Not dyslexia I don't think? what can I do to help him?

[voodoobarbie]

ds 7 is really struggling with writing. In SATS last year he scored levels 3a reading 3b maths and 1b writing.

He can read anything and his vocabulary is amazing but he is still on three letter words for spelling. He struggles in homeowork to produce anything more than one word answers and get really distressed if I try to encourage him to produce more content. Now he is in the juniors the quantity of work expected from him is increasing but if he can't spell anything longer than three letters the standard of work he produces isn't going to match with what he is capable of.

I have mentioned and Alphsmart to the HT but I am not holding my breath. Throughout infants when I brought up the discrepancy with his reading and writing levels I was told this is normal, which I agree with to some degree writing is going to be harder than reading but IMO the gap is so wide. for example he can explain that the speed of an item falling is affected by gravity and the trajectory but he can't produce work more complex than the cat sat on the mat.

What can I do to help him????

This is Me, i have Dysgraphia, and rely on phonics to write, spelling is very difficult at times, thank god for spell check , my first school were happy to just label me difficult and lazy, (1980's) because it can take me a long time to get my point across in written word, though i can tell you what i mean very easily. I did very well at Maths and science in school, and loved English Lit, i read like its going out of fashion.

One thing i find is my wrist gets very painful if i right for a while, i am maybe not holding the pen properly, or maybe i am trying to hard, but i have had that problem since i learned to write, Also my hand writing is awful .

FWIW, i left school with 9 GCSE's and 4 A-Levels, but i do try to use a computer now because i can use the spell check function.

examples are i can spell cough and beautiful very easily now i have never spelled it coff but i struggle with words like straight using strait instead,

Your Sons sound very clever BTW you must both be very proud

write not right sorry, that's one too, don't get me started on there, their and they're lol.

This is my son too - I have posted a fair bit about it....I went to the GP in the end who referred onto pead. She referred to physio, OT and a specialist teacher has just been in to observe DS (also 7 and in year 3), but I haven't heard back about what she thought.

DS is also very bright, but can't get down what's in his head onto the paper. He will talk or ages round a subject, but finds it really hard to write about it.

We looked into dyspraxia (reason for initial referral), but it looks like it may not be that. He has hypermobile elbows, little fingers and shouders too, and finds it painful to write.

Have you checked his eyes? We took DS to a behaviour optometrist (not a normal optician who have missed his problems) and they noted dificulties with focussing, binocular vision, and major tracking difficulties. It makes copying very hard. It is weird, though, becuase he reads at a very advanced level for his age, but the BO said he must have created his own coping strategies as she said he shouldn't be able to read at all, given the strength of his problem. We are embarking on vision therapy in the new year.

Thanks for all replies :)
I should have said he has been seen by every man and his dog over the last two years regarding ASD or Dyspraxia. The waiting list for ADOS in this area is about 18 mth and he finally went on list in July.

We are not going to be waiting much longer and have private assessment booked for next Thursday (nervous). I have looked at Ian Jordan but the travelling put me off, have tried to locate someone closer to home but had no luck.

ds reads at an advanced level also, he devours books that is why I can't get my head around the fact that he can't spell a word longer than 3 letters but can read any word.

His fine motor skills are affecting the quantity he writes as well hand aching etc but that doesn't explain his inabillity to spell simple words.

This was posted on another thread:
dyslexicadvantage.com/forum/topics/stealth-dyslexia-writing

Think this is what you may need?

www.babo.co.uk/

wow thanks for that Mrsbaffled, I would say that there isn't a single part of that article that doesn't tally with ds.

Some of it also struck a chord with myself, I was a precocious reader but didn't know my alphabet until I was about ten, even now to gauge if n is before r for example I have to go through the alphabet from the beginning. My hand aches badly just writing a small paragraph. I don't know my right from my left automatically I have to think which hand I write (right) with.

What should I do, if I print this off and take into school and say I think ds has stealth dyslexia will they just be like or will they have heard of it.

dysgraphia is the term that the SENco maybe more familiar?

Cheers wassup, there is one less than 3 miles from me. I have just rang and they are sending some info out :)

Brilliant!! :)

Brilliant! Well done, you are super organised!
School won't have heard of Stealth Dyslexia, but like wasuup says dysgraphia, I think, is the more usual term.

My DS has exactly the same profile as your son. I am on my way out but will add where we are upto at the moment when I get back later.