GCSE subjects for dyslexic pupils

[IngridMcDonald]

DD is about to choose her GCSE options and is dyslexic. I would like to know what subjects are more modular, with coursework and generally less facts to memorise. She is considering Food tech and PE or Graphics. I am not sure if Geography would be more suitable than history. Business studies and media studies are also options. She will not have to do a language. She will cope better with less facts to remember.and more practical subjects. She doesn’t know what she wants to go on to study or do in the future. Any advice? Thanks

There is a lot of theory and writing in Food. The year 11s in my DC's school don't really do any practicals apart from three trials for their practical exam dishes.

My dyslexic child has taken food tech, computer science, geography…. He dropped out of geography and swapped it for something else.
His food tech course is great, spaced out practical lessons and while there is some writing on nutrition etc it’s manageable.

OP - my DD also has poor working memory (when tested she came back on the 1st percentile) and poor concentration. We really had no idea what she was going to do when she left school, but she took a extended BTech in a practical subject (there was lots of writing to do at home, but she spoke it all into her laptop and I edited by putting in the full stops, as she didn't pause for breath) and she is now doing a degree. She was also diagnosed with inattentive ADHD aged 19. I just wanted to say it is possible for them to find their thing and fly, even when they're struggling so much as school.

Both my daughter and myself are dyslexic with poor short term memory, slow visual processing, poor organisational skills - what helped us both was learning study skills.
Learning how to plan and write essays, learning learning techniques etc.
Dyslexics also have amazing other skills my daughter has incredible auditory processing so she often by recording and listening to things, I am a massive problem solver and my career focuses on problem solving.
I wish study skills were taught more I struggled through GCSE without them had done help at A-level, but had a fabulous tutor at Uni who really helped. I got my daughter help for GCSE and now she is at Uni she has an amazing student support officer who mainly makes her accountable so she has lots of mini deadlines rather than fewer massive ones.
OP your daughter will do best studying what she enjoys as her passion will allow her to dig deep in a way that dyslexics have to to achieve. But being dyslexic genuinely is a super power and in life there are so many successful dyslexics as you have be resilient and find different ways of working to other people.

Oops as you can see one of my issues is that my brain runs faster than I can type so I miss words out!

The best advice really is to choose the ones they enjoy most rather than than the ones they think they will do best in and somehow it all works out. DD did RS, Geography, History and French.

(French was a struggle and she ended up with a three but she enjoyed the course and the trips)
She absolutely wasn't going to do art, (actually she spends quite a lot of her free time drawing but was adamant that she wanted that to be a hobby and fun, doing it for GCSE would spoil that for her) music, PE or engineering and after that there wasn't much choice.

She worked hard, got the grades needed for A level (mostly fives and sixes) and is really enjoying her sixth form courses, with a good idea of where she wants to go next.

If they enjoy the subject then the harder work that our children with dyslexia have to put in compared to their peers is less of a chore.

(Also you need to keep reminding the teachers, nicely, of the additional need and the mitigations that need to be in place)

What does she want to do?

My DS is dyslexic and just chose what he loved and was interested in and did well with extra support and time.

You don't need to adjust life to this degree, and you need challenges, I'd say a massive range of subjects languages, maths, history and sports.

I'm in Scotland so this thread doesn't directly apply in terms of GCSEs but I wanted to say it's given me hope for my dyslexic child. At 10 he can still barely write and hates to read so it's good to see these positive stories.