Dyslexia - words moving around and walking off the page

[Sorcs]

Hello, I’m looking for some advice on dyslexia and how it might typically present.

My 6.5yo has ASD & ADHD with quite a spiky profile. He’s highly verbal & very bright but extremely impulsive & has a lot of social & emotional problems. He’s in a special school and is way behind with reading and writing.

He can’t read much at all but knows the phonics sounds and will attempt to sound out letters but struggles to put them together. The other day I asked him to try and read a few words in a sentence, he started to sound out ‘this’ but gave up and said he couldn’t do it as all the letters where moving around and walking off the page! He said it so matter of fact I actually thought he was joking!! I always thought he found it hard to focus on reading due to the ADHD but perhaps he’s dyslexic also.

I’ve told his teacher who said she’ll look into it further but I’m wondering if anyone on here has had a similar problem with their child or even if your child has mentioned letters walking off the page?

He can’t write independently either, it’s always copied or traced.

Any advice appreciated!!

My son is profoundly dyslexic (has to have a reader and a scribe to access curriculum, has EHCP etc) No two people with “dyslexia” are the same. Some authorities even refuse it as a diagnosis. What it can be is difficulty processing and that could be either (or both) auditory or visually. This is not to be confused with short sighted or bad eyesight, but can of course also be a factor. Like my son, you will probably find you will have to investigate a lot of areas before you find what helps. Sometimes coloured overlays or glasses can help, there’s a font called dyslexiefont that can also help for example. Realistically you will probably need the help of an educational psychologist, an occupational therapist and possibly an optometrist in order to pinpoint more precisely where the areas of weakness are and investigate strategies to help.

@Fearfulfantasia
Thanks for your reply. Yes I was wondering about how we could get him diagnosed. Due to him being in a special school I was thinking they might be able to do some initial assessments which we could use to get further on with figuring what and where his issues are.

He has been seeing an optometrist every 8 months (seen him 3 times) because we initially thought he had dyspraxia but the last 2 visits he’s thought his problems with reading were due to his difficulty with focusing. In light of what’s happened recently I’ll be booking another appointment soon to get him looked at again!

Did your son ever say words were moving on the page? What kind of things did he struggle with when trying to read? I find my DS gets words like it, is, at, did, that, this etc difficult to sound out, he always reverses them, especially the smaller words. What age was he when he finally got a diagnosis?

Sorry, last line should read - what age was your DS when he finally got diagnosed?

Buy some coloured plastic pockets and see if putting the page behind a colour filter helps fix the words, or use a piece of paper to block lines on the page so only one is visible at a time. If this helps there are specific tools you can order? Is the optometrist a specialist in visual processing and tracking?

He was 8 when he got the EHCP but the reality was he presented very early but it seemed to involve plenty of people before we got anything vaguely joined up In terms of understanding and support. (He is also at a special school and in our case they are definitely not skilled enough for diagnosis!!) As I mentioned, there is no such thing as standard dyslexia and another thing that should be investigated is possibility of Irlen Syndrome as this can often present in terms of apparent difficulty with the visual aspects of reading. If you haven’t heard of it, google as it might apply and be worth ruling out? Simple colour blindness can also make words move (hence coloured overlays can really help) but again, this should be investigated by an expert in this area. A specialist optometrist for example. An OT deals more with perception issues.
My son struggles with certain areas of visual perception (there are a few areas not just one!) difficulty with spacial awareness jumbles words and also things like p and q or b and d will look the same to him, but he also has areas of auditory processing he struggles with as well which makes phonological awareness tricky for example, so often there can be multiple areas of weakness that make up the bigger picture. It’s a bit of a learning curve!!!

Ps: if you haven’t had an OT assessment I would recommend, especially as you mentioned earlier concerns over possible dyspraxia, which again crosses over into things like spacial awareness for example....

irlen.com/what-is-irlen-syndrome/

OP I've replied on your other thread about this - but I use these for DD2 (I suspect she has similar issues to me - I've got a very visual form of dyslexia) and they seem to help her with tracking along lines of text.
www.amazon.co.uk/Reading-Highlight-Colored-Bookmark-Overlays/dp/B07KMP6X6D/ref=sr_1_7?keywords=reading+rulers&tag=mumsnetforu03-21&qid=1578686597&sr=8-7

They're also cheap enough that I can replace them when she inevitably loses them every single bloody week (she's also dyspraxic and has noooooo organisational ability whatsoever!)

I find coloured overlays help me somewhat, or just using a ruler to track along lines of text - but I do use screen reading software as well to help me out (I was diagnosed when I went back to university and get DSA funded software and equipment to help me out - although I use my own laptop instead of getting one via them).

Someone mentioned the dyslexie font - there's also open dyslexic one and the one I like - just because I'm picky as hell about my font choices and the others are ugly is one called lexie readable.

Our NHS Orthoptist said to watch out for/ask our DS if he gets Scotopic symptoms such as text blurring or moving. Its neurological, to do with visual processing I think, but there are practical things you can do to help - have a look here. Kids sometimes don't report unless you ask specific questions because text has always done these things - they think its normal (it is to them). We also went to a private optometrist via BABO list.

hale.ndo.co.uk/scotopic/definition.htm

Our son has dyslexia and tracking issues plus difficulty with some visual processing but no signs of this so far.

@LIZS
Good tip. He’s only reading at the lowest level at the minute so it’s only a 3 word sentence at most but I’ll definitely buy some overlays to see if he can read more then one line.

@Fearfulfantasia
I’ve got him booked in for an OT (we were regularly seeing a retained reflex specialist but it slipped off my radar in the last 8 months) and I also booked an appointment for him to go back & see the behaviouralist optometrist next month! So I’ll definitely be asking them to assess his depth of perception, tracking, spacial awareness etc! He’s always been wobbly on his feet as he’s hyper mobile & he’s got flat feet so his coordination isn't great.

@Kuponut
Thank you I’ll have a look into those overlays

@KisstheTeapot14
Thanks for the link. I’ll definitely mention his scotopic symptoms to the optometrist!

Now it’s a long road to try & figure out 1. What the differences are between Irlen syndrome & dyslexia & 2. If he has one or the other or both!!

Thanks everyone for all your replies!!

My diagnosis is a "visual form of dyslexia" and that I'd benefit from an assessment for scoptopic syndrome (which I can't afford so have just left). To be honest I thought I was getting by fine, until I started using screen reading sofware and it was like "holy fuck this all makes sense" doing reading instead of "what the hell did I just read"!