Is she Dyslexic?

[onlytuesday]

Looking for some advice as my husband think our DD who is nearly 10 and going into year 5, might be dyslexic. When I read up about it it felt like suddenly lots of things clicked into place but I wonder if she's too old to be diagnosed, ie if she is dyslexic it would have been picked up by now?

At school she is 'working within expectations' across the board but we noticed this year that her spelling, which has always been not great wasn't really improving. The school had sent home a list of year 3&4 spelling words at the end of the year to check that they could spell them all, DD could only manage about half of them. She also brought home some maths and spelling tests they'd done in class that she'd scored very low on. Talked to her teacher who said she has no concerns.

DD lacks confidence and gets very easily frustrated which means she finds it hard to learn spellings, time tables etc and we have mostly avoided doing stuff at home with her over the years as it ends in a tantrum. We had a lot of issues around school refusal from years R-3, when we moved her school in y3 due to lots of other issues it improved but she still has anxiety around school generally.

Anyway Her teacher suggested doing some spelling and maths stuff over the summer to boost her confidence. It was in the course of doing this that I noticed she often transposes letters (in particular vowels) so the word doesn't even sound out eg 'jucie' instead of 'juice' 'cliam' instead of 'claim'. She also spells inconsistently. She can learn to spell a word by practicing but then spells it wrong if she uses it in a different context. Because she gets so frustrated when we do stuff like spellings at home we did think is she just making mistakes because she's not trying? So I had a look through some of the exercise books she'd brought home at the end of term and they were littered with similar mistakes.

When I read about dyslexia it just seemed to click into place, there's other stuff as well like she can't tell time on a digital clock and has low self esteem around her school work. But then I'm questioning (blaming!) myself because how can she have got to year 5 without anyone realising? Does anyone have experience of dyslexia being diagnosed later on in primary school?

Thanks 🙂

Meant to say can't tell time on an analogue clock! But actually struggles with a digital one too.

Her primary school might have a screener that they can do with her to give an indication of the likelihood of Dyslexia. IME they don’t tend to be able to offer full diagnostic assessments and not all Educational Psychologists will diagnose Dyslexia but this is something you could discuss with their SENCO. If you can afford it you could find a Level 7 trained assessor privately in your local area using the PATOSS website, for example.

Hi, I'm a teacher at a secondary school, and many of our dyslexic pupils have been diagnosed in upper primary or much later. A few expupils haven't been diagnosed until University, so it's never too late.

It’s very common for children to be diagnosed later in primary school and 10 is not ‘late’ for a diagnosis. Nessy dyslexia resources has a screening tool which you can do on iPad or pc - costs around £20 - you play a series of games and it gives you a profile and will suggest if your child may be dyslexic and then if they are to get comprehensive testing done. Where are you based? May be able to suggest somewhere for testing/ support. PM if you’d prefer. Unless your Dd is really struggling ( which from what you say she is broadly meeting schools expectations)you are unlikely to get ‘free’ testing.

Thanks for the replies. It's reassuring to know that it is sometimes diagnosed in older children.

I spoke to her teacher and the sendco is going to do a screening this week and then contact me after this. I'm guessing that this won't constitute a formal diagnosis though, and that we'd have to pay for that?

Update with some more questions!

So the school carried out the screening, they said overall she came out as average (ie not dyslexic) but her comprehension, verbal fluency and reading age were slightly below average. However as she's an autumn baby she 'gets away with it' and so overall is coming out as average.

I don't really understand this but I'm conscious of not peeing off the school by questioning their test. I'd have thought if she's one of the older ones she ought to be a bit above average 🤷🏻‍♀️

I'm still convinced that she is dyslexic but not sure of the way forward, and whether it's even be worth getting a private test.

Screeners are not reliable. If I were you I’d pay for an Ed Psych report. This will give you an indication of your child’s ability level, skill profile and tell you if she is dyslexic or has another learning issue