Dyslexic DS1 dropping out Spectacularly

[kafkesque]

I have a wonderful 8-year-old son who is struggling at school.
He is lively and friendly and has no problems socialising, but his academic progress is beginning to suffer.
He already has a diagnosis of moderate dyslexia aged 6. High IQ recorded. Mental maths is fine.
He has never been a naughty boy but now has an IEP for behaviour.

He is quite dreamy and finds it hard to concentrate.
He has involuntary ticks and sometimes wets himself.
His hand writing is terrible.
He hates writing and I think this contributes to his unwillingness to focus on any assignments in class that involve writing.

He seems to have problems recalling what he has learnt recently and what he wants to say. It's like someone has pulled the plug out. His mind just seems to go blank. His teachers say he can spend 20 mins of a 30 min lesson just writing the date at the top of the page. A hour to write 3 or 4 sentences,
He finds writing so difficult that he has a melt down every time he has to do writing /spelling homework. Letters formed the wrong way around. It is a complete nightmare and is a very significant problem for him.

But on the other hand, when it comes to focussing on a computer game, or a bedtime story or audio tape in the car he can sit in rapt attention.
He has received extra help at school however it has got to the point where I think we need him tested. School won’t refer to Ed Psych.
He is not good with a ball or bicycle. I think he has sensory problems too.

I want to understand what is going on and how I can help him.

Sound just like my DD. She is now 12 and only diagnosed when she was 10 with complex difficulties, things started to fall apart at school when she was 8. She has sensory/vestibular issues, speech and language disorder but the most imprtant diagnosis was her having an Auditory memery/processing disorder. She cannot recall any information that has been taught verbally and cannot follow and retain instuctions. Might be worth you mentioning auditory processing to an OT as well.

Thank-you for your replies.

We visited the GP yesterday who said they would look into it. I got the impression we would be referred to OT.

His behaviour has suddenly become leary/obstinate around anything to do with writing/spelling. Usually he is well behaved at all other times.

He just cannot focus on eating/dressing/generally on what he is supposed to do but anything he really wants to do no problem!

He looks as if he cannot relax even when he is doing anything he really wants to do - always on the go. The sensory/vestibular issues/hypermobility sound really possible too.

I will go down the sensory route and try it.

He sounds very similar to my DS. Go down the dyspraxia/development coordination disorder route too.

yes, it's making more and more sense and confirming my suspicions from a different angle from about two years ago now. All coming under the Dyspraxia, Dyslexia, ASD, ADHD umbrella. Which in our family there are a heavy sprinkling.

I am going to for Statutory Assessment as I think there is more to it than just Dyslexia and I don't think the school would be able to cope without it.

Would I be able to claim DLA? All these private assessments are going to be expensive. In Herts you have to take them to Tribunal for Statutory Assessment as I have found out with ASD son.

It's almost as if I have to work out the exact diagnosis before you are taken seriously by the professionals.

I will also ask for a referral to the orthoptic service because I also want to exclude Irlen's syndrome.

Please check for dysgraphia and dyspraxia

Best wishes to you and your son

Ds was exactly the same with writing/ schoolwork
Only thing is ds also had social difficulties too ( had no clue what people expected of him at any given moment )
Primary school was mostly a nightmare.. He was called lazy constantly and the teachers used peers to bully him.
Is he left handed? Ds's backwards writing persisted for quite some time... I think until about 9. We had OT assessments when he was 10 ( being assessed for asd anyway).Lots of exercises and a dx of dyspraxia alongside the dx of Aspergers/ hfa . The OT also picked up hypermobility and a tremor down his writing arm.
He still gets a lot of cramping and pain in his arm if he writes a lot.
His writing is beautiful now though...it suddenly improved as he became more aware of an audience too.
He was given a structured framework in order to help him start and complete work. At first ... All he produced was a title and bullet points. Bullet points were then expanded to longer sentences/ paragraphs. He was also offered touch typing tuition as extra....but preferred trying to improve his own writing.
In yr 10 about 4 of his teachers at parents evening commented about his lovely neat writing . Which was just so weird for me ( but in a nice way)!!
He is 16 now and at college ... Still needs a structure to follow but he's doing ok :-)