Pushing for School Action Plus?

[carocaro]

DS1 aged 7, year 2, is on School Action for dyslexia, diagnosed by his teacher and the SENCO. He has an IEP and we meet termly to discuss them and commnication via his homeowrk dairy and after school sometimes. He has seperate reading lessons each day with one of two classroom assistants.

Some progress has been made and although the school tell me short bursts of reading are helping. I am not convinced. Neither assisitant, however great they are with him, are not dyslexia trained.

We have another meeting after half term and I feel as he should move to School Action Plus to have him assessed, as at present the approach is too general and we do not have a full understanding of his dyslexia needs.

I know you can pay privately for a full assesment, but at £400, it is not an option at present.

I just feel that he is in the middle, he's neither Statemented, like the two other SEN needs boys in his class and neither is he anywhere near the lower end of expected levels of reading and writing of his peers.

He did not do his literacy SATS as his teacher and I both discussed that he would be unable to read the paper and write the words. He did the maths ones with reading asisstance.

I feel he needs more, so based on what I have said, shall I push for School Action Plus? To get someone specialist from outside school to assess him? I thinks I will, but just wondered what your experiences are?

He is going for an assesment for dyspraxia which I organised via a referral from his GP.

I am just havinga hard time at getting my head around dyslexia, what the school can and should be doing, what I need to do as a prent to help iykwim.

Thanks in advance.

it sounds like he is having a lot of support at school and the school presumably are using dyslexia-friendly materials? the best thing is that he has a small-steps programme with lots of reinforcement and repetition.
teacher / senco are not qualified to diagnose dyslexia - this needs to be done by educational psychologist who the school can refer him to. i would not go down the private route as the school would not necessarily take much notice of the outcomes whereas if they have made the referral through the proper channels they will be obliged to carry out the recommendations.
i would not be surprised though if the TA's HAVE had dyslexia training to some extent, in terms of the delivery of the programme / materials they are following.
the school need to have some idea of how much progress he is making, in numerical form, ie reading age etc, and if he is not progressing then something further should be done. if he is making steady progress, additional referrals etc may not do too much good.
hth.

How have the teacher and SENCO diagnosed dyslexia? Is one of them a specialist teacher?

I am a TA and have a child in my class who is going through a similar scenario. His parents are very worried too. I do 20 mins a day of intensive 1-1 work with him ( after that his concentration dips) and he is making slow but steady progress. I have just approached a special school in the area for ideas and they have said I can go and observe there and also that they would send a specialist teacher to observe the child within our classroom environment to see if there are any other ways in which we could be supporting him.
My own daughter struggled within mainstream school and it was only after I mentioned that I was thinking of home schooling her that the school started the statementing process. She is now at the aforementioned special school and is doing very, very well. Her situation is different because she has learning and developmental difficulties but the statement has been the best thing that could have happened to her.
I hope you and your son get some support, I know how helpless one can feel.
Good luck.

Thanks all, he had some new computer test the school had just bought, which the SENCO carried out, she has two dyslexic children also.

So I think I should be asking for the school to refer him to an education psychologist for a full and proper assesment?

I presume that should then give us a much clearer idea of where his stengths and weaknesses are and how we can help?

Your son needs a specialist assessment from a teacher qualified in specific learning difficulties/dyslexia [ this is a post graduate qualification] or an ed psychologist - preferably one with a specialism of dyslexia.
It is only then you will be able to see the exact nature of the problem and as you say strengths and weaknesses. There are different types of dyslexia or to put another way dyslexia affects children's learning in different ways.
If he is dyslexic your son would benefit from a very structured teaching programme.
Have a look at Dyslexia Action and bda [ British Dyslexia Association for information. It will also have links with your local dyslexic group.
The government has also brought out guidance on dyslexia for schools which you can find on the standards site website [ govermnent website]

Agree with aprilflowers. The computer test administered by the SENCO was probably a dyslexia screener, which doesn't diagnose dyslexia but screens for dyslexic indicators.

Would also agree with Aprilflowers.

I would also add that School Action Plus would not necessarily give him any extra support for instance in terms of class time - this basically means that outside agencies are involved e.g people like a SALT, developmental paed, occupational therapist etc.

Many of my friends who have dyslexic children have found private tutoring to be helpful; the caveat here being these people must be properly trained in teaching dyslexic children. As it stands your son is not able to access the National Curriculum fully; dyslexic children need to be taught differently.

Neither his class teacher or SENCO are qualified enough to diagnose dyslexia. I would also have thought they did a test to ascertain dyslexic indicators. Dyslexia is also not covered within teacher training college. He would need to see an Ed Pysch and even then they may not diagnose him. I would look into getting him a referral to a developmental paed and an occupational therapist via your GP.

Both the BDA and Dyslexia Action are good charitable organisations and I would suggest you contact them asap. They can also provide good advice and information.