I am a Z list poster, but can you help? re dyslexia

[isgrassgreener]

I have posted about this in Special Educational needs, but have had no replys, so I thought I would have a go here.

I am not very happy with the help (or lack of help) that ds1 gets at his primary school, so I wanted to find out what type of help other children who have dyslexia or problems with reading and writing get at their school.
Any comments would be useful. Thanks

Couple of quick questions.

How old is your ds?
Do you have a diagnosis of dyslexia?
Is your son on the schools SEN regester? If so, at what level?
What help is being given at the moment?

Good luck with pushing for help for him, its worth it in the end. Can't comment on curent provision its 29 years since i started getting a little extra help and 17 since I stoped. all that might tell you is be prepared for this to be a LOOOONG term thing, there are no quick fixs.
Help that I found good was small (3 kids) group teaching for reading - whole word method- at 1st school and then at senior school one to one teaching for comprehension, precis, note taking and essay planning. One to one at middle school on handwriting and spelling i didn't enjoy tho it MAy have been helpfull. I didn't like being singled out of my class at that point. I may have done better with out of hours tution. one unusull thing I got involved in was a saturday club for dyslexic primary school kids ( I was a teen age "helper") not tution as such but a chance to see that you were not "teh only disxlecic in the village" (borough). we played games, did crafts and wrote and ilustrated poems and cartoons etc.

Does he get any help at all?

He should be able to access a learnign support assistant during lessons like english or maths where he would have specific problems. he may also have certain lessons outside of the main classroom where he can concentrate on his own particular area's of need...so instead of doing cookery he goes with his LSA for extra literacy.

You could ask if he can be placed on school action plus. it varies on how much help you get in different scholls but it basicly means he will have an IEP and they will workw ith him to help him achieve the targets set out for him.

How old is he and what help has he had so far?

Thank you all for your replies.
Yes he does have a DX of dyslexia.
He is yr 4 at primary school, he has been at school action + since reception.
He used to go out for literacy, they do the Ruth Miskin programme, so he would go out in a group of about 8-10 children.
Now he is not going out at all and neither are the other children in his class who used to.
I think it is down to staff shortages and money, but they are trying to dress it up as the children getting more from being with the whole class, but I can't see that they don't need extra help just because they are now in yr 4
This is why I would like to know what type of help children get in other schools, to see if my expectations are too high.

opbviously it all depends very much on your sons ability.

My brother is now in year 6 (i think, he is 11) and does still com out of class for extra literacy. he used to have help with his maths but thi has stopped now because he is currently in the top 3 of his class!

If i were you i would go and speak with the SENCO and ask to see examples of his test scores, he may have improved and therefore theya re letting him have a rest and join in with classroom activities.

To my knowledge none of the dyslexic children in my son's junior school get any extra classroom support in terms of either small group work or language support. Infact the phonics group in his school is attended by three pupils and the language group attended by four pupils out of years 3-6. In short its appalling.

I am having my review with the senco in two weeks so will ask her for his test scores before the meeting, so I can see how he is doing.
I would really like to know if there is any government standard as to how children like this should be taught, because I know that I am not the only one who feels like this at the school.
I also know that the school does get some money for every child that is at SA+ don't know how much it is though, but I feel that they don't use the money on special needs in the way they should.
Our school is being expanded from a two form, to a three form school, so now we have two years of those extra children and in that time they have got rid of one of the special needs teachers and the other one has gone part time.
Sorry I am starting to rant
I am just trying to decide if it is really worth taking on the school about this issue, not just for my son but for all the others as well.
If it is the case that most other schools are just as bad, perhaps I shouldn't bother.

If you want to do extra reading at home this website:
here might be helpful

If you want to do extra reading at home this website:www.barringtonstoke.co.uk here might be useful

There is a new website being set up. It was mentioned on the Wright Stuff C4 last week - Help Us Help Them . It was in response to the fact that there is just not enough provision or the right kind of provision for Special Needs children in mainstream education. They are going to lobby MP's to really start letting the government know that parents are just not happy with what is going on.

I could not get a statement for my ds or the provision he needed thanks to the LEA. The school had to fund all his one-to-one help out of their own budget in the end which then takes money away from other areas in the school. Without the one-to-one, he would not have got the educational help that he needed.

His new school have picked up that they believe he could be dsylexic and we are awaiting tests now.

isgrassgreener,

One LEA I read of quoted the grand sum of £343 per pupil on School action plus. Its not very much money all told, certainly far less than what a child would receive if a statement was forthcoming. However, for dyslexia such a document (and this is legally binding as well unlike SA plus) is almost impossible to come by.

You have I presume read the situation in my son's school; I know of at least two children there who are being failed by a system that is supposed to be helping them.

Certainly talk to the school, I would be interested to hear their response as well.

Antilla and Roundthebend, yes I know all about the issues with statements.
We have one for DS2 who has an ASD, but it took a long hard year to get it and if he had not been having such a difficult time at school and been on the "at risk of exclusion register" I don't think we would have got it.
DS1 is a very well behaved, compliant child in school and I know that we would not stand any chance of getting the LEA to even consider him for a statement.
Anyway, I don't think one should be needed, as the school should have something in place to help children who struggle with reading and writing, surely thats one of the basics you should expect from a school?
The help us help them website sounds interesting, will go and look at it now.

"as the school should have something in place to help children who struggle with reading and writing, surely thats one of the basics you should expect from a school?"

Well yes but it doesn't always happen, certainly not in my son's junior school anyway.

In my experience special needs provision for children with dyslexia and or dyspraxia is pretty much non existant(I live in a county whose LEAs get a huge number of complaints to IPSEA).

God its depressing, I sometimes feel like I spend all of my time trying to sort out my childrens education.
I hate having to be such a pushy mum, but I suppose it comes with having square pegs in round holes.