Dyslexia advice needed please

[clutteredup]

DD2 is only 5 but she is very different from my other two DC in her attitude to reading and writing and counting- even DS who was a reluctant learner was a keen reader and both the other 2 have a natural instinct for numbers counting easily to high numbers without . I know all DC are different but I am a primary school teacher but not Early years and just 'know' there is something not quite processing normally with her. She shys away from letters, numbers and reading and has a lot of word memory problems - forgetting the names of friends, family and ordinary everyday things. She can recognise her key words but doesn't then remember them from page to page in a book, we go back and look at it and she has forgotten. I thought she was trying it on but I sense a reluctance in her which seems to be born out of a struggle to do it. I don't want to push her as she can get very upset easily about it. She is generally happy otherwise and quite bright in her approach to the world in general and has a fantastic sense of humour. She likes doing physical things and is definitely more able in that area but we do have dyslexia in our family so I'm conscious it is a possibility.
She is at a school which has a denial attitude towrds SEN generally and doesn't 'believe' in dyslexia - I know as I have worked there- so I am looking for advice as to what to do at home with her as I know she will go unnoticed at school .

clutteredup

Otitis Media with Effusion (Glue Ear) is a cause of Auditory Processing Disorder (APD) which in turn is one of the main underlying causes of dyslexia.
Those of us who have APD are not able to use phonics as you can not process the gaps between the sounds that can make up a word, nor the gaps between words in rapid speech. This makes phonic blending impossible, and a nonsense of current government policy regarding learning to read.
According to the Medical Research Council 10% of children have some degree of APD.
And 60% of dyslexicshave some degree of APD.

Thanks dolfrog - so if that is the case then given she isn't going to be learning to read at school it's something I'm going to be doing with her at home - where do I start?

clutteredup

Learning to read is a follow on process from learning to speak.
Those of us who have APD learn to speak by learning the whole sound of a word, so we can only match the whole sound of a word to the whole graphic representation of the word or the whole shape of the textual word. The learning / teaching process is called "whole word" or "look say" or in research terms as the "lexical process".
We are or become visual learners to compensate for our auditory deficits. Have a look at the learning styles section of the APDUK web site and if you look at the section guide top left or right (white squares on lines) you need to access the three bottom lines of web pages. ( I hope this makes sense)

Hi, my daughter has just been diagnosed with dyslexia aged 9. A relief really, as it explained so many things and we can help her along now. Before we knew something was just not right. I found some great stuff on www.teachfind.com
It is a teaching website, but it had loads of useful info on there that we could use at home, and viewing a few of the docos made it so much easier for us to understand her world. Good luck :)

hi all - I am a specialist dyslexia teacher and lecturer in London. Alongside my friend Sue Flohr (British Dyslexia Assc. helpline manager) we are running free 15 minute meetings with a dyslexia specialist in Lambeth on Thursday 2/12 - part of the SpLD Trust Empowering parents and Carers project. There are 12 free places (could be creche too...) for interested P & C. If you are local and want free specialist advice check send an email to [email protected]. We ran the first one on Thursday and only 6 parents showed - don't think it was well advertised. Please spread the word to any Londoners who want impartial advice from two old pros.

Sorry to take so long to get back - thanks very much for all the advice - unfortunately not in London otherwise would love to come julianne .
dolfrog thank you I have looked up a lot of stuff on the internet - i found your site- you have loads of information and it has been really helpful. I'm going to see if I can talk to the child nurse at our doctors at half term and see if we can get her diagnosed - all the things i have read have struck a chord and also I'm wondering if DS has it too to a milder extent. he could lip read from an early age and learnt his letter sounds using Letterland with all the pictures and songs and still misprononces common words which he has sounded out rather than learnt from hearing. DD2 has never been able to hear rhymes or join in with frequently reread stories - she always got upset when I left blanks for her to fill in and only yesterday couldn't rememeber the word for dressing gown but described it instead- I've found books she can 'read' using picture cles so she can see what the words are which is helping her self esteem for reading a bit - just to say thank you so much for pointing us in the right direction - if her diagnosis shows she hasn't got it then we can follow teachers advice on reluctant reading and the like but I'd be surprised - it explains why her hearing test showed up so well when she was clearly not 'hearing' .

clutteredup , thank you for this thread because I am finding it very helpful.

Julianne, do you give help to parents of teenagers too? Didn't see this in time. DS was only diagnosed at secondary - his school has been fantastic, may i say, for him, but I am struggling to know how to help in the run up to the public exams - not so much the getting of extra time/laptop stuff, but support at home etc when the virtuous child disapears to be replaced by the say we say exploratory teenager? Hard enough as it is..

clutteredup, I am interested to hear how/if things are moving on for you and your DD now? I could have written your post word for word about my DD (almost 5). Everything that you have identified your DD struggles with mine does too. So far i have requested a SALT referral and have appointment with GP imminent to request hearing check. The Senco at the school appears to be quite helpful(only had an initial meeting though) I am finding it difficult to syphon through all the information to know where i can start to help :o