Dyslexia Teaching Assistant for my son, advice asap!

[princessali1526]

Hi all,

Please can someone give me a little bit of advice. My DS is in YR2 and we are currently waiting for the results of his assessment to establish if he has Dyslexia. Both I and my DF believe that the results will show a problem and we are more than ready to support and fight for our little dude.

My question is this: If he is established as Dyslexic and is awarded the funding for a Teaching Assistant to support him. Can we, as parents, demand from the school that the TA is qualified and experienced in this field?

The reason I ask this is because in my son's class there is a child with Global Delay issues who is to go to Special School after Easter. I know from this Child's mother that his TA is not particuarly helpful, and is more interested in concentrating on other children rather than this child. On Open Days, I have seen this TA in 'action' so to speak, and I am not sure that she will beneficial or supportive to my son.

I know that this sounds quite snobby and like I am a pushy mom, I just want what is right for my DS and I don't feel that she is the person to help him. Can we ask this of the school?

Many thanks x x x

There are at least three cognitive subtypes of dyslexia.
Dyslexia is a Reading Disability, and a diagnosis of dyslexia is only a screening process for the main cognitive, medical, issues which can cause the dyslexic symptom.
The three cognitive subtypes of dyslexia are: auditory processing problems, visual processing problems, attention problems or some combination of the three.
There are two types of dyslexia, Developmental Dyslexia and Alexia (acquired dyslexia).
Developmental dyslexia has a genetic origin, and the issues are shared by at least one biological parent, Alexia results from a severe brain injury, substance abuse, stroke, dementia or progressive illness.

So any TA who which to help any dyslexic needs to have some understanding of auditory processing disorders (listening disabilities), visual processing disorders, and attention disorders.

Just because he has dyslexia does not mean he'll get a TA - in fact if he's in Y2 I would be very, very, very, surprised if you got a Statement from a dx of Dyslexia.

What makes you think you'll get a statement? Does he recognise his letters?

Sorry, just read your other thread, and realise this comes across way harsher than I meant it to.

I think it's very likely your DS will get a dx of dsylexia - and very unlikely he'll get any kind of TA allocated to him.

We had a TA allocated to our son without a statement (LEA avoided statements at all costs), 1hr every day for about 2 yrs, she wasn't trained in dyslexia at all, just did what the teacher told her to do. IMO it what a complete waste of time and funding with reference to dyslexia help. It took some strain off the teacher and off my son for that hour, but she did no phonics, no Toe by Toe, no special spelling techniques, she wasn't trained. I had to do all the dyslexia tuition myself after school (also not trained but very motivated). He also had speech and language specialist teacher come in once a week for an hour, who was very good, but again not a dyslexia teacher. He was also pulled out once a week for language lessons with a group of children.
He was heavily supported I think he was extremely lucky to get that help, he was in a bilingual welsh school and they seem to throw money at the welsh schools (shamefully) but a quality teacher would have helped more. He now is in an English medium comp.
He probably has the combination dyslexia as Dolfrog described but was actually diagnosed with mild sensory processing disorder by an OT.

not quite an answer to your question, but one of the best things we've done for our dyslexic son was to do 1:1 tutoring at Dyslexia Action (Nationwide charity) who address the underlying problems and have excellent and very well trained tutors. We take our son out of school for his session and I drive 30 mins each way to the lesson - worth every penny! not something that can be offered in school and has helped enormously. Good luck

Can I ask if the school instigated the assessment or if you have gone privately?

If it was the school and he gets a dx, then they are likely to be more willing to give extra support. Whicheverway, there is no knowing what level of support they will put in. It is very unlikely that they will have a TA who is trained to support children with dyslexia, but they may have all sorts of programmes in place which would be beneficial.

As everyone has said it is very unlikely he will get a statement for dyslexia unless he is significantly behind (in Y2 you would be talking approx nursery level in more than one area of development).
If this is the case and you are fortunate enough to get a statement it is unlikely to be full time and very unlikely that you can specify who supports your son.
I would also say that it is good practice to give all children some independence as long as their needs are not neglected and that includes working with other children for short periods. The worse thing you can do is make a child totally dependent on one adult and regardless of statement it is good for all staff to share in the care and learning process.