Testing for dyslexia?

[pinkthechaffinch]

My son, nearly 8, finds it very difficult to write. He can learn spellings for a test but really struggles to write legible sentences and often forms letters incorrectly.

His reading is very good but something is really holding back his writing and he is becoming increasingly unconfident. His fine motor skills are very good ie he builds highly detailed lego models without supervisiion.

How would I go about getting him tested for dyslexia, which is in the family? I've had a word with his teacher and she agrees with me, but is not inclined to do anything about it. I'm worried that he is going to fall further and further behind his classmates.

Any advice gratefully accepted.

The SENCO (special educational needs co-ordinator) at your child's school should be able to get an outside resource in to test your child for dyslexia, in fact if I were you, I would insist they do so. Are you in the UK?

You can privately get a dyslexia asessment form an educational psychologist or dyslexia specialist.

All it involves is a couple of hours of 'tests'. A full report is then written up and your school will have to accept this provided the assssor holds recognised qualifications.

The school or LEA should have a list of such qualified people. A private assesment costs about £300-£400 I think (but don;t quote me o that)

Yes, we are in the UK; in a small village school with hardly any SEN kids.

Apparently, he was really upset today as he couldn't write the word 'strawberries'. I can't afford to pay for a private assessment. If the school refuse, would I have to contact the LEA?

I think your first port of call is to make an appointment to speak to the school SENCO and look up on your local LEA website if there is anything there on their policies etc.

Please bear in mind that many LEAs do not actually test for dyslexia now and do not tend to take on board private tests. It would be best to work with the school and senco and their outside agencies to get the support you need for your child.

Thanks for your comments everybody.

I'm going to make an appointment with the school's senco after half term-to give him time to settle back down to work, and also to give his teacher time to observe and assess him.

Hi my son is 7 and in year 3 - I suspected he had dsylexia in Year 1 but all I kept hearing from the school was "well he is still young and was a summer baby". In year 2 he still wasn't able read even the key words and can't hold his pencil. I basically forced the school into doing something about it - they were adament that they wouldn't do anything until he was in year 3 but I wasn't prepared to wait another year - I spent 3hrs at parents night and basically wouldn't move until they started to take him out with the special needs teacher and also told them if they didn't get someone in to test him I would be contacting the council - at first they said that they didn't have the funds but when I mentioned they had recently employed a polish support worked for £27k I'm sure they could find £300 to test my son. In the end He was test and now he has been diagnosed as dsylexic - he has small group sessions out of the class 5 days a week, we also go to the hospital for his motor skills and the school has also bought quite a bit of equipment - it was a hard slog at first but finally I feel as if I am getting somewhere with the school - apologies for the long post.

Ther's a dyslexia website called Nessy that's very good - link you can do a sort of test on it too. But its got a lot of games and help on it.