Dyslexia.. if my son is diagnosed will he be taken out of mainstream school? How will he be diagnosed what is the process of getting a diagnosis? HELP

[Lunalady21]

Just what the title says really.
My six year old boy is struggling really badly. He can't even memorise one word! We've been doing the same 8 words for a week and he still can't read write or spell any of them out (four letter words). He can't recite the alphabet, he can't say the days of the week, months of the year. He can't recognise simple words and just say them without having to sound them using phonics. I've spoken to the headmistress this morning and she said he's being put on a list to be 'tested'.
What is the process and what will happen pending the outcome? Will he be sent to a different school if they can't facilitate the help he needs? He's at the point where he's so frustrated he refuses to do it now. We tried all through lockdown to do simple easy words and books and it still just hasn't stuck to his brain. Any advice would be very much appreciated. I brought this up to the school last term and they said he would catch up every child is different but I think there is something wrong and he needs extra help.

Each area of the country is different - some you pay for testing and some are able to do it in school. Most schools are able to screen for dyslexia which can highlight traits of dyslexia but a screener is not a diagnosis. It merely focuses on areas that they may be struggling in. The screener that I use in school is most accurate when the child is older than your son but there are ways that he can be helped in class without a diagnosis or a screener.
Where I am it is highly unlikely that he would gain a place at a special school - I don’t want to say never, but I’ve not had one yet in my area.
You need to speak to the school.

Thank you for your reply. I have been making some worksheets I found online all afternoon to try and help him out a little. He seems to need more one to one time only then does he concentrate and understand. Should I take him to my doctor I saw somewhere online that I should make a GP appointment though I dare say this kind of thing won't be prioritised in the current climate. I wouldn't want him to be taken out of main school as I don't want him to feel different. He is a very bright and outgoing boy.. he just doesn't seem to shine in the classroom like he does at home and outdoors.

In my area this is not a GP job. I would talk to/email the class teacher and ask to meet/talk on the phone with the SENCo. Let them know how concerned and stressed you are.
Honestly, the likelihood of him going to a special school is about as likely as being struck by lightening. Ultimately it is up to you as his parent where he goes to school. Children can’t be sent somewhere else by the school, it is parental choice above school wishes. I’m sure your sons school will confirm this and if they don’t, they are wrong.

Everything @PathOfLeastResitance said.
Make an appointment to speak to the SENCo (Special Educational Needs Co-ordinator) - it might have to be virtually at the moment, but there is no reason she can't phone or set up a call via one of the virtual platforms.
Say you are really concerned about the things he is struggling with, and ask what the school can do to support him.

Have his difficulties been raised before, in previous Parents evenings and reports or meetings ?

You wouldn't get a special school place for dyslexia unless you paid for private school

Also, it may be worth holding off on work at home for a while until you’ve spoken to school and asked them what they recommend for home work. Many children who are struggling at school get extra tired during the school day. They have to expend far more energy than other children to concentrate and participate. By the time they get home they’re wiped out and need down time. It’s a bit like stacking shelves at work all day and then coming home and your partner saying you need to stack all the shelves at home too as you didn’t quite get it right at work. It can be demoralising.

Not dyslexia but my DS has ASD. I presume the diagnosing process is about the same. A child will not be offered a place in a special school unless they are unable to cope in mainstream/school can't meet the child's needs. As others have said, every area is different. I'm in Manchester and the referal has to be made by the school not the GP

Dd is dyslexic, her teacher diagnosed it at 6 and we got testing privately because the school needed an official diagnosis (a teacher with 30 years experience apparently isn't as good as a 25 year old straight out of her PhD ).

Mainstream education with extra help in school and we paid for Saturday classes run by our local dyslexia support charity.

She got straight A's at a level and is at a Russell group university

Op I teach mainstream secondary and have a dyslexic child myself. It's a rare class I have that doesn't have four or five children with dyslexia in it.
One reason for seeing your GP - I was asked to have my dc's sight and hearing tested to rule out any issues with that, needed to see the GP for the hearing part.

Your child will not be sent to a special school if they get a dyslexia diagnosis. Most parents desperate for a social school place don’t get one, so you are quite safe with mainstream.

Speak to the senco but most schools now don’t get dyslexia diagnosed any more as it’s expensive to get someone in and they don’t have the budget so you’d have to go privately.

Ditto that the child get tired also he may have short term memory.

I remember my son learning words then on testing him 5 mins later he’d forgot them , at the time I didn’t know he was dyslexic and used to get frustrated with him.
The teachers in primary school used to think he was lazy and didn’t participate in class.
I also found he couldn’t hear properly ( although sort off guessed, as a toddler he couldn’t say some word) for a while though they sent him to speech therapy! All along it was hearing, and he had grommets.

We paid privately to get tested,as I knew something wasn’t right and he wasn’t lazy.
The bloody school didn’t pick it up, one of his year teachers was a SEN
Even when I brought it up with one other teacher, he turned round and said “ I can do private lessons “

When I got the report through I went mad with the primary school headmistress, basically saying how could he get to year 6 and not one teacher picked up on him. I was so angry, for him really (there opinion of him lazy) because he could spell so would write tiny so you couldn’t read it.
Headmistress just said
“ what can I say Mrs ........ we let .......... down

Secondary school wasn’t much better, at that age they don’t like going to learning support. All the other kids know what your going for
He also got put in lower stream class, when the dyslexic report said ...... should be put into a higher stream class, to keep him interested and not board
They put him in bottom set with the naughty kids and adhd kids.

Just to say really, don’t leave it up to the school, he’s just one of .......
Keep on there back, even if you have to make a nuisance of yourself
He’s your child, and you want the best help you can get available to him.

