Hmm I am convinced ds 7 has dyslexia but his teacher suspects dyspraxia...

[NotInTheMood]

she's a really good teacher and very supportive and finally agrees there is some thing more and he isn't just a slow reader. My ds has been getting a lot of extra support since being in her class with his reading and writing small gropu phonic work etc.

He was diagnosed with Speech and lang delay but i've always felt there was more to it. Its great that she is listening to me and keen to help last years teachers were awful.They just gave me an sympathetic look and told me what a lovely boy he was despite him not achieving.

I just feel she is going in the wrong direction. Do you think it is good to get him tested to rule it out??? I maybe wrong. I am not sure if she is pushing for this because there's no age on testing whereas she told me with dyslexia the LA will not test until at least year 3.

Oh and here are my concerns.

SLD, can't sequence, had difficulty rhyming had to have extra help (can now do it), no sense of time, forgetful extremely forgetful hence why he is not getting anywhere fast with his reading. He cannot retain information, follow long instructions, increasing starting to write/read more and more letters/words/numbers backwards. Has confused SAW with WAS. No sense of time. Cannot dress himself properly, I have to lay it out in order. Finds it difficult to tie shoe laces, buttons one because he can't remember how to do it and two he's a bit fingers and thumbs. However he is not clumsy and as he baby he met all of his milestones. Even with his speech but then it just didn't progress and he had difficulty pronouncing words.

Yes, unless the teacher is an expert in the differential diagnosis between a host of possible neuro-conditions, it is definitely worth consulting an expert.

A lot of those are dyslexic symptoms. I'd get him tested but you would probably have to go private. Dyslexia sometimes exists alongside dyspraxia or autism. The buttons/shoelaces problems could be dyspraxia. You can ask your GP to refer him to a paediatritian for an assessment for dyspraxia.

NotInTheMood

There may be multiple issues, but you do need to look beyond the observable symptoms.

Dyslexia is about having problems with reading writing an spelling, or having problems with a man made communication system the visual notation of speech, decoding and recoding the graphic symbols society chooses to represent the sounds of speech. There are three cognitive subtypes of dyslexia, reading disability, auditory, visual, and attentional. which means that an auditory processing disorder (listening disability), visual processing disorder, an attention disorder, or any combination of the three can cause the dyslexic symptom.
Goping back to how we learn to speak, we learn to speak by listening to, processing the speech of others parents, siblings, peers, etc, and by imitation anbd understanding reprocessing those sounds to produce our own speech. This can be made difficult if you are born with a listening disability, or auditory processing disorder (APD). Which means that potentially an auditory processing disorder could have been a cause or contributory cause to your DSs speech and language delay.
Those who have APD also tend to have very poor sequencing skills, at my APD assessment aged 49 i found out I had the sequencing skills of a typical 4 yr old. The same mechanism in the brain controls our auditory and sequencing abilities.

Those who have APD tend to develop visual compensating abilities to cope wiht our auditory processing deficit, and with regard to the visual notation of speech, text, we match the whole sound of a word to the whole graphic representation of the word, best used in a logographic writing system. Unfortunately our culture uses an alphabet writing system, so we can only match the whole sound of a word the multiple graphic symbols, letters, used to represent the sound of the word. So we match the whole sound to whole graphic representation, which is the letters that make up a word, but due to our poor sequencing skills we can sometimes get the letters muddled up. As you described above. Currently my problem word is "what", which you may see me post as "waht". When i immediately read what i have typed back to myself it all seems OK, it is only later that i see the spelling mistakes and missed words.

Do may be you could be looking at auditory processing disorder (APD) and dyspraxia

you could have a look at the APDUK web site

Really does sound like he has both dyslexia and dyspraxia, I have both although I did not find out about the dyspraxia until I was 28! If he has dyspraxia I would say he is better off knowing as the dyslexia label will not fit and believe me he is likely to find his own labels like being thick (which he probably isn't)... saying that an assessment by an EP would be a good place to start have just paid for a private EP assessment for my DD as was convinced that there was something not quite right, really pleased I did not just thinking how to tell the school who think there's nothing wrong Hmmm! good luck and for your DS ...

My 12 year old son has most of the problems you describe. He has been diagnosed with dyspraxia, dyslexia, dyscaluclia, and dysgraphia he also has joint hypermobility syndrome. Speech and language is the main problem. He is statemented but is just a bit of paper, the school have not provided what they should do and worse is that the teaching assistants do not understand his problems. He gets told off because he cant remember & they don't believe him.
With regard to diagnosis i found the OTs offered the most help but due to a lack of resources this is only for a short time & you have to do most of the exercises at home. Have a look on the dyspraxia website it is really helpful and dependent on where you live their are local support groups which i have found invaluable.

DS has Dyspraxia, and all those symptoms could be DS.... So get him tested and keep an open mind. Though if you can get him tested publicly, by looking for dyspraxia , then rule it out.
People tend to think of dyspraxia as being clumsy, but actually DS biggest issue is sequencing and planning.
So keep an open mind.

Oh and your DS teacher sounds like a star - that she understands that dyspraxia is not just about being clumsy.

Oh and DS has a speech and language delay - which according to a speech pathologist is a direct result of his dyspraxia and sensory issues - which is relatively uncommon. You would not believe the diff in his speech from working with OT on sensory issues ,and sequencing and planning. The right diagnosis can make a world of difference.