dyslexic, do you feel these comments are acceptable?

[mumof4darlings]

hi,
my son is 13, diagnosed with dyslexia in april,
in a supposedly dyslexia friendly school.
A plan was made of all the things that should have been put in place, of which nothing has happened yet!
anyway, he had 3 pieces of english work marked, and everyone was marked with the same comments, check through your work to check for careless mistakes, use a dictionary if you cant spell something, and write neater!
What would you think of those comments if you found them in your childs books when they have a definate diagnosis of dyslexia. Do you think they are fair?

I wouldn't worry too much about those comments. What happens in class is more important. What were school supposed to do then?

a long list of things were supposed to be put in place, im chasing them up on it!

Keep on their case then!

Hi
Just for clarification ask the school / spld service / LEA for a copy of their policy for supporting children with dyslexia and a copy of the school disability equality scheme policy. I understand that they have to have a policies in place. This should give you and the school staff a clear understanding of what is good practice and you can go on from there.
Good luck

Was your son upset by these comments? does he feel supported in school? My son is fully aware of his problems but if he feels supported he is much happier, a happy child has more chance of learning than an unhappy child

I'm not sure I'd be particularly upset. His work would improve assuming his he isn't already doing those checks and at 13 he could manage it. ds 's IEP includes workign on things like planning, presentation and checking but he doesn't often remember to apply it in his work!

Good idea about the policy, I'm going to look into it. My son is in year 11. It happens that the school did not provide enough support. But then again, I do not think that secondary schools receive enough support.
I was ambitious and naive to think that either my son would adjust or that the school will somehow help him. As they are not convinced about his dyslexia.(We did have an initial meeting with the SENCO).
At year 11, we find ourselve to be very proud that our son has a natural gift for science and maths. Yet he is so disorganised, we just do not know how he will get to Uni. His English has suffered. Meaning that he really needs to get a minimum of a B/C in GCSE's for uni entrance. ??? Not only that, the subjects that he does enjoy he cannot enter in College because 1) not enough points 2)his english. Now we have to play catch up for GCSE exams. I would consider calling DYSLEXIA ACTION or joining your local group.
Best wishes

DS 14 gets similar comments and to be honest I think it is fair as I am sure he doesn't check his work. Also he has a wordbank book which he doesn't use very often.

It's not fair but it is also is in a way

As a fellow dyslexic/dyspraxic my work was covered in red but my LD wasn't known then.

My son & daughter, (dyspraxic) and daughter (dyslexic)work was also covered in those kind of comments but they did need reminding of what was needed of them. My son is now at college and still forgets he can use a dictionary and rushes his work, which makes it messy. He also STILL forgets to write his name on work

So, I think it's fair if they are doing it to help rather than just slagging it off iyswim

The one time I did think was unfair, was a comment from his music teacher. He had to comment on work other children had produced in class and the teacher made a comment that he should know how to spell his friends names. I think the name was Aaron.

happens constantly here too. DD1 is 13 and school still haven't managed to pass around to all her teachers that she can't spell and there is a reason for hr not being able to spell. Her MFL (french, german, spanish) teachers seem to be worst. As DD says, she can't spell in english let alone in a different language.

at each parents evening it is always the same.

Teacher: 'DD1 needs to practce her spellings. DD1 gets even simple words spelled wrong'
Me: 'you do know she is dyslexic don't you.
Teacher: 'uuuurrr, um.....'
Me: 'you should have been informed at the beginning of the year'
Teacher: 'uuur, um. well she needs to practice her spellings.
Me: ' yes, but she is dyslexic'

and so it goes on.

One of my AS students is dyslexic and I do tell him to practice spellings and practice his writing, because he needs to write words that are recognisable in the exam. I don't mind mispelled words that much as long as I can work out what he's trying to say, but I can't always do that. He gets extra time in exams but no other special provision.

Eccentric we had a bit of a problem with MFL when DS started secondary. He was in the top class for MFL and expected to get 70% in every test which was a lot of pressure on him. His German teacher was lovely and backed off a bit, but his french teacher was scary.
Year 8 he had a new teacher for both and she was dreadful. I got him moved down a class in German and then they moved him down in French a term later.
He is so much happier and now doing really well and might even do a language for GCSE.

I think they are fair comments tbh (my dyslexic boys are 16 and 11). I am constantly telling DS1 that he, more than anyone, needs to check his work as it's silly to lose marks for sheer carelessness as opposed to dyslexia. He had one of those electronic spell check things at the start of secondary school which I thought would make life easier than constantly looking up the dictionary, now he does most work on the computer and spellchecks, and he can TRY to be as neat as possible with his handwriting as long as everyone understands that even trying hard it won't look brilliant.

I did take him out of his first high school here in Australia though after the head of English told him, in front of the whole class, that dyslexia wasn't an excuse for poor spelling after he did badly in a spelling test. She then argued with me for half an hour that the only problem was the fact that I obviously hadn't insisted he spent enough time on spelling homework over the years! Luckily he's now in a fantastic school where the teachers support him - he got special provisions for his School Cert exams (bit like GCSEs) in October which included having a scribe and got really good results for the first time in his life. I do wish more schools would understand what equality of access actually means to a dyslexic child sitting exams!

Sounds like most of my son's comments - especially the try to write more neatly and read back through for careless mistakes. But we know he often rushes his writing, and never reads it back, so this is quite justified (and his writing is very very difficult to read).

I agree the key is how much support he gets. I imagine that's much harder in secondary. I'm glad that my ds will be moving up to "big" school a year later (we are in Canada) as his organisational skills are terrible (and he won't have his little sister to fall back on!)

As a dyslexic myself, I would agree that those comments are pretty unhelpful. Of course there is benefit to anyone to check their work and make sure that it is neatly presented, but for a dyslexic there is little point on focussing on these things to the exclusion of assessing the other ways in which the work can be improved.

It is pretty pointless telling a dyslexic to check their spellings. The problem that most have(and speaking from experience) is not that they do not know how to spell a word, but that they will not recognize whether they are spelling it correctly or not. Even simple words with which they are famliar can be misspelled. I know that I can missspell a word, and even when it is picked up on the computer spell check I will not be able to see where I have made the error without litterally comparing it letter by letter with a dictionary.

Your son should be permitted to complete his work on a computer, so that the teachers can get passed the presentation and start helping him with the things he will be able to improve apon such as planning and making sure his thoughts are orgainsed in a logical sequence. Provision should and can be made for him to do his exams on a computer.

It is disgraceful that he could be held back in his academic progress because the school are failing to offer him the specialist help he needs

The student I'm talking about has been assessed for special exam provision and is only allowed 25% extra time. No other provision. And that is not the decision of the school.

unhelpful comments. thistledews idea sounds like a good way to approach it. Definitely speak to the teacher and try to get a grasp of how dyslexic focused she is being. Sounds lazy to me.