Where to start? Dyslexia, Dyspraxia, Vision Therapy

[JammyGeorge]

DS1 is in year 3, he struggled to settled into reception and had a bad first term followed by occasional behaviour problems during infants (hitting mainly). A year ago was diagnosed with coeliac disease which he's probably had for some time. Since going gluten free he's a different child and all behaviour problems have disappeared. He's got a lovely little group of pals and has started going to each other's houses to play.

All seemed well, with the exception of his academic work. In infants we were told he was immature, he would learn in his own time etc. But once he started year 3 it became apparent he has major problems with reading. School maintain he is improving but when I read with him he's all over the place, missing out words, lines, swopping lines, guessing the end of words.

We took him to a behavioural ophthalmologist and he thinks he has issues with visual tracking, accommodation and convergence. We need to go for a full assessment but he thinks he'll benefit from vision therapy (which costs £ but I'll happily pay if it helps him).

He can't go into details until the full assessment is done but dyslexia and dyspraxia are in the frame (he showed co-ordination problems and inability to move different parts of his body independently).

I don't know where to start mumsnet. I'm waiting for the class teacher to call me back to discuss it.

Do I need to see the school senco? GP & CAMHS? Is a behavioural ophthalmologist the right route? I'm determined to tackle this head on and get him all the support I can but I just don't know where to start.

Any advice would be appreciated...

Hi JammyGeorge, one of my children, had similar eye issues which I now realise were part of dyslexia. The symptoms back then in say Year 2/3 were difficulty with lining things up and with ball sports and an inability to read, despite being very verbally fluent and a good student. Years later and after dyslexia was confirmed someone suggested we try coloured overlays to put over text, to calm now the jumping letters. The overlays worked although by then, age 16 and a fluent reader the impact was less dramatic. My child had however lost the first three years of schooling because reading was such a chore. For me though as another dyslexic, the overlays were a revelation and with the blue one in particular, reading is effortless.
Here are some useful links:
For the overlays... www.crossboweducation.com/articles/dyslexia-coloured-overlays-and-visual-stress
About the condition which is called Magno Cellular Dysfunction...
onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/abs/10.1002/dys.186
About the person who discovered it..., John Stein, brother of Rick! en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_Stein_(physiologist)
John Stein is an Oxford professor.
So I think you are probably onto something. I later talked to my optician and realised you can also get coloured glass put in your specs. That's all I know, so good luck.

Thanks ever so much for the reply stirred and the links I'll have a read once the kids are in bed.

I was vaguely aware of coloured lenses and overlays which I'll discuss at the full assessment with the behavioural opthamologist (sp?) which we have booked for this Thursday.

How is your DS doing now? DS1 is 'working towards" in every subject and I'm trying to work out how we get him caught up. Like you say he's lost years of schooling, he's been behind since reception. I have no desire to push him to be a straight A student and put pressure on him but I want to help him and for him to enjoy his schooling and not spend all day struggling.

My DS is still struggling with quite severe processing issues which makes a full A level programme a big challenge. We are trying to sort out the correct access arrangements for her exams (see my post of yesterday) on this same SEN thread and this is proving very tricky. Dyslexia is so often misinterpreted as being less intelligent and slow because that is how it can look and that is our problem. Being a Dyslexic myself fighting for another Dyslexic is also a problem!

I wish I could turn the clock back to Year 3 and know what I know now. On the plus side I would say Dyslexia has made for a very resilient teenager with lots of motivation and drive to cope with it well and ambition to get to university. She is bright - in the top 10% for her age but her grades do not reflect this.

I think the trick is finding out the precise issues as you are now and then the solutions follow: aids like those overlays or maybe coloured lenses when they are young and then strategies for organising ideas when they are older and knowing how to explain themselves too.

We took my daughter to see a brilliant Ed Psych who not only tested her but showed her how to advocate for herself. So instead of 'I'm slow at reading', she knows to say something like, 'I take a lot of care when reading a document so it may take me a while.' Like you all I want is to help her have strategies to get round her struggles. As an older student this is things like, knowing what is coming up in the next class in advance, having formulas for answering essay questions, being able to start at the big picture end of things and not the detailed end. Have you seen www.madebyDyslexia.org - they have a very positive take on Dyslexia. Depending where you live in the UK the Helen Arkell Centre in Surrey run courses for parents which are very good.

Good luck for Thursday.

Thanks stirred, I'm NE or those courses would be helpful.

Did the ed psych do the dyslexia diagnosis? This is is something I'm wondering, do I need to see my GP to get an assessment or do the school arrange them?

As it stands I've googled dyslexia and found links to a local behavioural opthamologist and are pursuing it via them and paying privately.

The school teacher wouldn't let me talk to the senco directly they said they would pass the info on. I rang to talk to the senco as well and receptionist was rather guarded about putting me through to her.

I’m at the edge of my knowledge here. I only know what happens at secondary school which is that we flagged up a concern, the School (Senior) tested and we got a letter saying what access arrangements they had put in place. What about Contacting the British Dyslexia Society? They have a helpline staffed by volunteers and they were very helpful to me.

Oh now that's a good idea! I'll ring them when I get a quiet moment. I never thought they may have a helpline.