HFA and reading difficulties

[tacal]

Hello, my ds is 6 and he is eventually making some progress with reading. Until recently he would not read any books, he would refuse or read a few pages then say it was too tiring. I asked the school if they could tell me his reading test results. The senco told me all I need to know is that ds is making progress with his reading. I suppose they are right. Does anyone know if I have a right to know test results? Maybe it would damage the relationship I have with the school if I push for them.

I am wondering what type of reading problems can be common for people on the autism spectrum. My ds has been quite slow to get started with reading. The school have been giving him some one to one help with reading which has helped. The teacher told me they need to try to speed up his reading before he goes into p3 in august (Scotland).

The school don't give homework and won't give him anything extra to do at home other than one school book a week. I have done some toe by toe with him and then changed to reading eggs. Both have been good for him but the school are not supportive of me doing these things. I am not sure what area he needs help with so feel unsure what is best for me to do with him at home. Do you think continuing with reading eggs and reading the school book is enough? Should I be doing more? It is difficult because he does find reading tiring.

Any advice would be very much appreciated. Thank you.

there is a big list of things that are often seen with HFA including, dyslexia, dyspraxia, sensory issues, pda, dyscalculia, ADHD, ADD and more, BUT don't panic as HFA could be making a slightly slow start with reading and then romp ahead. One nt relative of mine didn't 'get' reading until he hit comics, and then there was no turning back.

Also a DC with HFA may have no extra needs, or only one or two. My relatives with HFA - one has none, one has ADD, one has ADHD, dyslexia and dyspraxia, and they are all dong well and enjoying life.

hi senvet, thank you for your reply. It makes me feel better thinking that he has just got off to a slow start.

'Reading makes him tired' sounds like convergence problems.

Engaging Eyes ( engagingeyes.co.uk ) can help with this.

If you're already doing toe by toe and reading eggs, then this is something totally different which might help. All the other phonic 'learn to read' programs are just variations on toe by toe and reading eggs. They all work more or less in the same way.

before you go paying for expensive online programmes see your optician. The will be able to diagnose convergence problems. Convergence problems are caused by weakness in the eye muscles, the exercises are free and take up a few minutes a day.
We have had two opticians and the both picked up dd's convergence problems, she was seeing double at 20cm instead of 8cm.

thank you killasandra and bruffin

Ds has had his eyes checked recently. Would a routine eye check at boots opticians pick up convergence problems?

Yes Boots picked up both dd and dh's convergence insuffecency.

No, normally a routine eye check wouldn't pick up convergence problems.

They can - but normally they don't

It does killasandra. Every optician i have seen tests for it.
my dd was seeing double when she was reading and didnt realise that it was wrong so never said anything. Our optician picked up that her convergence was at 20cm instead of 8cm. To check just hold out a pencil at arms length and focus on it. Gradually pull pencil towards you and you should be able to bring it to nearly your nose without seeing doubdouble. Obviously the optician usually looks at your eye tracking from side to side ss well.
The engaging eyes programne has been incinvented by someone who is not an eye expert together with a quack who claims to be dr and is not

I think boots did check this with ds the first time he went there a year ago. I will phone and ask if they checked. Thank you to both of you.

Fwiw my dd had no reading problems at all except seeing double which didnt put her off. Her handwriting wss truly dreadful until her mid teens though. My ds did struggle to read but took off when has dyslexic problems with spelling and memory and used to use a ruler to keep track in books like Harry Potter has no convergence issues at all. We spent a morning at the hospital opthalmic clinic having every test going and they found nothing wrong with eyes at all.

I think my ds may have dyslexic type problems. He was reading words on flashcards today and when he came to dog all he could see was god. Also he doesnt hear the sounds in words correctly. He thought human was quman. He always hears th as l. he was writing mother today and wrote mola.

Sorry meant to say "reading took off when he was 7"
At your ds age he didnt seem to hear "n" in words he was always missing ns out of words. Hevdid have hearing checked but that was ok. I think his problems were short term memory.

Hopefully my ds will progress a lot in the next year. I know 6 is still young. I have had his hearing checked and everything ok. There are a lot of words he pronounces wrongly which does make me think dyslexia or auditory discrimination. It is good to hear these issues can sort themselves out over time. Thank you.

Tacal - my experience has been the exact opposite of bruffin.

Opticians didn't pick up either of my DSs convergence problems.

But Engaging Eyes helped both of them with their dyslexia. And I'm very pleased I did it with them.

If your DS sees god instead of dog then he has a vision problem.

My da has had similar problems with reading. I also thought convergence etc.

Turns out its the understanding part. Not being able to infer text due to the emotional immaturity. Therefore not enjoying fiction and finding it tiring to read. He was actually riding non fiction at a far more fluid rate than fiction at that age. (Is this something you can test?)

