Just been diagnosed with Dyslexia.........

[nickminiink]

Hi my 10 year old son has recently been diagnosed with dyslexia by the EP after a statutory assessment for a statement, he also has SLD, approx 2-3 years behind his peers and we are investigating APD with GOSH. I have a meeting with the SEN teacher in 2 weeks to discuss this new DX. What should I be expecting them to offer in way of support, he was DX about 3 weeks ago and the school has done nothing to adjust his IEP or offer any additional support or strategies. Any advice would be appreciated so I can ask the right questions.

Thank you

What you you want from them? What do you think your DS will benefit from?

(Not saying that in a horrible way, just because I always think its good if you know what you want them to do iyswim)

There's not a lot school can do for dyslexia.

There's an awful lot you can do though.

Is he in Y6? Is he working at a Level 3 or Level 2? (Level 2a is the minimum expected level for a child at the end of Y3)

How good/bad is his reading?
How is his spelling?

(I have loads of suggestions for you, I just need some more info first :) )

nickminiink

Dyslexia is a man made problem, a social construct, and developmental dyslexia has three cognitive subtypes: auditory, visual, and attentional. Which means that an auditory processing disorder, a visual processing disorder, an attention disorder or any combination of the three can cause the dyslexic symptom. An EP can only diagnose the existance of the dyslexic symptom, and is not qualified to diagnose any of the underlying causes of dyslexia. Which really the fault of the diagnostic procedures in the UK.
All who have a diagnosis of dyslexia need to identify the underlying cause of their dyslexic symptom, and have the appropriate clinical diagnosis. Each of these different underlying causes of dyslexia require different types of support and remediation. And each of these clinically diagnosable conditions has a much wider range of varied symptoms, which may only share the dyslexic symptom.

So if the school are aware of the future input from GOSH regarding APD which could be one of the causes of the dyslexic symptom, then they may be waiting to find out the best form of recommended support based on any future diagnosis of APD. And APD is fairly new to most in the UK, including the support services used by schools, so you may be a pioneer in your area.

You could suggest that they have a look at Ideas to be Considered Prior to Creating an IEP for an APD and select the issues which relate to your DS

nickminiink

I have had to change my online bookmarking facility, new owners changed the reference systems, so i have had to move to another facility, which provides more options than i had before. This includes links lists and link sharing groups.
I thought you might like to have a look at My List: APD UK links and Auditory Processing Disorder APD group may be useful

dolfrog, thank you for your comments. We were pursuing GOSH APD before the dyslexia DX, so hopefully this may answer some of our questions / confusion over my son's dyslexia. Where do I go to get a clinical DX of which form of dyslexia my son has, this is where I am confused. I no nothing about dyslexia so I am going into a meeting with no stategies or what I expect the school should be doing to help. So like most of the meetings / appointments I attended (before i got clued up about SEN and some of my son's difficulties) I just accepted what I was told by the professionals without challenge or questions. This time I want to be prepared.

Rhinokey : Good question I have no idea, truth be told I want them to cure my son's dyslexia but that will not happen, he has other learning difficulties so all combined he getting furthwer and furher behind his peers. As I know nothing about dyslexia to the point of discussion with a professional in that field I will be sitting in the meeting nodding my head and accepting everything I am being told. Obviously I want them to introduce the appropriate strategies to help him, as up to now nothing has changed in the way my son is being educated before of after the dyslexia DX. His school are inconsistent with the additonal support, some weeks it there then others it's not due to one reason or another ( we are currently going through the statement process).

IndigoBell : I shall PM you as I know you are very well informed regarding dyselxia, so thank you for your help.

nickminiink

Dyslexia is only a symptom of an underlying cognitive cause, and APD is one of those possible underlying causes. Dyslexia is not a condition.
Dyslexia is language dependent, and in societies that do not use the visual notation of speech ( we call the written word) as a form of communication there is no dyslexia; but the underlying issues such as Auditory Processing Disorder, Visual Processing Disorder, and Attention Disorders do exist.
Have a look at
my PubMed Dyslexia Research paper collections
CiteULike Group: Developmental Dyslexia - library 483 articles
and my first dyslexia web page