SALT assessment flagged up issue with semantics - now very confused

[bjkmummy]

she has a dx of dyslexia - both her brothers (including her twin) have asd

she had a salt assessment on Saturday as ive always thought her speak was as fluid as her peers - she always struggles to remember peoples names and her memory is pretty shocking so more out of curiosity decided to get her seen.

the salt also did some phonological testing with her as this has been highlighted as an area of concern - she seemed to do okay with that but that is also an area I know the dyslexia teacher has been concentrating on.

she struggled with the memory tests she was given which I had expected.

however she also really struggled with the semantics as well which the SALT raised with me - couldn't say too much as daughter in the room so she will phone me this week once shes crunched the figures etc to discuss with me but im confused as to what difficulty with semantics could mean - is it usual for a child with dyslexia to possibly struggle with semantics?

she has the OT today assessing for dyspraxia so that's going to be interesting as well

I think semantics would come under language processing in some way (I don't really know - we have a situation not that dissimilar and I don't understand our situation either). I personally wouldn't be surprised if it went alongside dylexia because I was told that dyslexic people can sometimes find it hard to access the right words when trying to explain something so if they had asked your daughter to say how two things were similar she may not have been able to come up with the right explanation and also dyslexic people sometimes don't elaborate fully on answers to things even if they know the answer so I think it could be linked to her dyslexia but is an area she could have more support in that hadn't yet been flagged up.

we have dyslexia test tomorrow morning but because I have already done loads of work with DD over the last year including doing toe by toe and we think she is compensating very well anyway I don't think she is going to show up as truly dyslexic whereas if I had had her tested last year BEFORE we spent so much time trying to work out ways she could do things that might work for her I think she would have tested positive.

it is a very complex area. hope dyspraxia test goes ok for you.

what you have said has made a lot of sense - the OT is in school as we speak and in a minute got to go and pick her up and take her to our local guide hut as her school so small it doesn't have a hall! the OT will do more assessment with her this afternoon - had it arranged for a few weeks and when I dropped her off at school today it looks like her teacher is off as her car wasn't there - drove past the school later after dropping elder boy off and car still not there so likely OT would be unable to speak to her class teacher which is no big issue as teacher says she has no idea what dyspraxia is!

good luck with the dyslexia assessment - its hard isn't it when we do so much to help them and then worry that it could then be seen to be counter productive

yes I definitely have sen fatigue! trying to make sense of it all is becoming all a bit much at the moment especially when you have a school saying all is 'fine' but its clear its not and she is falling further and further behind so trying to find out what is causing the barrier to her learning is a headache - I was hoping that the tests would rule stuff out rather than rule any extras in! I think that due to her brothers it is inevitable that there is going to be some cross over but I just hoped that she would be okay - its been hard with the boys and for her being the sibling , I just wanted her to be okay and to escape from any possible difficulties but its becoming clear that not the case and then its the guilt - ive spent so long fighting for her brothers that I just didn't see what was in front of me but also I desperately just wanted to have one child who different have SEN - gosh that sounds awful - but she has so much to deal with her brothers that is seems so unfair that she has her own struggles as well. right off to get her and see what the afternoon brings

My understanding wrt DS2 - he has no problem with the formal structure of language, understanding grammar etc at the word level (semantic) but this understanding does not lead to pragmatic understanding, especially at the sentence level, and especially using high level comprehension which requires inferring the implicit, or functional action (like following directions). This also applies to non-verbal communication. He has HFA. DS1 is much the same overall but is less skilled at a semantic level which I had always assumed was because he has dyslexia and other stuff thrown into the mix whereas DS2 is of 'exceptional cognitive ability'. Could be wrong though. See what the SALT says. Hopefully you can talk to her soon.

hey it doesn't sound awful - it sounds like a natural concerned parent response when they are tired of having to fight battles all the time. You need to praise yourself for the fact that you have noticed that she is having problems too and you are doing your best to help her. you aren't superhuman and you can only do so much at any one time.

schools do tend to say all is fine when it isn't because they are perhaps measuring a child against others who are making less progress or who they see as having bigger difficulties plus teachers aren't experts in everything so unless a child presents with classic signs of something a teacher probably won't notice (and remember a teacher won't know necessarily just how bright your child is so they may think the child is functioning normally for them whilst you are more aware perhaps of verbal ability and ability that shows in other ways which they can't see because it doesn't happen at school). Our school say DD is fine, they can't see any problems at all and she is doing ok at school at the moment but I know something isn't right and have been saying so for ages. teachers we know outside of school agree with me because they see 'more' of DD I suppose rather than the one who just does school work.

you are doing a good job fighting for your children, they are lucky to have you.

SEN Fatigue, ha! I deffo get that periodically. Is it like MS ie either episodic or progressive? One for DSM-6 perhaps?

well today it has become clear she has hypermobility and that explains part of the difficulty with her handwriting. OT not sure she has dyspraxia but she may have developmental coordination disorder so now have to wait to see what the scores from the testing show. she has some rigidity in how she thinks bit has good eye contact. she has difficulties in proprioception side if things. school also made it clear (again) to the OT that they have no concerns and she wont get a statement blah blah blah as she is making 'progress' I asked the OT if the school said what her levels were, school didn't say anything so I informed the OT school had wrote that she was 3 and half years behind but school still sticking to the 'fine' mantra

then got a report from the dyslexia teacher which made dire reading so yep definitely have sen fatigue today!

Bless you bjk sending and a hug x