'Who' can dx Dyslexia?

[coogar]

Ds2 (adhd) recently had a 3 hour long assessment with a child/educational psychologist. It was very thorough to say the least and I was so proud of him - he managed really well. They will be producing a lengthy report, but at the brief chat afterwards, they indicated ds was mildly dyslexic. This is probably a silly question, but are they able to dx this or do we need further investigation at an assigned dyslexia screening centre?? By the way, I absolutely agreed with everything they said. TIA !

SuperMum - I personally wouldn't pay £400 for a report done by the BDA. Instead I have been spending my money on therapies that work to cure my DD.

However, I knew DD was dyslexic so had no need for a proff to tell me such.

Your case is slightly diff in that you are not sure whether his writing problems are school based or something else. However in either case the £400 report won't improve his problems.

Odds are it'll say 'He's Dyslexic because his writing schools are X years behind his reading skills. He needs to do daily phonic practice. We recommend toe-by-toe, wordshark & jungle memory. We also recommend our tutoring service'......

Otherwise it'll say 'there's nothing wrong with his ability to write he just doesn't like his teacher'...

I would have thought you could work that out yourself. If he can write fine for you at home than it's a problem with school, if he can't write for you either then it's not that.....

Instead of a BDA report you could spend £400 on:

• Auditory Integration Training
• Retained Reflex Therapy
• Dore Program
• Brain Gym
• Vision Therapy

All of which have cured some MN posters kids of dyslexia

Or if you don't think he has dyslexia you could spend £400 on:

• Clinical Psychologist
• Tutoring

I know a lot of people here have had good experiences with Ed Psych reports (which is what the BDA is offering) - but I haven't.

Also a lot of people have had success with tutoring from the BDA - but I'm still really really not convinced that extra tutoring is an effective treatment for kids with dyslexia.

IndigoBell

One more program to add to your list. The Orton-Gillingham remedial program which is provided by the BDA and others in the UK dyslexia industry.
All trained Orton-Gillingham program providers in the UK have an AMBDA qualification. And like all the other programs it can not help all dyslexics, and ignores the learning needs of many.

No Dolfrog, Orton-Gillingham is just another 'learn to read' program, a variation on Synthetic Phonics I believe.

I personally am not interested in any 'learn to read' programs. They only help kids who haven't been taught properly in the first place.....

The current myth about learning to read, is that phonics is the only teaching method, and that all children are able to use phonics.
The psycholinguistic models of how we learn to read have evolved from Alexia, acquired dyslexia0 or those who have or are about to loose their ability to read, as a result of severe brain injury, stroke, dementia or a progressive illness. A good Research paper review is Aphasia, Alexia, and Oral Reading and the full PDF file of the research paper can be downloaded.
The neurology of reading can be described by FMRI of Ventral and Dorsal Processing Streams in Basic Reading Processes: Insular Sensitivity to Phonology and Neural Representations of Visual Words and Objects: A Functional MRI Study on the Modularity of Reading and Object Processing which describe the lexical and sublexical processes we require to perform the task of reading. There are many more research paper such as these.

Phonics is only the sublexical processing part of the reading process, and many dyslexics are not able to access this process for many different cognitive reasons. So many dyslexics are unable to use any phonics based programs.

Phonics is based on having good listening skills and being able to identify the different sounds represented by the letters (graphic symbols) which represent a word. Unfortunaterly those who have an Auditory Processing Disorder or attention issues are not able to process the gaps between the sounds that make up a word, and therefore are unable to use any form of notation based on being able to identify and process the sounds that make up a word.
Most who have APD can only process and reproduce the whole sound of a word, and therefore can only match the whole sound of word to the whole image of a visual representation of that sound. Blending of the sounds that make a word is not a cognitive option.

IndigoBell

Orton-Gillingham is the original, based on the 1930s research of Samuel Orton, who was ahead of his time regarding dyslexia research. And this is the program the BDA use for the basis of their "Dyslexia Friendly schools" scheme.

Thanks IndigoBell for your advice, much appreciated. Will take it.
I had a look at the web info. you are compiling, that looks great.

Is it worth doing a review of different typing programmes? Ie. speedy keys, the BBC programme, 2-type etc. as I believe it helps dyslexics in secondary to be able to type quickly.

Also ' Handwriting without tears', a good programme for learning to write.

These publication were recommended to me: Toe By Toe, Write From The Start and Smart But Scattered .... has anyone read them? We were also told to research the Jungle Memory, Memory Booster and Nessy online programmes .... any experience with these ??

