DD just diagnosed with dyslexia. Why at do we need to know?

[Jayne232]

After years battling with the school I have finally had confirmation that our DD has dyslexia and around 2 years behind for maths and literacy. It is affecting her maths and reading Comprehension skills the most. She's 10 and in year 6 so I'm worried she's at the end of her primary education and we've only just found out. For those of you with DCs with dyslexia, what advice would you give?

I am pretty sure she'll fail her SATs which I don't want her to feel bad about, how do you prepare a child for SATs?, what should I be looking at for secondary?, would a specialist independent school be better, should we try for an EHCP?, is there any equipment you would recommend?, does your child use a laptop?

I would recommend you read ‘The Gift of Dyslexia’ by Ron Davis. If your daughter recognises the type of problems outlined in the book, there are several Davis facilitators in the UK who can help her. Children can only benefit from the programme if they are self motivated and so it helps if they are a little older. Girls typically have better language skills than boys and so dyslexia can be diagnosed later. Please do not worry about the SATs. Get the help she needs now to prepare for GCSEs later.

Don’t despair. The SATS are looming but request that she has a reader so for the English comprehension and Maths reasoning she isn’t penalised for her dyslexia. The spelling component is so difficult that I would suggest she doesn’t see it as more than handwriting practice instead encourage her to learn the Year 1, 2 key words that are more useful in the long run.
The constant struggle will have given her confidence a knock so make sure she focuses on what she is good at: sport, history, art etc and invest time in building these skills so her self-esteem doesn’t suffer. I’m sure she is very bright and articulate-the 2 years behind just show that she is behind in the areas the NC happen to hold in high esteem. I taught a selective mute child who was accurate and would go on to sail through SATS with 120 but sitting next to him in class was a dyslexic child. She was bright but the SATS didn’t test the things she was good at but was a much more charismatic and popular child who in the long run would outstrip the child with a score of 120.
With regard to reading try and find literature that she can access through audio books, comic strips. Check eyesight and see a behaviour optometrist-words will be jumping out from the pages and they can provide good exercises to help. Absolutely use a computer touch typing is key. Look for senior schools with strong SEN departments who have a track record with dyslexia and expertise in your daughter’s other interests.

I don’t know if you will see this as it was a couple of weeks since you posted, but I wanted you to know that children with dyslexia learn best with lots of visual teaching aids. I bought lots of maths books filled with graphics and great children’s encyclopaedia and science books filled with photographs and graphics too when my sons were young. You will have to read the books with your daughter but it really will make a difference. Sitting doing spelling tests over and over again is not helpful as it makes them feel less confident. Try Nessy software as it makes learning words fun and the animation helps retention of word sounds and patterns. Look for her strengths - my sons loved science and maths, so I concentrated on teaching them in these areas. Of course, they had trouble recalling times table, but that doesn’t mean those with dyslexia cannot be great at maths - mine did maths A level. Get her to join afterschool clubs or sports - whatever she is interested in, as it helps build their confidence, which can be affected by the struggles they experience in school. Some children are creative and are good at art and design, others may excel in sports. Make sure she has some activity that she can feel achievement and give lots of praise. Always tell your daughter to never let dyslexia stop her having the career she wants and remind her that dyslexia has no bearing upon intelligence.

Has your child been assessed by an optician for problems with binocular vision. My DS saw an special optician who in qualified in School Vision and sees a lot of children who either have dyslexia or dyspraxia or who have those tendencies. They found him to have severe convergence and divergence. Basically the focal point of both eyes is off both near and at distance. He now wears glasses with prisms in to correct this and the lenses are tinted with a colour that cools down the page (similar to using an overlay). The difference in him was instant and significant. His reading and writing have massively improved. He has gone from guessing words, hating reading, yawning as as soon as he starts reading, mostly phonetic spelling, lots of clumsiness to now reading an entire thick book on his own by choice!! His spelling has improved, his reading and writing speeed increased, his handwriting is smaller and neater, he’s happier and less stressed by school, he can see the world more clearly, he’s less clumsy. I was recommended to this optician by a friend whose DD has dyslexia. She did not get her glasses until she was about 13 but is has transformed her reading too and she has just passed all her GCESs which she never imagined she would do before getting the glasses. There is a list of opticians on the School Vision website and there are not many nationally, maybe about 30. But I’ve been told that the high street opticians will test for and provide prisms if you push them for it. The NHS voucher covers some of the cost. But as the lenses are bespoke it does cost more and it’s the tint that’s more expensive than the prisms. I don’t know why I’m not seeing more about binocular vision problems on forums about dyslexia.