Can a doctor help me with this? Dyslexia diagnosis/ SEN related

[schmoodles]

Hello all

Am a long term poster and I have posted about this issue about 15 months ago. Would love your further thoughts.

My DS is 7 later on this year. He still cannot read anything bar his name, MUM and DAD. That is it. He also cannot write, although knows all the letters etc.. he would put them upside down and all over the place. He is in the middle of year 1 and has not really improved since Reception.

The teachers have had me have his eyes tested, his hearing tested. They have placed him on School Action Plus and referred him to a speech therapist. All completely normal. His comprehension is excellent and he talks fluently on many topics.

So, onto my issue. I believe he is dyslexic. The school will not accept this...they continue to teach him in the same way as they teach all the other children, albeit with one to one attention several times a week. They tell me a dyslexia diagnosis would be several years off. He is making little progress, if any. If I sound out a word to him, for example 'dog' and say in a very exaggerated voice ' duhhh ohhh guhhh ' he will not be able to 'hear' the word, despite me practically saying the word dog. He will take some wild guess. I truly believe he cannot process what I am saying.

So, can I take him to a doctor? Can they refer me for a diagnosis?

Sorry for the possibly idiotic questions... I am trying to formulate what to do. The school are always pissed off with me because I refuse to read to him at home < there is little point..he cries, gets frustrated and we get nowhere > and I am pissed off with them because they will not consider dyslexia now.

Any advice? Thank you

There is no reason to refuse to read to him at home, but there is a lot of point to refuse to make him read to you.

He sounds too young for a real diagnosis of dyslexia. Even if you get one at this kind of age it may label him as "less dyslexic" than he is. Also a school should be doing pretty much the same without a dyslexia diagnosis as with.

You could contact the BDA or your local Dyslexia Action for advice and maybe specialist help. I would also suggest reading Reading Reflex for some advice which might help you help your son yourself. As it sounds as if he does need to work on hearing the sounds in words. Although if you do sound out words do try to not add a "uhh" sound so say "d" not "duhh". See if he can hear sounds at the beginning or end of words, then work onto the middle ones.

For his eyes, did you have a normal eye test? Or one with a behavioural Opthalmologist or a specialist such as Dyslexic Research Trust? For the hearing test, could your son have intermitent glue ear? These can all have huge effects on learning to read.

Is this in a school in England? Checking as a 7 this school year would be a Y2. That would make a difference as to whether the school could justify to itself dyslexia testing.
It doesn't often matter much what parents think, schools often have the system that until a child's development reaches maturation (7 ish) that their developmental potential has not been realised. Y2 is then this magical point at which school can say that reading is not at EYFS level and therefore 2 years behind where it should be.
This does not absolve a school from stepping up the interventions. More of the same is currently not working, ask what other packages of support that the school use (apples and pears etc - for reading, what handwriting packages as well) Ask if he can join existing groups.

But also it costs the school a lot more to get an Ed Psych in at this age than say when they're 11/12. Then they would be able to do a Dyslexia Screener test on a laptop which would take 30 mins to an hour at half the cost and time of a full blown assessment. Cynical of me I know, but I spent a long time trying to get DS1 assessed before he was done eventually last year in Secondary School - he is severely dyslexic.

OP - you said about getting his eyes checked. See if you can find a Behavioural Optometrist. We had one in our town luckily, she prescribed DS glasses and coloured overlays to put over paper. He had tracking issues. He says that the overlays have helped calm the text down for him significantly.

Now if I can just get him to slow down his speech enough so that the TA can scribe for him properly......!

Mummy - the reason I refuse to read to him at home is because he detests it and gets upset and frustrated and he just won't listen. He associates it with 'school work' and cries when I produce a book, no matter what the reading material.

I am going to try and track down a behavioural optometrist, that's a great idea. Is it expensive?

Yes, a school in England. He is in year 1 and not 7 until the end of the year.

Hi op.
Check out the tinsley house support thread.
Many of us have similar stories on there x

Hi there

Must say I find your post really depressing. Twenty years ago I was in the same position as you - that is not understanding why this child with great verbal skills could not learn the basics of spelling/reading. Possibly like you, I put my trust in "teacher knows best" but by the time our daughter was 9 I no longer believed this and took our child for an assessment at the Dyslexia Inst.