I picked a book he could read on a subject he liked. Counted out 100 words. Timed how long it took to read and added 1 second per mistake.
Then did the same for the fiction book from school.
The difference was remarkable and even my teacher friend she hadn't ever seen anything like it before!

I'd say the senco saying all you need to know is he's making progress worrying tbh. You have a right to know if he's behind, by how far and if they are using interventions to do them yourself.
I find reading apps and games on iPad the best as DS is motivated by the iPad!

I know that all children on the spectrum are different, but my DS with HFA couldn't read at 7 and hated books, learnt to read at a basic level when he was 8-9 and then was peer-equivalent at 11. Got an A at GCSE and now reads constantly.
I hope your DS does the same, but it was heart-breaking for a few years.

The underlying problems will always be there with ds but as he got older and maturer he become more able to compensate. He is 19 now. He does stupid things like copying the wrong number from the previous page or putting the calculator on wrong setting so now takes two calculators into exam with labels on. His spelling is not good and would spell the same word 5 different ways on the same page
Dyslexics dont say static, they do improve developmentally and it is easy to put that down to whatever you are doing with them at the time, Ds really clicked with reading at 7 as he went into year 2. He rushed through the books then. My dh didnt learn to read until he was 10 when he was taught phonics. He reads well and his a professional engineer. He caught up his education once he left school.
Ds isnt HFA though.

tacal .. sounds like it could be sensory processing disorder. My son hears words with different sounds (plus others of your ds symptoms), he wears coloured lens glasses from jordanseyes which corrects the problem. The difference is phenomenal.

frazzled that is very interesting!!!! thank you for telling me this. ds has sensory processing problems diagnosed by his pead and occupational therapist. I asked his o/t if the not hearing correct sounds was sensory and she said no. She said I had to speak to salt who mentioned possible auditory discrimination issues but when they did some tests with him they said they couldn't see a problem. Now he is writing I have some proof of the problem because of the way he spells words. Until now everyone has thought I was seeing a problem that wasn't there. Ds has been to Jordanseyes. He was 5 and they didn't find anything wrong but In did say he thought perhaps ds was too young to be tested. He did some tests on me and thought green was my colour so prescribed green for ds. If the green helps ds how will I know?? What age was your ds when tested at Jordan's? My ds wears the green lenses when the sun or lights too bright but says no difference for reading. Should they help with hearing? Maybe green is not his colour. Think I will take him back. Thank you for mentioning this to me

killasandra I will look at engaging eyes and speak to optician. Thank you for posting again. I would love to know if ds has some kind of vision problem.

youarekidding this is interesting because I mentioned to ds' teacher recently that he reads non fiction better! I will try the test you have mentioned. Thank you I had a bit of a heated discussion with senco yesterday and she eventually told me they don't test the kids. She is arranging a meeting for me with the teacher next week.

thanks again bruffin I have been told by dyslexia action and the school to wait until ds is older before thinking about dyslexia. I know If should try not to worry as there is a good chance ds will catch up with his reading. But I keep thinking what if there is a problem and he needs special help. It is soooo hard not to worry.

the solitary well done to your ds that is so good to hear. It fives me hope my ds will not always struggle

btw, lots of friends with kids who have reading issues have gone for kindles or e-readers and bumped the size of the text up. One lad has about 4 lines per page.

Some OTs have basic qualifications and some have an extra post-grad qualification in sensory stuff. so maybe look out for one with the sensory qualification? I know one indie one in London.

Progress is a red herring. Most kids with SEN make progress just because they are getting older. So school wrong on that, I'm afraid.

Good Luck

thanks senvet the o/t had an interest in sensory and ran a sensory clinic. I will look into what qualifications she has if I am dealing with her again in the future. It is interesting what you say about progress being a red herring. What questions should I ask the school?

forgot to say, ds has a tablet. I will look into ebooks and if I can increase the text size. He enjoys reading eggs on his tablet but only for short periods of time. Probably because the text is quite small. Thank you for the suggestion.

frazzled I just realised I have spoken to you before about Ian Jordan. I looked back at your thread in June last year. I was finding it difficult to believe Ian. Ds tried his green glasses for reading a few times after he got them and said they didnt help so I thought they were not going to help him.

I asked ds to try them again today, but this time for sound. Ds is very sure when he tells me the glasses make the noisy noise less quieter. Ds is very bothered by noise. I have also tried the green glasses on me today for reading and discovered I can read faster. My eyes are moving better along sentences. I usually find I can't read quickly and I have to re read the same words a few times.

I think I am now believing so have made appointments for both me and ds to see Ian in April.

that should say ds finds the glasses make loud noise quieter