Dyslexic DD - stick with mainstream or try a specialist school?

[alimac87]

Hello everyone. I've spent the week working through the ed. psych report for my DD who is 11 and in Y7. The EP report confirmed what we thought - dyslexia (reading age of 7), dyscalculia and a suspected speech & language issue that needs more exploring. Her school didn't have her flagged as dyslexic - apparently primary didn't mention it, or something. I mentioned it to the SENCO on Day 1 but it still didn't go on her file.

As of this term, she's been moved to a class where there is a TA. Met the school SENCO who is going to put her on School Action Plus. Literacy help has been promised but not really happened. DD is somewhat overwhelmed at the moment, comes home from maths lessons weeping. It's very mixed. Individual teachers vary a lot, some great but head of SENCO and other senior managers seem very passive aggressive - when I said we were upset that DD's report suggested she would get hardly any A-Cs at GCSE, the reaction has been 'no, she's doing very poorly and that's just a fact you are going to have to live with.'

We have a small specialist dyslexia school fairly close by, which takes kids for a few years but aims to reintegrate them to mainstream. Mixed feelings about this - apart from the cost, it could make a massive difference to her. On the other hand, it might be tricky to reintegrate and to maintain/develop friendships.

Sorry this is so long. Has anyone any experience of this type of intense schooling and how did it work out? And how long should it take to see whether the current school is really going to support her?

Someone I know got a specialist school for dyslexia named in her sons statement. It was very hard work and they had to go to tribunal but the LA now pays for him and his transport.

They argued that none of the local schools could meet his needs. He was a long way behind his peers academically but had a high IQ. He has made amazing progress.

I think you should speak to the HT at the specialist school and ask how many of the children there are funded by the LA's.

Good luck

I have a Dyslexic dd and tbh if there was a specialist school nearby that was feasible, I would not hesitate to send her there. I would absolutely do it in a heartbeat.

Our ds is 10 and has reading age of 6 and spelling age of 5 yrs 10 months. He has had a statement for 3 years, but even with extra support has only progressed by 4 months in reading and less than that in spelling. We are going to tribunal next month to try and get him into a specialist dyslexia school. We have just had all the EP reports in both private and from the LA and all are saying the same he has an average IQ but the lack of progress is staggering! He needs specialist support.

This is pretty much what I'm thinking. She is so overwhelmed at the moment by the secondary school environment that I just worry she is not really learning much at all.

Check out the tinsley house support thread x

IF there was a way to overcome finances/LA resistance etc then I'd jump at the specialist school tbh. You'd need to get the specialist school named in a statement in order to obtain state funding & that's a mahoosive battle that frankly not everyone has the resources to fight.

Dismally low academic expectations in the state sector versus a real crack at the whip to fulfill her potential?

I personally think the friendship thing is a red herring as the new school won't be populated by androids, but by other youngsters keen to have a friend or two too. You can also help her join a social group outside school too such as Guides, cadets or a sports or music group (depending on her interests).

I'd also investigate other therapies such as retained reflex therapy, balance excercises, diet, behavioral optremetrist etc. There's a lot out there to deal with the physical causes of dyslexia that doesn't get a mention in the state sector. [ggrrr]

Dyslexia itself is a meaningless diagnosis - see if you can work out the underlying causes of the dyslexia and then crack on helping the root cause if you can. Visual tracking, audioprocessing or attention issues can all be improved upon, (not cured) and can make a massive difference. (I'm from a family of dyslexics and my poor DS is the worst affected yet, but I'm not prepared to "accept" school's low expectations of his potential just yet - so have been doing what I can at home for years now.)

Thanks bochead, your point about new school not being androids did make me laugh. School is teeny tiny.

Dismally low expectations? Yeah. Up till now I think I was being written off as a middle class whinger but the ed psych makes it clear that this is very real.

She has poor working memory and wears tinted specs to deal with visual stress. Language is about to be investigated but I think is one more limitation, makes it hard for her to take in information quickly enough during class. From all account her current class is friendly but rowdy -and there's 30 of them.