Surprise, surprise they found her to be a very able child (cognitive assessment) which put her on the 99th centile in terms of ability but put her reading ability on the 22nd centile - a huge difference!! We made the decision to pay for 1-1 teaching at the Dyslexia Inst which did mean she was able to become a better reader/speller. However I was never able to persuade her mainstream school to give her additional support, much to my regret. Sad to see so little has changed in 20 years!

Sorry, still being a bit dense here. Do you mean he's 7 before end of school in July and in year 1? Or has he just turned 6 and will be 7 after they go back to school in September? It can make a difference in what schools offer in the way of support, help and assessment. Just that my DS3 (5) who is being assessed for motor skills/ writing etc is in Y1 and he will not be assessed fully until Y2 (waiting list)
Is your DS out of his correct school year?

He is in year one and is 7 in November...

Yes Joy it's reasonably discouraging isn't it? I struggle to get past the fact that they can't just assess him. He is perfectly able in all other ways.. he just can't read. And he can't read because he has Dyslexia.

But of course these things are never straightforward are they?

Thank you for that bad.

NHS choices has some good information on dyslexia but it's not really considered a 'medical' problem in the way that ADHD or autistic spectrum disorder is. A common-sense chat with someone who knows about child development and neurology might be helpful, just depends on your doctor. It may help to get the educational problems logged in the medical notes, in case your ds develops school refusal or anxiety later.

Dyslexia is just a fancy way of saying someone can't read.
So a 'diagnosis' helps very little without practical action.

My Ds was referred for testing via a medical route. His teacher suggested dyslexia in yr 2, but SENCO wouldn't do anything, so I went to the doctor who referred us to paeds as it was affecting his self esteem and we had concerns about hyper mobility and dyspraxia tendencies. The paeds referred us on to lots of people, including the cognition and learning team who dx SpLD.....

My ds will be 6 later this month and in year 1. He also can barely read or write. He does, however, have other difficulties. He has a phonological speech disorder and has been seeing an NHS salt for 2 years. No one would accept there was a problem with his literacy so I paid for an independent salt to do some phonological testing and low and behold he has quite severe phonological processing difficulties. He can't hear the sounds on the end of words or the rythym in them. He knows the letter names but doesnt connect the sound to the letter.

He also now hates books but he's took a liking town app called scribblenauts where you need to type the word in to solve the problem and although he has to ask how to spell nearly everything it is helping him relate an item to a word. The salt said his brain is struggling to hold on to letters and words as they hold no meaning to him yet.
She said she would be surprised if he isn't diagnosed with dyslexia when he's older.

He also used to randomly just guess the word but that has improved slightly so he can do the most common ones (cat, dog etc). He is still pre literacy levels that he started 2 years ago!

If your son is distressed when you try to read to him, then this is no reason to give up, but you need to speak strongly to the school. He is already developing a phobia of reading, and until this is sorted he will probably not make much/any progress in reading. You could ask the school, or talk to your GP to see if you can get him referred to CAMHS, or look for a play therapist yourself.

I have a friends who used to do Drama therapy with children like your son. Who had been so traumatised by trying to learn to read that they found books frightening. She used to play games with books (such as use them as a hat), to help them cope with their fears.

So in your shoes my first step would be to try to make books seem like fun and non-threatening things. I would forget all about him reading etc. until you can do this (unless you can do it another way suc as using a computer).

I will try the computer idea mummy - thanks. However, with regard to play therapists or CAHMS or any other referrals... this is not necessary because he has no other issues/fears or quirks. He is NT in all other areas and has no behavioural problems, it really is just that he cannot read and gets highly frustrated and pissed off when someone makes him try.

I have downloaded Scribblenauts app to his ipad and he is already loving that.

And today I am going to try and find a behavioural optometrist.

Thank you all

I'm glad he's enjoying scribblenauts, schmoodles! My son also likes the hairy letters app which involves them tracing letters and creating 3 letter words but with crazy cartoon spiders on so it makes him laugh!

I will download that too! Yes, he is loving Maxwell and getting the hang of it all. He has only cleared a few levels so far but will be keen to get back to it after school.

I may have a little search to see if there are any others like this. He loves all sorts of apps.

Family of dyslexics & a Mum who trained as a tutor with the dyslexia institute here . It sounds as if school have done a fine job of alienating him from reading and making miserable about the whole issue.

Some suggestions:-

1. Get thee to a behavioral optometrist asap - we've done this for DS. He can't read yet but the excercises meant he learnt to dress himself and use cutlery for the first time ever after just 4 months, so I'm sticking with it as he's a really severe case (expecting his therapy to take 18 months - 2 years whereas most kids only need 6 months).

