Hi all. Wondering if you can help me work out what to do about my 9 year old (year 5) DS. He's quite a confident boy normally, lots of friends, chatterbox at home and generally a very happy boy. But he's dyslexic and whilst he's doing ok at school, every parents evening I'm told he's so quiet in class they hardly notice him. He literally never speaks up.
The dilemma is, he's reasonably bright (his IQ was tested as part of his dyslexia assessment and he scored 130) and verbally comes across as a clever boy, he's got a great vocabulary and a real ability to understand deeper concepts. But his school reports teeter between 'working towards (for writing)' and 'meeting expectations (for maths and reading),' which I know is basically fine, but isn't really reflecting his ability at all. I had parents evening last night and whilst his teacher was really lovely and supportive, I got the feeling she really didn't know him at all, and had no idea he was a bright lad. Outside of school he isn't shy, but when I've spoken to him about why he doesn't talk in class he says its 'too scary'. He was very behind in infants school before we finally got him diagnosed and started working with a tutor to catch him up, and he was bullied a bit because of it back then. We also got the impression that he was a bit of a chore for some of the teachers at times as he wasn't learning to read, so I think he probably picked up on that at the time. So I'm sure his confidence has been knocked back because of it.
I'm worried that now he's getting older and moving towards secondary age, that he'll always be overlooked if he stays so quiet in class, and that teachers will never push him to really see how much he can achieve if they never hear him speak as they'll just write him off. I'd really like to find some ways to encourage him to contribute, and to feel comfortable and confident to contribute so that it doesn't make him anxious. It'd almost be easier if he was a shy boy as there's so much guidance online about how to help shy children, but this is quite a specific issue only around school so I'm not sure what to do. Any suggestions?