Possible Dyslexia in nearly 6 Year Old - Struggling

[OhhhhhhhhBiscuits]

Our nearly 6 year old (Y1) is really struggling with phonics, reading and writing. She is doing great in maths and is excelling in art and science.

She has attended 2 schools and both have said they are monitoring/monitored her for dyslexia but they can't do anything as they won't do testing till she is 7.

Our concern is that she is falling further and further behind in year 1. She gets very emotional and tries to avoid anything to do with reading or writing when at home. We do the class reading book Monday to Friday and give her the weekends off from it, but we still have tears every single day as she just doesn't really get it.

She gets letters and numbers back to front when writing, she doesn't understand spaces so when she does do writing it's basically one long line of letters with no gaps.

Reading - she will read totally the wrong letters and if they are correct she will get them in the wrong order. We have tried coloured overlays at home and have had more success with those but school won't let her use them until she has had a formal diagnosis, which they won't do till she is at least 7. And then it will possibly be a long wait for an appointment. She also doesn't get "tricky" words in the slightest. Just cannot comprehend them.

What can we do to help her? Every day is a battle and all of us are getting upset as it is horrible seeing her so upset at just not being able to do it.

Eye tests have been done and a hearing test has been done as well. All OK for both of those. She has had speech therapy when younger and the teacher has mentioned having it again as some sounds are still not there (y, r and l).

My DS(14) is very dyslexic. He really struggled to learn to read but we and the school preserved. When he was in year 4 Reading clicked for him, he almost went from struggling to being able to read overnight! I can’t say the same has happened for spelling as he still really struggles.
I don’t think any particular method was the magic key for him it was the continual reading with him and practicing phonics and sight words that helped.

Have you looked into online programs such as Nessie, that might be a fun way to help your DD.
If you can start saving up for an Ed psychologist rather than relying on the school to sort out assessment’s for your DD. Some LAs have dyslexia (or specific learning difficulties) specialist teachers you can contact for advice.

@Skiphopbump thank you so much for that. We are using Nessie and Reading Eggs and also games that the school subscribe too (spelling shed) and normally she loves games but she just cries at doing these. We have tried all different times of the day and the weekend and just doesn't want to do them. When we sit her down and make her do them, she does get there and can do them but it takes a while.

If its upsetting her, back off for a bit. Read books with her she likes,play games she likes. Let her help with everyday writing not exercises

DD1 is dyslexic. She made progress in stops and starts. In Yr6 she got her adjustments in preparation for SATs and that's what made the biggest difference (depending on exam she got extra time, a reader, or a scribe. A lot of her work is done on a computer). She loves reading now there is no pressure.

In Yr7 her handwriting is starting to become legible!

Her teachers tried different approaches over the years but it was just time, patience and resilience that got there really.

Our biggest problem is actually organisation now, she needs a lot of help with this. When younger she used to get upset with people giving too many instructions at once.

aww bless your DD. My DS had struggled to read and I found sometimes no one was interested or understood the struggles we both faced. I did find a company called Dyslexia Gold and it was very effective for my DS. They even have a few games on there to play, which my son loved. He thought he looked cool with the 3d glasses on. Your DD may enjoy the games, which might make her look forward to using it. I do think they may have changed their name to literacy gold. Definitely worth a look. I hope you find the support you need with your DD, i would also keep on at the school

Thank you so much for the advice and help. I just want to help her as much as possible. She really is a bright girl, she just cannot get this reading and writing stuff. We have total mirror writing (which is actually perfect.... yet backwards), we have getting letters wrong in words etc..... and she knows its not quite right herself and gets so upset and just wants it to be right and now she is just giving up.

She is very creative and she would spend all day crafting and making things. She is like a queen at junk modelling and makes amazing creations. She has made a cat house with a coke box toy annexe that the cat actually uses! Has decorated it beautifully with rainbows and flowers. Will draw for hours and hours. Loves leaving post it note pictures around the house for people. And has been known to leave them randomly and friends and families houses to cheer them up! She has one of the multi colour pens and that and a pack of post it notes and she is happy for hours.

I will look up literacy gold and see what that is like. I am willing to try everything. I am already doing overtime at work to save the money for a private assessment when she is 7! I want to give her the best fighting chance. I'm not a pushy parent, my main goal is a happy resilient child, but being able to read is such a beautiful thing. Being able to escape in books is amazing, and she does do that as we have a subscription to audible and she listens on average for 2 hours a day to her audio books and really takes them all in.

@OhhhhhhhhBiscuits have you tried coloured overlays on reading books or "Toe By Toe" ? Both are inexpensive and successful with dyslexic children.

I'm a teacher and we don't test for dyslexia until Y3 at our school but any child suspected of having dyslexia and children diagnosed with dyslexia use a computer programme called IDL once a day for about 20 mins which focuses on spelling and reading. I'm usually against using computers as a means of intervention but it really has helped improve the reading and spelling of the children in my class and because it's on a laptop, they love it. It's kind of expensive to purchase as a parent (think around £100) but could be worth asking the school to buy a subscription.

We have had limited success with overlays but not heard of Toe To Toe so will look into that. Thank you!

Thank you! We will look into this. We just want to give her as much help as possible.

@OhhhhhhhhBiscuits

Have you done behaviour optomitry test?. much deeper than NHS basic sight's test.... but it costs a lot..

Go right back to basics, make sure she knows her alphabet.

Start Peter and Jane book's and flash cards first 100 hfw.

Google and research thing's like speed reading.