DS15 Y(YR11) just been assesses as dyslexic What can I expect from school?

[TwigTheWonderKid]

DS went for a private Ed PSych appointment Monday. I'd had nagging doubts there was something a bit "off" with him since primary but both primary and secondary schools had reassured me nothing was wrong.

Finally decide to trust my gut and it turns out I was right which is great because he's really been suffering from anxiety and hopefully we can get all the stuff in place he'll needot help with A levels. However, he's obviously got 6 weeks left of his GCSE course and I am wondering what, if anything, school can or should do at this stage with this new information? Obviously if they'd know at the beginnning of Year 10 he would have had a laptop all the way through and extra time. The next 6 weeks are all about mini assessments to " fine tune" the teacher's CAGs but I kind of feel like his need a total overhaul rather than "fine tuning" but I'm not sure what's reasonable to expect?

Ds is a bit younger than yours op. We have just had an assessment at school for extra support in exams.

We’ve always known he struggled with handwriting and had some other issues in the classroom, but nobody has been able to put a finger on what the problem is.

His report showed he is 99.7 centile for cognitive ability but 2nd centile for processing speed. Although dyslexia hasn’t been mentioned (I’m not sure this was the purpose of the assessment). Does anyone know if it is likely?

Like you I hope we will be able to help him more effectively now. I’d be interested to hear what your school do put in place

I have no professional experience but both my DCs have SENs and access arrangements, one of them on the basis of dyslexia. It probably is too late to do much this year now but still worth talking to the school. The guidance for access arrangements www.jcq.org.uk/wp-content/uploads/2020/10/AA_regs_20-21_FINAL.pdf does state that late applications may be made but you do still need all the evidence.

I think some of the responses above are harsh too, Ed.Psychs have professional codes of conduct, the blanket term dyslexia is possibly not helpful in itself as you do need to drill down to the specific needs of the individual but these assessment results are valid. Both my DCs had their EP assessments in year 5, one is in year 12 now and the exact difficulties identified then still hold true now.

Also - depending on the severity, he may fall into the category of disability covered by the Equalities Act, which is definitely a case of crossing a boundary from one group of students to another.

Op firstly well done. You know your child best and you followed your instinct and you will have helped tremendously with their future. Once a child understands how their brain works, they can forgive themselves for finding things hard, stop making meaningless comparisons with children whose brains work differently and focus on their strengths.
When my DD was diagnosed the head at her primary said "Why are so many children in this school diagnosed with dyslexia, such a middle class problem. Why can't parents just accept that their children aren't good at everything. I can't play the guitar well and I just accept it."
Really, she did. She compared my child's core education to her guitar playing. You are going to meet lots of people like that head, but you need to just write 'fuck you' with your tongue on the roof of your mouth whilst keeping smiling and keeping strong on what is best for your child.
DD's comp has been beyond amazing on the support, the polar opposite in attitude to the head at her primary, they have allowed her to stay on programs even when she has reached a level of attainment that means she could finish it. So often it is down to attitude in individual schools not even funding. You might want to find a tutor outside school for some gentle help.
Basically your DC is one of the lucky ones - thanks to you. So many children out there slipping under the radar or having teachers with attitudes like @Wingdefender.

Einsteinsings
Was it an EP assessment that was completed? Or another sort of assessment?

School SEN support should be needs driven, not label driven so of your DC has been assessed to need access arrangements and adjustments in class then they should be implemented regardless of whether the report has dyslexia named.

I found it useful to think of dyslexia as an umbrella term and that children with dyslexia will present differently. It's why I'm wary of saying that it's standard for students to get particular adjustments as so much depends on the child's profile and needs.

Spring2021
That's not good. Her access arrangements should have been her normal way of working. Firstly to give evidence for having them, secondly because it takes students time to get used to using them. E.g. a child with 10/25% extra time needs to get used to how they will use that time. It would be worth speaking to the SENCo in your position as if they've already put your DC's access arrangements in then they should have a better plan for these assessments.

Too late for his GCSEs because any support they have in exams has to reflect their normal way of working. Good timing for getting support in place for A Levels though.
He should get a laptop, a reader/scribe in exams if he needs it and may get some TA help - although that may not happen as TAs tend to be stretched very thin and he won't have hours paid for by the county.

I am an access arrangements assessor. Just in case anyone finds this thread confusing I'd like to say that Ed Pyschs and approved assessors follow very stringent guidelines and are highly qualified to assess for dyslexia.

