Dyslexic 5 year old

[Bobojangles]

I have a strong suspension that my yr 1 is dyslexic - lots of signs since he was a toddler and a strong family history. Obviously it's far too young to diagnose but I want to support his literacy as much as possible.

We read for pleasure every day and he has 100s of books so I'm looking for other suggestions to support him

Maybe his own special tablet? We do bugclub and he's played teach your monster to read. Are there any other good resources?

Have you had a chance to talk to his form teacher yet OP? My DS's teacher was able to put in place support as if he already had a dyslexia diagnosis (because she agreed with me that he was almost certainly going to get one). My DS struggled with phonics, but did much better with Kumon English, which uses the 'camera words' system used in literally the rest of the world. But sharing books together, looking at words and pictures next to one another, fostering a love of books/stories is a great start. We were able to get our DS diagnosed at age 7, the earliest we could, and since then he's been eligible for mandated support, extra time in tests, etc.

Yes I've spoken to his teacher, who said too young to diagnose but was definitely interested rather than dismissing me as neurotic mother so I suspect they have suspicions too! His teacher has given me some extra resources for him

Is the Kumon things extra tution you pay for? I looked into it a bit last year and got the impression it was a bit of a hot housing thing rather than something that would support a kid with a specific Sen

He's got the love of stories and books at the minute and I really don't want to loose that by making it too much fo a chore

Alphablocks helped my DD get the hang of blending when she was struggling.

Her other main struggle has been times tables. She needs a lot of practice to learn these.

If you do the Kumon programme then yes, it's something that you pay for, but you can also buy Kumon workbooks on Amazon for about £5-£6 each.

"Camera words" is poor practice and not in line with what we know about learning to read. It sets children up to struggle in the future.

@newnamemsz what do you recommend for a possibility dyslexic child who is already struggling?

I’d suggest looking at this free online course for parents www.udemy.com/course/help-your-child-to-read-and-write/

My husband is dyslexic, so we were on the look out from early on with my son. It was only at 9 that ds was acknowledged by the school to be dyslexic. A solid knowledge of phonics helped. Breaking down words - making sure pronunciation was correct. The book below helped a lot:

Tricky Spellings in Cartoons Lydia Stanton
www.amazon.co.uk/gp/product/1975718739/ref=ppx_yo_dt_b_search_asin_title?psc=1&tag=mumsnetforu03-21&ie=UTF8

Both my husband and ds had issues with times tables. Both quite good at maths. Found it best to say them together over and over.

We still do shared reading at 11. A chapter/certain no. of pages each. Ds still finds it taxing to read a book in full. Checking understanding / comprehension regular basis. Audio books are excellent. (At times we read small paragraphs literally together. Helped with the rhythm, punctuation.)

Not sure about this - but ds has really benefited from learning a musical instrument. Improved confidence enormously. Early on played a lot by ear and memory. (Memorising poetry appeared to help as well.)

Dyslexic is a very broad diagnosis. My husband and ds have different areas where they appear to struggle.

Keep reading to him and keep pushing for a diagnosis, dyslexia is not one size fits all, I've just looked at that link NewName shared and that would not work for my dd, but other systems sometimes work, you have to try and get an understanding of how your sons brain processes the information and find the best system that works for him!

She also enjoyed the Nessy app but she's 18 now and I'm not sure what else is available.

I should have said the method it the one used at the Bloomfield Learning Centre for children with dyslexia http://bloomfieldlearningcentre.org.uk
It may be worthwhile contacting them.

Lots of rhyming games,confidence building,memory games. I went on holiday and took a ... type thing. Lots of rapid naming games. Can you name 5 fruits? 7 colours? 5 sports?

Obviously all schools should be dyslexia friendly these days. Make a scrap book - things beginning with sss..And please be so careful saying sss not suh because it really helps when you get to blending. So many games come to mind.

OP- I know this thread is from over a year ago, can I ask you how is your son doing now?

@zafferana

Interesting! What's the camera word system please.

I had to ditch phonics for my dyslexia DD.

Oh igts a zombie

Different things work for different dyslexic kids but the key is to try and keep them enjoying reading/books and not letting it damage their self esteem. For my DD and her best mate (both dyslexic and other specific learning differences) the biggest thing was finding a passion outside of school to boost their confidence and help with attention and listening etc.