GL assessment for dylexia. DS Y7 rated 'moderate' dylexia by SENCO, now do I push for statement?

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School have assessed him and say he will get extra help. However parents of older dyslexia children at the same school have told me that the school says a lot and doesn't deliver much.

So we fight the good fight.

I know the rules have changed re funding etc. Do I push for a statement or is moderate dyslexia 'not enough'. Not sure what to do next for the best. ANY HELP gratefully received.

(new post but name changed - icod etc)

doh - he is 7, not in Y7!

You need to be able to show that he is not making progress despite the provision that is in place.

I would suggest that you meet with the senco and find out how far behind his peer group he is and what they are going to put into place the support him.

Follow up your meeting with an email confirming everything you discussed. You need to create a paper trail.

Some more people will be along with more advice later I am sure .

Good luck

Did the SENCO use a screener? In which case it's not a dx of dyslexia.
What were his areas of difficulty?
Did the SENCO say exactly what extra help he would get? It doesn't sound good that other parents aren't happy.

as I need says - you will need to demonstrate lack of progress and how far behind the child is to their peers. in theory (according to the rubbish the LA spout) a child should be able to access 15 hours support without the need of an EHCP so they school should be able to put support in place but getting the school to do that is a whole another story

Who said it is "moderate" dyslexia? If it was an EP, and s/he officially has stated that the level is "moderate dyslexia" then be very very careful. Do not make the mistake that I made that moderate = "a little bit". It does not mean this. It is actually means the dyslexia is serious and will possibly be a significant barrier to learning and education.

To give you my background, my DS started with an official EP "moderate" dx of dyslexia when he was in year 1. Now in year 6, he is now in a specialist dyslexia school funded by my LA (via 2 Tribunals). His needs of "moderate" dyslexia (and significant other SENs) were not meet for some years, so his dyslexia dx is now "severe".

thank you!

OK so I am making a paper trail; starting a log of all the meetings / calls (or lack of).

Ohmygrood: The SENCO used a tool called GL assessment to get the a dx and wrote on it 'likely dyslexia' but looking on the web, the GL assessment level he's on is 'moderate dyslexia'. So there is already a difference there.
It's not a dx. So now should I push for one??? He did see an EP when in reception (! fantastic old school) but was too young for dx, but flagged as likely issues then.
SENCO has suggested some help but this doesn't appear to have started yet. So I will chase that.
bkjmummy: What is an EHCP? I will push for 15 hours support.
WintersDayTOWIE ! I hope your ds is flourishing at his new school. It is a very salutary tale, thank you for the warning.

Also his target this year is 3c which I think is below the standard target for his age group. However the GL assessment put him in the top 10% of general ability (thank god dh can understand standard deviation). SO how does that work?

So does the provision come from the LEA? So need to check what our LEA says it provides and what it actually does.

thank you to Ineedmorepatience too

I would push fro a dx. Support is meant to be based on needs and not dx, but realistically it's easier to push for support with a dx.

EHCP= Education, Health and Care Plan. You can't get a statement any more, you get one of these instead.

Assessed ability contrasted to actual attainment is an important indicator for SpLD when it comes to assessing current intervention and considering potential impact on view of self as a learner. See Robert Burden - MALS assessment.

Understanding standard deviation is significant in that discrepancy. Average covers a large scale - something like 16th to 84th percentile - so within 1-2 SD. The LA tend to work with a notion of deviance as more than 2SDs. So if your child has a spiky profile but within the average this will be less significant than the contrast between say 4th and 99th percentile as this is more than 3SD.

Ask the SENCO exactly what the extra help will be. Ask for termly reviews so you can see of the extra help is working.

The school can apply for exceptional needs funding which is where the 15 hours of support would come from. The school will have to put your sons case to a panel who then decide whether it then goes to provision panel, it takes about a term.

You could apply for an EHCP but really you need as much evidence as possible to prove that your sons needs are not being met. This can include an ed Pysch report and evidence which shows he's not progressing at school.

As an example my sons EHCP will be finalised before Christmas - he is Year 2, Levels P8 so not yet reached NC level yet non verbal test show he has average to above average non verbal skills. This would not have been enough to get an EHCP but he did because he has verbal dyspraxia amd scored on the second percentile. Had he been above the 5th he wouldn't have been eligible, or certainly not without a big fight.

Hopefully the school will help and guide you.

Getting a EHCP is not based on percentiles it is based on if a child needs more support than is normally availiable.

this is ALL very interesting info THANKS. I have ameeting next week booked and have found all the local authority documentation on the web to read and digest.

So I am:
Keeping track of everything offered
Asking for termly review meetings
Asking for an EP assessment. I know that the senco will tell me that he doesn't need one of those, as that's what she has told other parents. What are the magic words that get you one? Can you still pay for it yourself and have them take notice of it (which is what my dad did for me 20years ago, nice to see how it's improved so much [bitter])?

Re See Robert Burden - MALS assessment. How does this work? Ds thinks he is an 'idiot' already and some of his classmates have called him dumbo. Does that get factored in now?

The percentile stuff is interesting. THANK GOD part of my coping strategy was to marry a neuro typical! he can talk that stuff over with Senco. However it's not spiky the GL assessment, it's ability in the top 10% and everything else in the bottom 20%. With the exception of recall of numbers forwards, which is top 5%. Ds says it's coz he remembers Lego set numbers. Not sure about that.

thank you for reading if you got this far.