DD diagnosed today with dyslexia and Dyscalculia

[AntPants1]

DD is 7

I had been getting no where with her school so had her privately assessed by an educational psych.

Her IQ is normal- 104.

We are at the start of our journey. Any advice, any do's or don'ts would be very gratefully received.

Thank you in advance for any help you can give.

Did the EP make any suggestions as to what she now needs?

Still waiting for the full report- DD was only assessed today. EP recomended after school tuition 2 x a week focusing on phonics - DD has effectively learnt whole words rather than learn to read phonetically and on mathis. Her maths is a real concern. She has not grasped even the basics. EP thinks that we will need to go back to the basics her to lay a foundation. Ie counting backwards, simple number strings etc.

Sorry do not have much more detail yet as all a bit new and a lot to take in.

We are meeting with a specialist tutor in a couple of weeks and hopefully can come up with a plan.

I am concerned about her school. Up until now school has been totally dismissive. I really want any private support I arrange to dovetail with what DDs school do.

My only feeling is that if she's a bright girl, does being taught the same thing again, that she didn't get first time around, in the same way, going to be any better?
Hopefully between the school, EP and specialist, they can come up with some different ways of supporting her learning that she might find suits her more.

Numicon is good for getting to grips with maths concepts and Headsprout has taught my Ds to read.

auntevil I think the issue is how she is taught. She has obviously developed her own strategies/ techniques for getting round things- ie learning to read by sight rather than phonetically etc. Am hoping that a specialist might be able to approach maths in a new way. Ie although covering it again approaching it in a new way so that DD understands it. The reading thing we stumbled on as that is how I learnt to read in the 70s and DD just took to it rather than the school approach which was phonics. At the moment DD has really no understanding of maths.

My advice to you is not to concentrate on reading / spelling, but concentrate on the underlying problems that are causing the symptoms of struggling to learn to read and spell.

There's a reason she can't do phonics. And teaching her to read won't do anything for her dyslexia. She'll still be dyslexic, just she'll be able to read.

Dyslexia is a medical problem, which can be cured. But which most EPs and schools know nothing about. They think it's an educational problem and only attack the difficulties with reading.

I haven't updated this site in a while, but here's some advice - www.dyslexiaadvice.co.uk/

Although right now, my first advice would be to trial going dairy free. It takes dairy 6 weeks to leave the system. So go dairy free for 6 weeks and then you'll know if she needs to be dairy free or not.

I would also recommend a behavioural optometrist. Visual difficulties are extremely common in people with dyslexia.

Coloured lenses or films can make a huge difference.

I actually observed Dd3 being tested and she told the optometrist that a particular pattern in the test was moving and as soon as he put the tinted lenses on it stopped.

Her lenses have made a huge difference to her school life.