However, students do not need an assessment in order to have exam access arrangements such as extra time. Instead what is required is that their teachers are already providing these adjustments in the classroom: it is the student's normal way of working. This could be having 1-1 support in the classroom, extra time to co plate tasks, help with reading or writing, being allowed to take breaks outside the classroom or whatever the individual needs really. With this information from teaching staff the school will ask an assessor who works with or for the school to assess the student for very specific scores relating to what adjustments are required. The assessor then writes a report called a Form 8 which is used to apply to the awarding body for the exam concession. If a student has a medical reason for needing adjustments or a diagnosis of ADHD or ASD further assessment is not required. For dyslexia however it always is. A diagnosis of dyslexia will not automatically entitle students to exam concessions.

I just think it might be useful to parents to know how the process works so that's why I've written such a long response! Also, the most important thing is that students can learn, understand, process and communicate information. If dyslexic children find that process easier by using technology, brilliant. It's enabling them to access their education. It's a reasonable adjustment and is generally approved for exams.

Great post @GalesThisMorning. It has also been made clear to me that the access arrangements are based on the students normal way of working which is documented. My Y8 son uses a word processor, has extra time and access to an electronic reader if he needs it in the regular tests they sit at his school as well as using his laptop in class for a lot of his work.The SENDCO I think will do an additional assessment surrounding his slow processing nearer the time... I cant quite remember.
The EP report from the British Dyslexia association with his diagnosis, test scores for working memory, processing, verbal comprehension etc as well as recommendations was very useful though as it gave a basis for the initial discussion about supporting him and many of the adaptations he has are from information from this. My son is doing really well at school and I am really glad we had the assessment done (in Y5).

Hi OP, I have a DD in Y7 with a diagnosis of dyslexia and hypermobility. Her VR and NVR scores are high (above 98th centile) but processing speed is average and working memory is only 7th centile - so very spiky profile.

She was diagnosed at the age of 7 (it was rather horribly obvious so school organised everything as soon as she was old enough) and was retested at 10. She's probably 'moderately severe'.

The absolute game-changer for us was moving to using a laptop (the hypermobile finger joints made it incredibly painful and hard for her to write so she avoided it as much as possible which just compounded the problems). Ignore the PP who said not to go with a laptop. Over the last 5 years we've had a lot of advice from experts in dyslexia and every single one of them recommended a laptop as soon as we could get her touch typing.

We did some intensive online touch-typing courses (English Type and English Type Junior are both dyslexic friendly and DD was very motivated by the prize systems to really engage with the course) and now she is a different child when it comes to writing.

We're planning to have a serious look at speech to text software this year (Dragon Speak or the Office 365 one) and then focus on editing skills. Her spelling is always going to be dire so it's looking for work arounds as much as solutions - but she now loves writing and instead of 3 painfully produced sentences, the teachers at least now get 3 enthusiastically produced pages.

The 'usual way of working' is going to be the issue you have for GCSE as he doesn't have things in place yet. I know my DD will be able to have a laptop and various other bits of tech for exams as that is how she is in class. You should aim to start 6th form with as much of this in place as possible so you can have those for the exams.

Even a diagnosis and being able to wave bits of paper doesn't mean you won't have to fight for lots of things. DD has never yet been given an extra 25% for tests and assignments... which was more of an irritation at primary than it is so far at secondary, and we have had a couple of teachers ask DD to do a test assignment on blank paper by hand (ludicrous as she is then doubly handicapped as she doesn't ever write by hand any more, and there was no reason why she couldn't have emailed the assignment at the end of class). You can also get some kids saying it's unfair that A gets to use tech - although less likely at 6th form I would imagine.

What you get in terms of access arrangements will also depend on the severity of the scores alongside their normal way of working.

I agree with everything written above about the usual way of working. I did want to comment that schools absolutely will take a private assessment seriously. There are a lot of people who think ‘you get what you pay for’ but thats insulting to the highly qualified Ed psychs who are completing the assessments. As a SENCO I actually like the private diagnosis reports as they tend to be extremely detailed.

@GalesThisMorning thank you that is really helpful. It was an access assessment DS had and it’s really helpful to know that he doesn’t necessarily need a formal diagnosis to access all the extra support that was suggested.

Does anyone think a ‘diagnosis’ is useful for other reasons? I wonder if it might help DS feel better about things?

[quote Einsteinsings]@GalesThisMorning thank you that is really helpful. It was an access assessment DS had and it’s really helpful to know that he doesn’t necessarily need a formal diagnosis to access all the extra support that was suggested.

Does anyone think a ‘diagnosis’ is useful for other reasons? I wonder if it might help DS feel better about things?[/quote]
DD finds having a diagnosis and piece of paper to wave very useful. She's one of these kids who is obviously very bright when you talk to her and teachers tend to have high expectations. She was hugely under-achieving and just felt she was stupid and useless at things.

