Year 7 Boy Struggling

[Harperhan]

My DS goes to an independent school but is really struggling. He is coming to the end of Year 7, but finds every aspect of school a struggle. He has always been unable to write legibly and finds the level of work hard and complex. We have felt he has always been on the back foot being a June baby and has never really caught up. He is really bright and can recall facts in tests etc really well. The trouble comes with extended writing. His writing and grammar are poor, and generally it does not make sense. Despite being told to reread his answers etc he still fails to see the issues.

My question is will it all just suddenly fit into place or is this going to be an ongoing issue that could affect his GCSE's? Any thoughts particularly from teachers would be appreciated.

Do the school know that he is struggling or are you amending his classwork/homework? If the school are aware have they suggested tests for dyslexia/dysgraphia/dyspraxia?

Hi OP. I am not an education expert or nothing like that, but I would think about having a dyslexia assessment. My dd1, had one last week, as her long writing answers in her exams are a lot of the time, a mistery on what she wants to say. I think, up until GSCE, she was "fine", but with History in Y11, she really struggle to make her point across. She did a lot of practice answers before her exams, and her grade was really good. However, with her A-level mocks this year, one of her teachers told her that she couldn't make too much sense of her answer in her exam and asked her is she had ever been assessed for dyslexia. She had the assessment, and she is dyslexic. This now answers a lot of issues and I wished I had her assessed years ago, when I first notice her writing didn't make too much sense, and she would have avoid a lot of anxiety about her exams and long answers.

Ask the School if they have considered dyslexia or other SpLD in the first instance.

Another recommendation for an assessment with an Ed Psych to check for dyslexia, dyspraxia etc.

Our DS2 is a summer born baby and for years we just thought he was lagging behind in age and would catch up. On a few occasions in Junior and then early Senior school we asked if everything seemed OK and were always told not to worry, he's fine. I ignored my gut instinct that something wasn't quite right until Year 10 (!) when he was seriously struggling with the volume of GCSE work. We paid for an assessment and he has dyslexia and poor memory and processing skills, but had managed so far as he was bright and had developed some coping strategies etc.
I really wish we'd found out sooner as it's been a bit late to properly prepare him for GCSEs, although he does now get extra time.

You need an assessment. Sometimes independent schools do not always have a coherent system for this, do seek one independently in addition to the one the school ought to be doing.

He will soon be doing CE and will need to write extensively so you will need this sorted out before then.

Yes I think it's time to let go of this ^ and find out what the problem actually is.

I forgot to say in my post that he has be independently tested for dyslexia and dyspraxia already and the school learning support team have looked at all options.

It's so hard to say without obviously knowing your DS but this sounds way more than just being a summer born baby. I'm guessing the dyslexia etc tests came back with nothing. You really need to have a long conversation with the school.

Ask a speech therapist to have a look at him. It could be a language problem; although it could be some other executive function problem like with organisation or poor working memory or slow processing (which might take an educational psychologist to identify).

Harperhan - all I would say is that my DS was 'tested' by the school learning support team and they said he was fine and gave him a rubber pen grip . Sometimes the school SEN teams don't have the full range of assessment tests available to them. When DS saw the Ed Psych she spent 3 hours with him and ran a huge number of different tests.

OP I would absolutely pay for an independent Ed Psych to do assessment. I find sometimes Independent schools not so hot on this sort of thing- and he is clearly not getting the help and support he needs

He sounds like my DS (july baby) and he is very dyspraxic.
Including great factual memory but awful getting it down.
There are coping strategies-including dictating to a scribe for exams.

Can he do his work on a laptop?

Good luck!! Don't be afraid to be a PITA to advocate for your DS

Sounds like DS who has Aspergers. Some overlap of issues with dyslexia.