Sack the Sock - put a sock in it or pull your socks up - frankly we're a bit sick of it. The Archers is shit, discuss it here.

[PseudoBadger]

I have it on good authority that this is the thread that people enjoy more than the programme it's about

Isn't it more that Helen is having to take her mother's place in the dairy? And perhaps with all the attendant transporting and travelling and organisation of their dairy sales.

I think Helen has taken over pat's role in the dairy as shehas been at Tony's bedside, or is that not what you mean? People have been talking about Helen having a lot on her plate in TA ever since I can remember anyway. I actually think she does have a lot on her plate right now, but there has always been that thing of avoiding overburdening Helen

And Tom of course has had some sort of Damascene moment / Found Himself in a cabin in remotest canada, so of course his personality will have changed! How could you expect otherwise!

Thanks dfw. Dp is at parents' evening so i have eaten my supper whilst watching YouTube videos of milking apparatus

More likely to be dysgraphia than dyslexia, no? Johnny keeps saying how he can't write things down.

H is still terrified R will dump her like he did before. I thought after the J conversation she just said sometjing like "she said vile things" in classocally H drama.

I'm not in the slightest sceptical about dyslexia not being diagnosed at school. I used to work as the administrator for a Masters degree course and every year at least one of our students, having taken advantage of the free screening offered by the university, would report being diagnosed with a specific learning difficulty. Usually they said they had always wondered if there was something wrong but had managed up to that point. The intensive reading required for our programme and the many essays were one of the key reasons for seeking help.

In my own family, my daughter was diagnosed with Asperger's when she was 11. At the end of the report there was a section with her cognitive test results and the comment that she might need extra time in exams when she was older because her short-term memory/processing capability was way below average. We didn't absorb that point at the time, being more concerned with social problems she was having (fortunately much improved now). Less understandably neither did the special educational needs co-ordinators at her primary school, secondary school and the school she moved to for sixth form, who all had copies of that report (supplied by us). She only got the extra time she should have had for exams when we got her privately assessed by an educational psychologist at the age of 17. I still feel we all let her down, as it affected her results. (Doing very well at university now, though, I'm pleased to say! )

So it wouldn't surprise me at all if a bright boy like Johnnie with no behavioural problems had been at the back of the queue for diagnosis and support. My impression is that in a typical comprehensive school like the one my daughter went to the limited resources are not able to stretch to helping bright children who are underachieving. There's just too much to do with the really severe cases.

I briefly worked with animal behaviour scientists in the dairy industry (I met temple grandin!) - should have asked (even) more questions when I had the chance!

That sounds really tough for you all mimsy

Thanks, Petula! It was tough at times but things are on a much more even keel now. Finals looming for both son and daughter this year, aaargh!

Very envious of you meeting Temple Grandin! Weren't you starting a new job, or at any rate leaving an old one, a few weeks back? Hope all is working out well for you.

What if the main game is Rob and Jess's marriage, and Helen is the tool so he gets his way with Jess, perhaps he has done this before, perhaps to get Jess to have a child.

Quite a lot of people get diagnosed at graduate or even post grad level, but mostly they have developed strategies to cope or are less badly affected.

But Rich/Johnny hasn't, and/or is quite severely affected (assuming he is dyslexic). There is no reason to assume that his parents are disengaged or uninterested in the education system - his sister went to university, and his mother wanted him to go to college. So how likely is it that no one noticed he was struggling until Helen & Tom came a long with stuff they'd got off the internet and bingo!

Dyslexia, as you said, is diagnosed by a educational psychologist with their years of training. Not a failed pig farmer with a bit of brown paper.

Do we think Johnny's dyslexia is going to provided some occupational therapy for bored Tony (his being bored seemed to be mentioned quite pointedly this evening)? Then the Ambridge dyslexia fairy can cure Johnny and the health fairy can swoop down on Tony.

yes - totally unrealistic.

A question for those who know - did it sound like he was dyslexic when he was reading out?

Another example of not getting a 'real life' advisor in as the diagnosis was arrived at in a very improbable way.

Anyway at least we know now that Helen is probably not going to be able to conceive because of all the hay in her diet.

Indeed ,Cutted up P, < nods sagely>. Oh I so want Rob to get his cumuppance. Please somebody see through him.

Very strange attitude to shop-keeping, as others have mentioned upthread. It's as if the SW's think that Tina is employed by the actual shop.

Maybe they are frantically hunting down the complex diagram that maps the Bridge Farm set-up...

Well in my experience. He might have read far better on none white paper. But I would have expected either to suddenly be able to read clearly (very unlikely if he'd had no intervention until then) or to have still massively struggled as although he might be able to see clearly he still wouldn't have learnt those words. The words were very difficult to decode.
When my DD started to use a blue overlay her choirmasters said she suddenly sang a lot better, but she can't suddenly sing words she doesn't know what they are (eg. Russian).

If Johnnie is bright but dyslexic I would expect: his behaviour to have been bad because he was bored but struggling. I also would have expected a totally different set of signs, not mixing a 3 for an 8, more likely to write B instead of 6 (sees 6 as a b, but always writes in capitals to overcome b d confusion). DT also involves quite a lot of writing, but maybe the script writers don't realise that.

Surely this isn't actually a diagnosis, but something to get him referred to whoever is the relevant person at college?

Assuming the SW meant what they wrote, Johnny's "oh not this again" reaction clearly indicates that this is not the first time dyslexia (or similar) has been suggested to him. It seemed to me that he has stubbornly refused to allow any investigation for fear of being labelled, in his words, "thick".

So I hope we'll find that Helen was being unfair to Sharon - who probably has tried to help her son but been rebuffed by him.

I did think the bit about going to Student Support, and them not just being there for "thickos" was a very good point - and much better public interest broadcasting than the sales pitch for the Milking parlour the night before.

You know, my son is academic and not dyslexic. He gets student support though and at his school at least 75% do he says, to help with all sorts of bits and pieces. My dd's school on the other hand...she cannot track text, writes d for b all the time, words disappear and reappear. She gets nothing. I am hoping she gets into ds' secondary but it's quite unlikely.

All hail Tom the dyslexia diagnoser!
And hark - Krusty is in the afternoon play this afternoon. Coooeee!

It is Kirsty! (Annabelle Dowler)

Play by Lizzie Nunnery set in Liverpool.

Great to hear that lovely voice again. In fact it's hard to believe that a year ago there ever was such a distinctive voice in Ambridge.

toomuchtea Yes! Sitting in the car for dh, and struggling with a very slow internet connection and it is her...