11+ for bright dyslexic child

[Thematic]

My 8 year old is extremely bright but dyslexic. He was quite behind at school until a year ago (covid home learning at the crucial stages and a overstretched state school system didn't help at all) getting 'working towards' across the board in his school reports - which was not quite behind enough for the school to take it very seriously. I pushed and pushed for help but got nothing so we paid for a dyslexia assessment ourselves, and discovered he's very bright indeed, near genius IQ, and whilst his dyslexia is quite severe, he's done a good job at masking it to keep up so that it didn't show as dramatically as it might have done.

Anyway, his older brother who is bright and neurotypical, has just gone through the whole private school entrance exam palaver to get into one of our two local private schools. They are both great schools but selective and very oversubscribed and the whole process has been been really stressful even for a child who finds school easy. I'd really like my youngest to have the strongest chance possible to get into one of these two schools as well but having seen the whole process with his brother, I'm really concerned he just doesn't have a chance of getting through the exams as he'll struggle to process a lot of the long wordy questions or do the verbal reasoning tests.

He has a private dyslexia tutor once a week which has been a huge help, and being diagnosed has also really helped his self esteem as now he knows he just has a different way of thinking and doesn't feel stupid anymore. He's also moved to junior school which is a much better school than his infants school was and has helped him a lot more. He doesn't have an EHCP (he's not considered 'bad enough' as he's just about keeping up) but we do have a long and thorough dyslexia report done by a specialist.

So, my question is, what else can I do to help him to get into the schools we'd like him to have a chance at? He will be doing the same group entrance exam tutoring in year 5 that his brother did, as well as keeping up with his dyslexia tutor. When applying is it normal to submit references for instance? Anything else I need to think about that I will need time to arrange? I've got about 18 months to get all the ducks in a row to give him the best chance possible! Thanks

[Needtobuildabridge]

If you declare the Dyslexia, he should be entitled to 25% extra time to complete the test. Whether or not you want to declare is the issue.

Source: Me, a dyslexic teacher.

[Thematic]

We definitely plan to declare @Needtobuildabridge its not like we can hide it and I think dyslexia isn't seen as quite the same turnoff as some other SLD's. But extra time isn't going to change the fact that he won't be able to work some stuff out at all, no matter how much time he has.

[Needtobuildabridge]

Can you give an example of the type of question he'd struggle with?

[Thematic]

@Needtobuildabridge He'd pretty much hit a blank with any verbal reasoning tests, though he's a whizz at non-verbal reasoning. And he really struggles with maths questions that are word based - he can't extract the question from the text, even though he's good at maths.

[Needtobuildabridge]

Could he work it out if the question was read to him? How's his auditory processing?

[Thematic]

He couldn't work out an anagram (verbal reasoning). Reading it out wouldn't help. I generally have to reframe text based maths questions for him to make them make more sense to him. He reads numbers well. His concentration isn't always great - he can be quite dreamy and gets distracted easily, though not to the degree that it's disruptive.

[minipie]

You’ll need an educational psychologist report to get the extra time, I think schools generally require this to be no more than 12-18 months old at submission time.

TBH I cannot see academically selective, oversubscribed schools considering a child who cannot complete some parts of their entrance exam even with adjustments. Best to find some less selective schools as back up. However, he’s only 8 and diagnosis and specialist tutoring has only happened relatively recently so you may find in another year he can manage things you can’t imagine now. Is he y4? Is aiming for 13+ entry an option?

[PicnicPie]

Hi in a similar situation as you Thematic, eldest DD very capable and prepping for 11+, however 8yo DD lagging behind and I wonder if there are learning difficulties. Better with numbers than words/letters. She often gets words mixed up (the/a) and does seem like she half asleep sometimes. School have noted the same but not said anything about dyslexia but I would like to get her assessed privately. Who did you go to for assessment?

[Fifthtimelucky]

One of my daughters sounds similar to your son (though she is not 'near genius'). She is extremely good at non-verbal reasoning but struggled with maths, not because she couldn't do the maths, but because she didn't always understand what maths the question required her to do.

In her case, she wasn't diagnosed as dyslexic until 16, by which time she has already got into a very selective school, with no tutoring. I suspect she did pretty badly on the maths test but well at the creative writing task in English and also at the interview (no reasoning tests involved).

So my advice is to work on his strengths as well as his weaknesses.