Dyslexia in primary school?

[DrEmilyOxley]

Hi all!
At the University of Leeds we're running a project looking at how easy/difficult dyslexia diagnosis is in primary school.

We're interested to know if you faced any barriers getting a diagnosis for your child and what you recommend to remove these barriers in future.

If you're the parent of a primary aged school child in the UK with dyslexia please consider filling in our short (10 min max) survey and help produe guidance for the future.

Thank you in advance! I'm happy to answer any questions

leedspsychology.eu.qualtrics.com/jfe/form/SV_9Y1MQTBfc5h8CHz

Hi Emily. I am a teacher. The main barrier is that the diagnosis/assessments cost money and schools can not afford them. Make them free and the barrier to diagnosis will be removed!

In our LA (Glos) only private EPs diagnose dyslexia, LA ones that the school pay for won't. It's scandalous, really.

I have been flagging up my sons spelling and writing at every single meeting ing I've had at the school for 4 years. Only in the last 6 months has anyone taken me seriously, and are now gathering evidence. People fobbed me off and didn't pay attention while my son was over looked (depute head's actual words during our last conversation). He has been pointlessly tested for visual stress 3 times, twice in one year, but no one thought to test for dyslexia.

Thank you for your insights! It is scandalous. Parents are forced to have private assessments which means only those children whose parents can afford it are able to be diagnosed. Wonder if this is the same country wide/across Scotland too. Hoping to gather lots of evidence about this..

I am in Scotland and paid for a private assessment. I think it is variable and depends what school you are at.

I’m a SENCo-the reason is money, it’s not difficult to understand.

Only Level 7 assessors or EPs are able to assess. Teachers and sencos are not (unless they have personally pound thousands to get the accreditation).

To get a private EP or an assessor in costs hundreds of pounds. Schools can not afford books or pencils so obviously haven’t got hundreds of pounds to spend.

There is a nationwide shortage of EPs so LA EPs spend nearly all of their time doing statutory work. They haven’t got the time to do dyslexia assessments and schools will not prioritise them when they are trying to get other work done. Many LEAs now have a blanket ban on dyslexia diagnosis and refuse to do it anyway.

What evidence are you trying to obtain?

All you will find is... a dyslexia diagnosis is expensive, schools don’t have enough money to pay for it and if parents want it, they will have to pay.

This will not change any time soon.

I’m in a London borough and our EP won’t even confirm a diagnosis but will say something like “displays symptoms consistent with” or some such evasive wording. There is no money available to get an official diagnosis and at the school I work in parents simply do not have the spare cash to pay for a private one.

Teachers aren’t aware of the basic dyslexic traits

Such as timekeeping, slow processing, organization, lacks focus, they think dyslexic child can’t read and need to fall behind before intervening. Same with spellings.

Teach the teachers.

We're interested to know if you faced any barriers getting a diagnosis for your child

Yes, money.

what you recommend to remove these barriers in future.

More money.

I do hope you aren’t anticipating this research project being longer than about 5 words! What will the groundbreaking research prove? That there isn’t enough money being put into education? No shit, Sherlock!

I’m a SENCo-the reason is money, it’s not difficult to understand

Tell us, if a child has a diagnosis what provision do you provide in terms of support?

Tell us, if a child has a diagnosis what provision do you provide in terms of support?

We have no children in my school with a dyslexia diagnosis and haven’t had for several years. Our LA EP don’t diagnose any more and no parents have got a private diagnosis.

We carry out assessments, identify their areas for development based on the findings, and put in interventions to meet their needs.

Many teachers aren't aware of dyslexic traits. 3 weeks into primary school & my ds teacher (not long finished training) said he was struggling & had poor concentration. I told her he was dyslexic (we've known subs he was a toddler)

She looked it up & said he ticked all the boxes 🙄

School didn't test kids for another 3 years & think it was another 2 years after that before he got official diagnosis.

