Anyone knowledgable about dyslexia? Alongside asd

[purplerainbow]

Ds1 is 9 and has asd, anxiety, and can be very oppositional due to his need for control. When he was younger I noticed he would sometimes read words back words and some letters he would write backwards and was told normal for that age. A few months ago we finally had an assessment from OT which was very eye opening. It showed a weakness in his right hand. He is right handed, writing is appalling and can hardly ever get him to write. He can't hold pen/pencil 'correctly' and puts too much pressure resulting in arm ache. Anyway, he brought some written homework back home (can hardly ever get him to do it normally) and I noticed he had written words incorrectly. Eg for warm he had written 'wraw' and I noticed a lot of b and d the wrong way and random capitals in the writing. On the assessment on 4 pieces of paper he wrote his name and each one he wrote it differently, eg 2 s when there is only 1 s. He also put a 4 instead of an h etc. OT said he has I think it was processing disorder?

When doing maths he was putting letters sometimes instead of numbers. I asked the head about dyslexia expecting to get dismissed and she said 'oh he would def score on it. He would have spikes.' I think she meant he wouldn't be bad enough to get diagnosis? Can you just be 'abit' dyslexic??

Any advice would be fab.

Sorry, wasn't being snappy, it's so frustrating as its dominating my every thought. It's so stressful. The effect of getting him in, some days he's fine no issues, other days like yesterday he's crying he wants to go but his trousers are hurting and irritating him. So is it the LA I need to ring? When I questioned the school the other day about what was happening next regarding the EHCP she said they were awaiting paperwork? Iv no idea if that is true. I guess if I rang the LA they would be able to tell me if the school had begun the process? I know he won't cope well going to a school without his school friends. His anxiety is and enough now. The feeder secondary school has an asd unit but I haven't heard particularly good things from there and it is massive. I wouldn't put him in any other secondary school as they are all at least 10 miles away and would have to factor in getting him plus ds2 to school and back again. There is no way I would let him on a bus on his own, and I'm not convinced he would feel he was able to himself to be honest. My brother has aspergers and at 17 has only just been going on the bus himself, although very different issues to ds1.

You could try the LA, if no luck there I would suggest emailing the school SENCO (and CC'ing anyone else there you've got the email address for, class teacher, admin office) asking whether it's been done, if so when it was sent.

If not - when it will be sent, stating that you look forward to hearing from them and that if either it hasn't been sent or you haven't heard back from them by the end of this week you will be making your own application over half term.

Then get onto the IPSEA website and plan to make your own application. Also look up the criteria for a place in that ASD unit (you might have to delve around a bit, but could try the Parent Partnership or whatever they call themselves now, details should be on your LA website. Also contact the SENCO of that school and make an appointment to se them. I know distance/transport is difficult, but it would also be worth looking at what special school provision is avallable in your area, there might be a better school and if you could get it named on an EHCP they should provide transport.