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Here you'll find advice from parents and teachers on special needs education.

Suspect dyslexia- should I bypass teacher and go straight to the SENCO?

4 replies

erebus · 04/04/2011 18:50

DS2 is nearly 10 and in Y5.

Whilst the word dyslexia has been muttered over the years, no one appears to have actually tested DS for it- possibly because I've always said 'No, it's just 'boy!'. Now I am beginning to wonder whether I need to be more pro-active and get DS screened.

He has just had a 10 week session of 1:1 tuition, in school, to try and sort out his written work: Capitals, punctuation etc, but you sit him down to write something and suddenly we're back to the start: different phonetic spelling of the same word across the- well, page? Does 2 sentences in half an hour constitute a 'page'?! Complete inability to organise thought into the written word, losing his place in the text easily and so on.

His reading is 'OK' (ORT 15) though there's a lot of guessing like picking the first 2 letters of a longer word and guessing the rest- he rarely gets -ing and -s endings correct as written. He gets is, it, in, and and the wrong at least once per page. His comprehension, however, is assessed as being fine.

Now, from experience, I am thinking to bypass his teacher and go straight to the school SENCO to request a dyslexia screening. She, of course, would report to the teacher but my feeling is that mainstream teachers aren't really trained to pick up dyslexia or autism as such. Class teachers may suspect but often apparently with no more than a layman's perception. When they do, they might refer on, but I am wondering whether it is time to be Mother Bear and to start insisting that I think there's more to DS2's 'issues' than averagely clever and 'typical' boy. DS would be known to the SENCO as she was the facilitator of the 1:1 tuition so we're not going in 'cold'.

Would you agree with my approach?

OP posts:
MadameSin · 05/04/2011 11:35

Teachers are not trained to dx dyslexia and they have limited knowledge of symptoms as the condition varies so much. Make an appointment with the SENCO and then tell class teacher what you've done straight away. I would word it in such a way that doesn't make the teacher feel she's unable to 'help'. Something like, "you know we've had concerns in the past about ds .. well I think you are right and I've asked SENCO to check him out - it was your observations that have prompted me and I really appreciate your input etc etc". May seem a bit crawly, but you want her on your side

Chandon · 16/05/2011 12:50

I was in this situation. In order to alienate the teacher, I asked to speak to her first. She said he could do a dyslexia screening test with the SENCO (this is not a FULL dyslexia test).

A FULL dyslexia test costs the school money, so they probably do not want to do it unless the really think he does have it. In my case they wouldn't.

So I paid for a full test myself (£££). My DS did not have dyslexia or any kind of learning disability, but in words of the psych Ed who did the test: "probably is a "victim" of class size (36 now). And should do better with more attention or smaller class, more practice etc. Anyway.

So, I would go to the teacher first. That way you don't upset anyone.

Chandon · 16/05/2011 12:50

in order to NOT alienate the teacher of course!

cornsilks · 22/05/2011 22:10

Bear in mind that the SENCO may not know much about dyslexia either. Are you happy with the 1:1? Do you think it helped?

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