Dyslexia? Where to start?

[Mog37]

I'm starting to think that DS2 may have dyslexia. He's in year 2. He struggles with reading and spelling, and with putting things into a sequence, so numeracy is a problem too. As far as I understand him, things don't stay in the same order when he looks at them. Breaking words down into their phonemes just doesn't seem to work for him because he can't put them back together again. He's articulate and seems very bright but also has trouble with following instructions that have more than one part. He's getting sad and depressed at school. I've tried to speak to his teachers who agree there is a problem with his reading and who've suggested a coloured overlay when he reads and that I should take him to the opticians. (I will take him to the optician but I'm not sure what I'm asking for!)

I feel massively undereducated about this and I don't know how to help him. I'm not sure what to do next. I'm wondering really whether anyone would be able to share their experience of diagnosis? How do I get one? Does a diagnosis help (assuming he has dyslexia)? Also, if anyone has any good web resources that they could recommend so that I can start educating myself...?

Thank you all for any help!

look for your local dyslexia association here (you want to find one that does screening and assessments so if your local one doesn't, phone them and see which one they tell you to apply for). they can then screen your child to see if it is dyslexia, and then conduct a formal assessment. I would also contact the SENco at your ds's school, and arrange to meet with them and discuss your concerns. do this before you arrange a screening, but I would let them know that you have the intention of getting him screened. the Nessy website has lots of info about dyslexia on it. all the best x

That's really helpful - thank you very much! I never thought to look for a local group but there seems to be an active one quite close to us so I'm going to make contact with them - and then try to meet our new SENCO. (Old one left at the end of last term... ) Thank you!

Most schools use dyslexia-friendly strategies in class every day now - cream or blue background colour on whiteboard, specific fonts on worksheets and so on.

There is a lot of debate about overlays but you could try him with different colours and see which one, if any, makes a difference.

You could ask his teacher to ensure that his worksheets are provided in that colour from now on. They may also be willing to purchase workbooks with the pages in that same colour.

Ask the sendco what interventions are available in school. Schools in our area use Toe by Toe, and you could purchase the book to work through at home too.

Also at home, practise giving dc several instructions for him to remember and act upon. Games like Kim's Game, or anything to improve short-term memory, can help.

Some schools don't test until y6, when a diagnosis may lead to increased time in tests, and will be necessary for secondary school. This is also because some children do 'grow out of' traits that previously suggested dyslexia.

Hi there have a look at British dyslexia association Web site and I think they have a helpline. You could call them for advice. They may know local practitioners. Just to flag up our school screened my son for dyslexia and said he did not have it. I did not believe them and had assessment done privately. Good luck

Make sure you affirm the strengths he has (children with dyslexia can be very sporty, very creative) and look for support and information on bdadyslexia.org.uk. He may like use of colour when learning his spellings, such as putting the vowels in blue, and look at the shapes of words he has to learn (how many tall letters, how many small letters). Using a multi sensory approach may help, so make the letters out of magnet letters or draw them in a sand tray, and there are great clips by Nessy on YouTube which may help with phonic rules he's learning. Children with dyslexia need to practice more than children without to embed their sight and spelling words so keep going over them, making it as fun as you can, and speak to his class teachers about giving him less spellings or sight words to learn if needed. Organisational difficulties are a key symptom for many dyslexics so it would affect maths too: again work on embedding, going over his times tables and using multi sensory ways (cut out all the times tables facts and he has to put them all together in the right order, listen to times tables songs It's great you've spotted this area of difficulty already and I hope his class teacher and senco can support him too. Don't forget to focus too on those strengths! It's so easy for extra literacy and numeracy to become the sole focus, self esteem is everything.

And you would need an optometrist (BDA website should recommend some near you) not a regular optician to get help finding if / what colour overlay helps him. You can informally try out coloured overlays to see which helps if there are any at his school (or you can buy sets online, but you'll only need one).