Now she has a lot more understanding that her brain just works slightly differently and if she comes at things from a different direction then there is no reason why she shouldn't do perfectly well at most things, and excel at some.

@TwigTheWonderKid

In our school year 10 and year 11 students with dyslexia often get 10% extra time in exams. Some, get a laptop to use for the exam in certain subjects, such as English. Some even get a scribe:

So if your sons CAGS are based on lots of assessments which didn’t give him his ‘access arrangements’ then I believe these CAGS would be unfair.

A student of mine a few years ago was averaging a 4 in my subject. I pushed and pushed for a scribe; with a scribe his final grade was an 8.

I have no idea what job Wingdefender has, is she a senco? I find her posts utterly soul destroying and depressing. And my ds 's aren't even dyslexic.
I was at football and one of the mums was asking me about her son starting Year 7 and the school having done nothing. Which is why I clicked on this thread. Wish I hadn't. How sad.

it's awful isn't it @Oblomov21

you have to face enough crap in real life with people saying it's trendy to be dyslexic and oh that's just a label for kids who aren't very bright

my son dropped all his writing subjects even though he loved them to stick with maths and sciences because he was incapable of coherently putting together long written answers. If only we had known why and if only the school had said something. He's a bright boy, got A A A in A levels. Dyslexia is so so so frustrating for the children because they are generally extremely bright but just unable to demonstrate that in traditional educational settings. One of the biggest issues is getting them to deal with that frustration before it turns into anxiety/MH problems.

I still get pissed off today when I can't follow written instructions very well. Yet I am at the top of my career and successful. Please tell your friend to keep pushing to get support for him, even if not in school but outside of it.

I agree, Oblomov21 - some of the posts earlier on this thread are bleak and totally unhelpful!

I thought I'd share a bit about my experience OP, as your DS sounds like he has some similar issues. My DS's dip is with working memory and processing - he has a hugely spiky profile and qualified for 25% extra time. One of the most helpful snippets that the EdPsych told us was that if it takes most students twice to learn something and be able to recall it, it will take DS at least 7 times. Also that he struggled to find the information in his head - if you think of most kids having knowledge in their brain on a line of shelves (so they can remember where it is, go to it, pluck the information and use it), apparently my DS's brain is more like a bin bag! The knowledge is in there, but it takes him ages to recall/ find it. My DS would be able to do everything easily when they first did a topic in class, but by next lesson he'd have forgotten it all - often he would struggle to remember even having studied it. Once we understood the way his brain worked, that really helped him accept that he needed to work in a different way to his friends. Owning the difference is key and if your DS can do that it will definitely decrease his stress and anxiety. Help him get organised - with revision, a little and often is far more productive than a big last minute splurge. Tell him he's interesting because his brain's wired differently - he is! Good luck!

Another parent with a DS diagnosed later (Year9) with dyslexia. He was bright and had developed coping mechanisms, but I could see he was floundering with the volume of work at GCSE level.

No idea what Wingdefender is on about, but it doesn't reflect our experience.
Like you, we went for a private EdPsych assessment because the school didn't see what we saw at home (meltdowns over homework, taking ages, inability to read and retain info etc). They absolutely took it onboard afterwards and not only did it help DS regain his self-esteem ("You mean I'm not thick after all, Mum?") but it also simply provided a basis for asking for reasonable help with things from the school.
Some changes made for DS were:

• 25% extra time in exams (which helped him to stop panicking so much about reading pages and pages of text for example)
• exams in smaller, quieter room (came with the 25% extra time anyway)
• DS was allowed to take photos of whiteboards/ record some lessons (his working memory was poor and he couldn't write fast enough to copy huge amounts off the board)
• His homework had to be provided/confirmed in a written format. This should be best practice anyway, but we discovered that some teachers were quickly dictating the homework task in the last few minutes of the lesson, with bell ringing etc. Ds used to spend the first part of every evening contacting all his friends on WhatsApp to ask for the homework tasks .

Interestingly, once he had these things in place, HE was often the one they contacted for copies of slides or tasks etc!

• He was also allowed to drop one GCSE to allow him more time to concentrate on others.

Pleased to say that the effect was dramatic and he left school with excellent A levels and much greater confidence in his own strengths, weaknesses and abilities.

I must admit I was quite disturbed by Wingdefender's attitude and input as an education professional so I didn't come back to this thread for a while but huge thanks to everyone who's been a bit more sympathetic and helpful since.

