Is it possible for a child to have dyslexia and still do OK on her KS1 SATS?

[Bex66]

I don't know whether I'm worrying unduly but my daughter's reading seems to be incredibly slow for her age - not sure whether this is just because she didn't do much reading over the summer and has forgotten a lot or something more to worry about. She's just gone into year 3 and is the oldest in her year (turns 8 next month), yet seems to still struggle with fairly simple books. Historically she was slightly ahead of where she should be in terms of band books but i think this is simply because I previously put in a heap of time reading with her at home. She did ok in her SATS - well for maths and science and at the appropriate level for reading and writing. Its just that quite a few of the other kids who were once far behind her seem to be on free reading already whilst she's still stuck on gold band and not fluent with that to be honest - struggling with what I would have thought are year 1 words. I just get the feeling that somethings not quite right. Am i worrying unduly?

I can't answer all your questions, and have no ideas what SATS would involve, but yes, its totally possible to be bright and dyslexic.
And (personal bias here) bright dyslexics can come up with coping strategy for some things. This gets harder to keep up with as things get more complicated.

Dyslexic here with a first class degree and a MSc with distinction.

She could be later than others for things to click, she could be an average child who developed EARLIER than the other children and they have now caught her up again, or she could have some other difficulty, it is difficult to guess.

Have you tried mentioning it to the teacher to see if she has any concerns?

Have you been able to work out exactly what the issues seem to be and in what subjects, eg is it just reading?

And yes a dyslexic child could certainly "pass" sats if they were especially gifted intellectually but help back by their dyslexia -0 in other words, without the dyslexia they may have got a 3a or something.

Different reading tests test different things. My son's phonological processing is down on the 6th percentile but he got a Level 5 Reading in his KS2 SATS as he has good comprehension. My other son has just failed his Yr1 phonics reading test but can read and will probably achieve a 2B in his KS1 SATS. It might help to try some dyslexia friendly strategies such as Toe by Toe that would help with phonic sounds and blending.

Thanks for the advice - I will certainly have a look at Toe by Toe.

zebra - it seems to be only really the reading though she isn't keen on writing much, but when she does write its pretty clear and neat, spelling about right for her age I'd say. Her maths is well ahead - 3a in Sats last term, so no problems there and she also loves science. I haven't mentioned it to the teacher yet as a concern as it has only just occurred to me that there could be a problem. All her teachers have always said that she's very bright, so I guess I just thought that the reading would click at some point, but its been a real uphill struggle to be honest and I really think that had I not done the amount of reading with her at home that we have done historically she would be behind on the bands.

should have also mentioned that she only has peripheral vision in one eye - she is adopted from China (at 13 months) and she had in utero retinal scarring. maybe this could be a reason for the reading issues - her spoken language is fine ie she's as fluent as any of the kids in her class.

Sounds like it could possibly be a visual/tracking issue. I would think that writing and spelling would also usually be a problem with dyslexia although it does cover a range of different difficulties. I'm not an expert - just have a boy with dyslexia!

I think I would be looking at the pure vision issues before exploring dyslexia? You could try a private behavioural optomotrist who offers visiion therapy, but I would also explore this via the GP as well.