Good luck

Aw, sounds like he's really struggling. Hard for you too when you try SO hard and they just dont get it!
Your DS will not be sent anywhere.
Probably an educational psychologist will come and see him in school and work with the school over the next couple of years to get the support in place for him. He may need a TA to support him.
They will talk to you too, to see what you think he needs.
If YOU think he would do better at a special school they may help you get him a place. It is extremely difficult to get a place at a special school so it's not likely.
Best of luck. The besst thing you can do right now is read to him and ask for his thoughts about the pictures. "What's he holding", "How's he feeling", "What does he want?". Get him imagining and describing.

Probably an educational psychologist will come and see him in school and work with the school over the next couple of years to get the support in place for him. He may need a TA to support him

Just to make it absolutely clear that in many areas this won’t happen. EPs in our LA (and many others now) have a blanket rule to not carry out dyslexia assessments.

A TA to support him would only come with an EHC plan which a dyslexia diagnosis would not necessarily guarantee.

Speak to the senco and find out where offers private assessments locally.

My dd is dyslexic, diagnosed last year of primary school. She has gone through secondary school and college, she is nearly 21. Did have some help through out both schoo, and college.

My other dd has some dyslexia, not discovered till uni. She still managed to get a 1st class honours degree.

I got a (late) diagnosis of dyslexia privately from a child psychologist. I did not need to attend a specialist school and now have a masters from a top university. Some will find this too much and that's okay. Has he just gone into year 2?
I agree with pp about not pushing him a home, at least until everything is sorted and you've worked through his learning style. Also I used to just feel like my brain hurt which may be why he doesn't want to engage with the work.
Do you think the words move on the page for him? If they do print any work he needs to do on a yellow or pink background etc.

Thank you everybody for your replies. I'm giving them til the end of the week and possibly Monday to let me know what their plan of action might be. Also I've shown him the worksheets and he looked sad so didn't push to do any with him. He was sobbing and making himself ill the night before going back to school he hates it! I've written a note to his form tutor to say he won't be doing any of the homework (create a game using the 2,5 and 10 times table including full instructions on how to play!) and 5 other pieces that we'd need a miracle for him to complete! As one poster said he can see the same word over and over and still not memorise it he just doesn't seem to remember anything at all that is shown to him! Or he's just given up and now won't even try to remember anything in school

Also he has had his ears tested due to late speech and still struggles now to pronounce harder or long words. He also wears glasses which reminds me I need to book his checkup!

I agree with comments about short term memory and tiredness. DS, who wasn't diagnosed until he was 17, was just exhausted during school terms, so pushing him to do extra work might be counter-productive.
Agree with converstions with SENCO and ask him/her about the coloured sheets. DS didn't get on with them, probably because he managed without for so long, but when he was assessed for his DSA before University he found that the computer programme that converted his screen to a gold background worked wonders, as it stopped letters "shivering". His employer has got it for him for work, after he realised that he needs it all the time.

You might find that you need a private assessment but he might be too young.
The dyslexia charities can be helpful, but my boy was a bit too old for some of the help they offer.

I can't advise you on testing at your sons age because I wasn't diagnosed until I was an adult. But, I did struggle, and still do sometimes with all the issues you listed. However, I still managed to get to Phd level.

My salvation has been technology. I use software to check spelling and grammar and read out things I've written. The sooner your soon does this too, the better the outcome for him. Plus, when he is older he can use them in exams and get additional time.

Also, if he is Dyslexic he will always have issues reading. I read in context, I can't decode words like a non-dyslexic. It is imperative he expands his vocabulary and general knowledge as this will help him pick up context quicker.

Weirdly, I love to read but it's exhausting and I spend a lot of time reading dry academic stuff. So, I mainly rely on audiobooks. They stop reading being an exhausting business.

Being a dyslexic is a gift in many ways , your level of thinking and being able to intuitively understand complex systems means you excel in lots of areas. But, you don't want your son to feel frustrated and put off education. He might need to focus on audio and visual aids and software. Something I think most children can benefit from.

My dd has a lazy eye, not picked up till she needed glasses a few years ago.

At school she had a special coloured rule, which she put over the line. Black letter on white paper she found difficult to read.

@SpringFan my eldest said that words wobbled on paper, she thought it was normal.

I second what a PP said about holding off with extra work until you have had him assessed and can see how he needs to learn. My DS was on the SENCO’s radar but she said he was just disorganised . She had a thing about spider charts and kept pushing those as a way of clarifying things for him. When we finally had him tested he had dyspraxia and some visual processing issues which effectively meant these sodding spider diagrams just confused him even more. The report had a section on learning recommendations, which the school is supposed to keep in mind (eg it highlighted that DS could not copy off the board, so he was always given a set of handouts).

So I would honestly give him some space and just wider support and try and get him tested ASAP. Our experience also was that it was actually much more important to work on DS’s self esteem (which had taken a prolonged battering, because they know that they are not getting it and everyone else is) than his spelling or anything academic.

Dyslexia can go hand in hand with 'Irlen syndrome'. Book an eye checkup with an option who can provide tinted lenses if he needs them. When he's doing his eye test he'll be able to choose a filter that may help him read better.

In my experience some school SENCos can do an initial dyslexia screen (not fully diagnostic) that will help decide whether further testing is appropriate. But there is a minimum age to carry it out - I think 6 is a bit young. EP assessment time is so scarce these days that in many schools/areas this is very unlikely unless a child has quite severe needs in a range of areas. But agree with PP that flagging concerns with the class teacher and SENCo should be your first port of call - at the very least they should be able to put some supportive strategies in place.