Quick update; still awaiting the full Ed Psych report but school have been fab. They are giving DS a Chromebook tomorrow so he can type his mini assessments over the next 6 weeks, the SENDCo is planning on doing some in-school tests this week or next to determine how much extra time he'll be entitled to and he is having a meeting with her and a deputy head tomorrow so he can talk through areas he feels he needs support in so they can roll that out and let all his teachers know. I think that's going to be a bit hard for him as he's getting used to the idea that how he learns and experiences things is different from "normal" but he's already realised not being asked to read out loud in English and being given access to texts in advance of his lessons will make a difference.

That''s good news @TwigTheWonderKid. I too was a bit shocked at that spectacularly unhelpful post. It probably is a bit of a shock for your DS and you too, I felt quite upset when both mine got their diagnoses even though they weren't unexpected. My DS, who is 17 now, is very good at identifying specific things he struggles with.

That's good news that you've got progress OP.

I'm slightly concerned on them putting in access arrangements for his GCSE assessments long after the deadline for them to be submitted, unless the rules have been changed in light of moving to centre assessment. I didn't think they had, but I could have missed it.

The rules I linked to above say that late applications are possible for a new diagnosis.

@EventuallyDistracted I think we were both surprised but honestly it's more of a relief than anything. It's brilliant to finally know what is at the bottom of DS's anxiety and I think DS is excited by the idea that he actually quite clever (though I have pointed out to him that rather than being some kind of Get Out Of Jail Free card it now means that expectations are going to be higher)

@LolaSmiles the SENDCo said the extra time thing lasts for 26 months so I think it's more about getting things in place for his A levels than now.

[quote OverTheRainbow88]@TwigTheWonderKid

In our school year 10 and year 11 students with dyslexia often get 10% extra time in exams. Some, get a laptop to use for the exam in certain subjects, such as English. Some even get a scribe:

So if your sons CAGS are based on lots of assessments which didn’t give him his ‘access arrangements’ then I believe these CAGS would be unfair.

A student of mine a few years ago was averaging a 4 in my subject. I pushed and pushed for a scribe; with a scribe his final grade was an 8.[/quote]
OverTheRainbow that child was very fortunate to have you to advocate for them. What a massive difference you will have made to their life.

The other thing I would add is to help your DS learn how to talk about his dyslexia and simply tell people what help he needs. It IS a disability, but it manifests in so many different ways that he needs to learn to be his own advocate for what helps him.
This was an eye-opener for DS, who was used to shrinking back and 'coping' however he could. Now he has the tools and the confidence to ask for adjustments/help and 99% of the time people are more than willing to help him.
So e.g.

"Are you OK if I take a photo of that? I'm dyslexic and I just KNOW I won't remember that later!"
"Could I get a copy of that beforehand please. I'm dyslexic and I'd like a bit more time to read and process things"
"Do you mind if we record this zoom meeting . . ."
etc etc

Hi. I opened this thread because my son is year 10 and I'm convinced he has dyslexia. Terrible handwriting, stress at primary and secondary when it came to writing tasks. Poor self esteem when it came to setting tasks. He ticks lots of the attributes on the dyslexia association website. He had an amazing English teacher last year who spotted that in lockdown, the quality of his submitted typed work was so much better than his written work. Since then he's been allowed to do English assessments on a laptop but nothing else. He's waiting for a SENCO assessment but I think because he's bright and is doing really well in most subjects he's not high priority. I brought it up again during the latest lockdown because he made close on zero notes in his books which I believe is another sign of possible dyslexia. HOY said they would let SENCO know.
So my question is- should I be taking matters into my own hands and getting a private Ed psych assessment? Will that annoy school? If so - no idea where to start!!

@chocolatenutcase

Hi. I opened this thread because my son is year 10 and I'm convinced he has dyslexia. Terrible handwriting, stress at primary and secondary when it came to writing tasks. Poor self esteem when it came to setting tasks. He ticks lots of the attributes on the dyslexia association website. He had an amazing English teacher last year who spotted that in lockdown, the quality of his submitted typed work was so much better than his written work. Since then he's been allowed to do English assessments on a laptop but nothing else. He's waiting for a SENCO assessment but I think because he's bright and is doing really well in most subjects he's not high priority. I brought it up again during the latest lockdown because he made close on zero notes in his books which I believe is another sign of possible dyslexia. HOY said they would let SENCO know. So my question is- should I be taking matters into my own hands and getting a private Ed psych assessment? Will that annoy school? If so - no idea where to start!!

The delay will be because, as you say, he is bright so doing well (though obviously not as well as he coudl be) and there will be lots of calls on the SENDCo's time from kids who are really floundering

My DS's school have not been annoyed at all. I had very little discussion with school before I booked the appointment so it did come out of the blue to their SENDCo but she has been nothing but supportive since we had the diagnosis.

If you are anywhere near London I can PM you the details of the Ed Psych we saw.