A BO is standard in australia for all 7 year olds having trouble with literacy.

1. storynory.com - a really nice free audio story site. Natasha the narrator has a lovely voice and you can always ask gentle questions after the story has been read to check comprehension, vocab etc, etc. I just think it'll take the pressure off a bit if he's feeling stressed with you reading to him at the moment. You can print out the stories for school if you have to.

1. Get some value shaving foam and draw letters in the bath/on the shower tiles. Make words out of plasticine. Get some paving chalk and get him to write very simple words on the garden path as big as you can. Choose fun words like "pancake day" or the days of the week. MAKE WORDS out of scrabble tiles and call it "word building." It's really important this is a FUN game to him!

The aim of all this is to get him to see that a/ words can be fun (school seem to have put him off!) and b/ plasticine words in 3D involve looking at the words in a different way to those in a book which may help his reading skills. c/ once you've found a game he likes this way work on the key words.

Many children find it easier to see navy blue text on off white than black on white - print off a page of text like this via the computer and give it a shot to see if it helps him at all.

Thank you bochead... some really helpful suggestions. Regarding the BO.. is this expensive? I take it I pay for it, as opposed to a normal eye test?

Why did the school ask you to get his hearing tested? DS1 has an auditory processing disorder (and SpLD). He was referred to GOSH APD clinic by his comm paed but the audiology clinic can also refer if there are no physical hearing problems. It has to be a teritiary referral so GP can't refer direct. They assess younger children than your son.

The problems with writing would warrant OT assessment - your GP can refer.

We wasted years trying to get the school to get him assessed for dyslexia before paying for an independent EP at the beginning of year 6. Head/Senco assured me that DS1 wasn't dyslexic days before the EP report confirming it - as well as dyscalculia, dyspraxia and ADD. The diagnosis made a huge difference in terms of the day to day support (Wave 3 phonological interventions, touch typing, recording device etc) and to his self-perception - I am not 'stupid'. Believe me this will be impacting on his self-esteem. In DS1's case we then had the insane situation where low self-esteem was blamed for inadequate academic progress.

I would ask an indi EP at what age they can assess. Don't even tell the school in advance. Just send them a copy of the report if it is positive.

Keepon - He had been in Reception for about 3 days when they took me to one side and asked if there was anything wrong with his hearing. I asked why and they said that he seemed to have problems following instructions. This surprised me... it turned out that he was being told < for example > to go and hang up his coat and fetch his shoes and he would only do part of what was asked. I actually laughed and said ' Err, he is 4 years old, just tell him again. And his hearing is fine! ' However, they insisted, so I played ball and got his hearing tested and he was completely normal. Same with his eyesight < which was declared to be 'excellent' and then came the speech therapy assessment which the the therapist stopped half way through and asked me exactly WHY he had been referred!

So, he has no other issues relating to sight,speech, hearing or behaviour. He is not remotely on the ASD spectrum and I sometimes wonder what the school are trying to prove. On his SAP thingy , it says he has poor fine motor skills. This is just not correct. He makes very intricate Lego models at home for example, can do his shoes up, can fasten tiny buttons, holds a pencil fine and so on and so forth.

keepon - I will explore an independent assessment I think. I think it is crucial that children know they're not stupid. DS has said to me before ' I am a stupid boy ' so he has realised that he is somehow 'different'. I have actually told him that I think he has something called Dyslexia and that this is what stops him from being able to read at the moment and he fully understood that. Well, he said ' Ohh, so my brain is wired a bit differently? ' and i thought that was a reasonably good way of putting it

What assessments did the SALT carry out? There are specific tests (CELF-4 subtests) on Concepts and Following Directions.

He could well have a processing difficulty, and maybe short term memory; so not be able to follow all of a complex instruction. However this is very normal in 4 year olds, they are often impatient to be good and do the task that they don't listen to the end.

I would suggest you look carefully at this school, because they do not seem to be doing their best by your son.

I can highly recommend a trip to a BO. My oldest boy had been tested three times a high street optician and they failed to miss quite serious tracking and convergence issues which the BO picked up immediately. He did 4 months of visions therapy which has fixed his eyes, and had helped no end with general coordination. He no longer falls off his chair, for example, and is generally calmer.

Yes, you do pay. It is private in most places, though I think you can get ion the NHS in Essex. But IMHO is is worth it x but not all BOs are as good as each other.