That said, he has lots of support in school

We are lucky in that our son goes to a private school with focus on a caring ethos.
We are currently waiting for private diagnosis (he is extremely dyslectic, and i’m a psychologist so the outcome is failry sure).
School has in the beginning of year 2 put all interventions in place that they offer for dyslectic children with a diagnosis, so toe by toe program, help with confidence/self esteem, 1-2-1 support, TA support etc.
It is scandalous that he only has access to this because his parents can (just about) afford a private school!

I am a tutor and find that there are quite a few high functioning dyslexic student who just don't ever appear on the school radar as they are "coping" and are "on target", even though they show many of the concentration and information processing issues common to people with dyslexia.
It matters for them to be identified and supported as sometimes they get the idea they are lazy or stupid because they see that they have to put in much more effort than their peers. They are also often eligible for extra time in exams etc, but don't get this as they've not been picked up.

What's scandalous is that your private school only offers that kind of support if your child has a diagnosis.

In my state school, we don't wait for one and put interventions in immediately based on need.

We had suspicions about dyslexia when dc was in yr2-yr3. We managed to find a local private dyslexia support tutor, who confirmed our suspicions and suggested we push for assessment at school.

The school said they wouldn’t assess until at least Yr5! Luckily we were able to pay for a private EP assessment, which was incredibly helpful with loads of information on what could be put in place to help dc.

The school SENCO then said the school wouldn’t recognise or act on a private assessment!

Fortunately her class teacher was brilliant and told us that the school may not act upon it, but her teacher would (wonderful, lovely teacher)
Dc had 2 fantastic teachers in Yr3 & Yr4 other than that her primary years were a disaster and her confidence plummeted.

Fortunately the secondary were very supportive and she has gone from strength to strength.

The main barrier is that the diagnosis/assessments cost money and schools can not afford them.

Nothing new there then.
I'm convinced money is the reason I wasn't properly assessed as a child.
I strongly suspect that DS has inherited my gift. But if they push towards ASD it comes under the NHS budget where Dyslexia is a education not a health issue.

@Feenie we don’t have a diagnosis yet. State school around here do bugger all until there is a diagnosis (yes, i know - i have friends with dyslectic children). How can they? 30+ kids, 1 teacher, a part time TA, senco split over 2-3 big schools. There are NO ressources

How can they? Easily. I run four interventions in a week during assembly time - on top of a full time teaching commitment. I'm currently working on a project with the EEF specifically for dyslexic children.

You are in a very fortunate position- this is not provided by any of the 5 state schools i know. Interventions are limited to children that are either REALLY disruptive, or speak very little english.
Looking at your model, there are between 30 and 35 children per class, about 5-10 of them need extra attention. Assembly is 20 minutes. That makes maximum 100 minutes per week, so 10-20 minutes per child with extra needs, assuming all assembly time gets used 5 days per week which obviously doesn’t happen. So its realistically 10 minutes a week. Dyslectic children do need a tad more than that (plus them missing assembly all the time isn’t great either ).
And that assumes that you can leave your class alone at assembly (TA is often part time, something like 4 mornings a week).

DS never got a diagnosis at Primary School despite struggling with writing and spelling the entire time. He was described as having dyslexic traits but was never given an assessment. At Secondary they have a policy of 'no assessment unless within two years of GCSE'; he is still struggling. If anyone has had success with overturning a school policy, I would be grateful to hear how you did it?

@Feenie
Children should not be removed from the statutory daily act of collective worship for interventions. I am assuming you mean this rather than an additional daily assembly.

Our dyslexic children have an excellent academic record historically - all reach ARE and some greater depth in reading, writing and SPAG, so our 'model' works. We're an inner city primary with 20% PP and 35% EAL.

Of course I can leave my class in assembly! When I occasionally take assembly, I don't need teachers to stay.

I don't know any schools that don't run interventions during assembly. Ofsted certainly weren't bothered and were more interested in the fact that all children receive the broad and balanced curriculum that they are entitled to - without being removed from lessons for additional interventions.

Children should not be removed from the statutory daily act of collective worship for interventions

No school I have worked in for years has even had a daily act of collective worship! We have assembly a few times a week and interventions are often run during them.

Ofsted were more than happy about it. I don’t think they’ve cared about it for years.