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

School dyslexia support

5 replies

whethergirl · 12/09/2012 23:18

DS aged 7 has learning difficulties, and although being treated as having dyslexia, will not be able to get an official statement for another year.

His school have been a tremendous help and other people I have spoken to (different schools, different areas) agree that the level of help he is getting is unique. I am having housing problems at the moment, and my main concern is that ds can stay at this school. Am I right in thinking that he may not get as much help for his learning difficulties at another school, and I should fight for him to be able to attend there? Can you tell me what kind of support you get at your school and if possible if you're in or out of London.

This what the school offers:

DS gets 1-to-1 daily in both literacy and numeracy.

He has been loaned a laptop with a speaking/spelling program which I'm doing at home with him (hopefully after he has mastered it, he will have the option to use it at school).

A weekly dyslexic support group is in the process of being set up at the school which is open to pupils from other schools too. This will be led by an expert in the field and ds is getting one of the few free places.

Two half hour sessions after school every week by a dyslexia trained teaching assistant.

The school tested all pupils for visual stress. As a result all his workbooks are now in blue. He has also been given an aqua overlay. He is getting another review soon which will hopefully lead to coloured lens glasses (think I'll be paying for them though).

Different coloured overlays are also used on the whiteboard at school.

DS is very aware of his learning difficulties and told me he was on the "dumb dumb" table. When I told the school, they immediately arranged for him to be in a small group completing teamwork tasks, in order to improve his self esteem.

I have seen the educational psychologist twice and will be getting further reviews (only mentioning as I've heard some people say it's hard to even get an appt with the ED).

If a school project involves a lot of writing, he is allowed to use a voice recorder instead.

OP posts:
frankie4 · 12/09/2012 23:24

Wow this all looks amazing . Hope your ds stays at this school. My ds is dyslexic and got no help, acknowledgment or assistance at his (otherwise good) school at all. I gave them the report by the EP and I don't even think they read it.

whethergirl · 12/09/2012 23:26

Sorry to hear that frankie, that's exactly what I've heard and just wanted to make sure it wasn't a myth.

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Scottishdancer · 16/09/2012 12:00

I agree with Frankie what your ds gets is amazing! My ds has a statement and doesn't get as much as that!

McFarts · 17/09/2012 20:09

Fantastic support you'd be daft to move schools!!

scottishdancer does your DS have a statement for Dyslexia?

whethergirl · 18/09/2012 00:27

I thought it was the case. It's such a shame these resources aren't available in all schools. It seems so old fashioned really, I thought we'd moved a long way on from the days when dyslexia wasn't really known about, some kids were just 'bad spellers'. But with all our knowledge now, why isn't more being done? These are kids who could either go on to do really well at school. At worse, they will struggle, develop low self esteem and a negative attitude towards education.

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