bribery from me "this term I want you to concentrate on writing the letter b correctly - just b, we'll focus on the others later" and a fantastic class teacher has turned thigns around.

Your dd hasn't "failed" the phonics test - it seems such a stark thing when we give kids pass or fail at this age: she's just been identified as needing more support next year. Thank goodness you're in a school where this support is available and ready to be put in place for your dd.

As others have said these are screening tests. Children develop at different rates

Thank-you for your practical advice, Love. It was the SENCo who I spoke with today and she made it clear that the school will work with dd and appropriate agencies, whilst the door is always open for me to go in and talk.

flessan, your message is very encouraging, thank-you. It's a relief to read that, if dd has a learning disability, it doesn't mean ruin academically speaking.

Should I tell dd what will be happening in Y2? That a lady who knows about and can help her with phonics and handwriting will be in to work with her? Or should I keep quiet about it?

You're absolutely right of course, drain.

My dd who is now 8 is exactly the same. She can read a chapter book on her own now but it happened for her about a year later than the average kid.

I felt like you - a little sad. My hubby had told me he was dyslexic - identified at Uni - but I never believed him. He's so successful and such an avid reader!

What made me feel better was getting a report from an educational specialist who helped me to understand the condition and seeing my daughters whole profile. She got a very high score on her WRIT - which is like a non-verbal intelligence profile. Your school sounds fantastic.

We changed schools when my dd was in Year 1 - as the first - (Offsted outstanding) effectively bullied us out of the school.

Her new school identified the problem and has been superb.

Did they say she was the only one? When we had DS's results (and later his SATs) we were given a sheet of statistics about national and school results profiles, from which it was pretty easy to calculate that seven in the class hadn't passed.

In his y2 class therefore it was a group of children who had the intensive phonics teaching, which will have felt much less like being singled out. The whole class do lots of differentiated work all day long with different specialist teachers and TAs helping, so to be honest I'm not sure they'd have noticed.

She sounds lovely

also want to add my DD meets the same profile. She got 22 on her YR1 phonics and has dysgraphia - still mixes her p/q s etc. She can now write about a page where at least half the words - and many of the high frequency words are spelled sort of ok - it just takes her a little longer to catch up with the other kids - but she'll get there.

She just won an art competition for a purse she made. She is always making things out of nothing. She blows me away - there is something about the dyslexia that makes her so amazing. It's something really special

Springtimemama

Thanks for sharing that! The educational specialist told us there are some architectural design firm who preferentially hire dyslexic designers.

Be very glad that it's been picked up now. My little sister's dyslexia didn't get picked up until her GCSE year and only after she had already decided that the reason she couldn't do the things her friends were doing must be that she was stupid. It took a long time to rebuild her confidence.

One of the best things about the dyslexia test was it included an IQ test. After years of people comparing her with me and considering her the lesser (including teachers who should have known better that to be comparing siblings at all), the IQ test proved that she is actually smarter than me. Her joy at finding that out made us all smile.

She is now a degree qualified music teacher and she loves her job.