MadameSin

Developmental Dyslexia has three underlying cognitive causes, auditory, visual, and attentional.

Those who have an Auditory Processing Disorder will have a poor auditory memory
Those who have a Visual Processing Disorder will have a poor visual memory
Those who have attention disorders will have various types of memory problems.

If you have one of these cognitive sensory information processing disorders, it is human nature to try to develop alternative cognitive skills to compensate for your specific deficit, by developing and running coping strategies.

Coping strategies have to be run when needed in your working memory, sometimes called short term memory. Working Memory has a limited capacity, and like the RAM of your computer if you over load it it will crash. So if we have to run coping strategies to work around a cognitive disability then something else will have to stop to make way to enable our coping strategies to run. So usually it is our slef organisational skill that make way for our coping strategies. And the more coping strategies we need to use the more other abilities have to make way.
We priorities how we use our working memories subconsciously. So we can not switch our coping strategies on and off when we need them. And our coping strategies take second place to our bodies coping with stress or illness.
Anticipating what may happen tomorrow is how we hope that our coping strategies will be in place when we need them , sort of subconscious planning. But is we are not able to anticipate the events of of tomorrow then it is very hit and miss as to whether our coping strategies will be available when we need them.

Each individual has to develop their own coping strategies based on their own life experiences, using their own cognitive strengths. We are all different.

Some of these programs may help some, but not all, there are no one size fits all solutions.

Hi MadameSin
Toe by Toe was brilliant for my son (12), followed by Stairway to spelling by the same author or her son?(300 most used words). My son has learned to decode very well and has a good bank of memory words with all the books I have "encouraged" him to read consequently! They of course don't help fluency and he still can read inaccurately at times, but if the story is good he overlooks all this and carries on reading. I wonder sometimes if the reading in his head is more flowing than when I ask him to read outloud, guess I'll never know.
I have memory booster which is quite good but ends up really boring after playing it a few times! Nessy typing also v good, might hit this again over the summer break, but it's too much at the moment with secondary homework load.

Tried Write from the start, writing still is slow and uncomfortable, worth a try.

dolfrog ... I think I understood that, I imagine you tried to put that in as 'lay' terms as you could, well done and thanks! I have suspected ADHD like my ds, so I understand how my own short term memory works and how I cope with it not firing on all cylinders. I visualise a keyboard in my head on which I literally type instructions or details I need to remember - I thought everyone did this until quite recently when I discussed it with a doctor lelly it's good to know some of these recommendations are tried and tested ... I also understand it's not a 'one size fits all' scenario, a process of elimination I suppose.

Toe By Toe, Write From The Start and Smart But Scattered .... has anyone read them? We were also told to research the Jungle Memory, Memory Booster and Nessy online programmes

All this recommended by an EP? You say it's not a 'one size fits all' - so why do all EPs recommend the same stuff? I hope you didn't pay good money for these recommendations.

I have done Toe by Toe, Write From the Start, Jungle Memory, and Nessy. ( Do you mean nessy fingers or nessy learning - done both)

Toe by Toe - teaches synthetic phonics. Will only help if your DC has not already been taught synthetic phonics. ( Or was taught SP badly )

Write from the start - age range 4 - 8. Unlikely to help a kid older than that.

Jungle Memory - stay clear of. Far too hard.

Nessy Fingers - fine , but I prefer BBC Dance Mat

Nessy Learning - waste of time. Goes far too fast for a kid with dyslexia.

In fact if you see my post yesterday I predicted almost the exact same recommendations to you based on never ever having met your kid

Odds are it'll say 'He's Dyslexic because his writing schools are X years behind his reading skills. He needs to do daily phonic practice. We recommend toe-by-toe, wordshark & jungle memory.

Indigo Yes, I probably did pay 'good' money for our assessment. I don't see it as money badly spent as it's hopefully explained why both his reading, writing and vocab are behind. She came highly recommended to me by parents of dyslexic children, so I thought that was a good start. She got ds2 spot on, with more than his dyslexia dx. Her recommendations weren't guaranteed to work, as she pointed out, it will be trial and error until you find what works for your child.

One size certainly doesn't fit all and as you stated:
"I know a lot of people here have had good experiences with Ed Psych reports (which is what the BDA is offering) - but I haven't.
Also a lot of people have had success with tutoring from the BDA - but I'm still really really not convinced that extra tutoring is an effective treatment for kids with dyslexia".

I think I am in a 'different' place to you right now .. I've just started out and you appear to have already well and truly tried and tested. Many thanks for your thoughts on materials too