dyslexia where do i go

[Catwalk]

I have suspected that ds1 is dyslexic from about the age of six.I told the school and they said he was lazy.Year 3 I expressed my concerns again when they started complaining about his work and behavior and they said they would get someone to look at him.The special needs/teacher told me they think he could be borderline and they were going to start him on the buzz/fuzz program while they wait for testing.I reminded her two months later and she said she hadn't forgotton they were still waiting.On parents night last October they told me they had screened him and didn't think he needed a test he just had a poor memory.This parent evening last week they announce to me that he has a reading age of 7 and an understanding of storys of a 6 year old.I asked them had they actually tested him at all for dyslexia and they said that it is something they will look into.He is 9 in June just how long has this got to go on for.What shall I do next.I feel if I go and talk to the S.E.N.C.O again she will fob me off for another year and

LIZS... My daughter had her eyes tested at the optitions, and she said that it was a tracking problem, daughter hasn't been "officially" diagnosed with dyslexia or dyspraxia, but she has symptoms. Aparently it would take the school EP years to get round to seeing her.
Is you son Dyspraxic LIZS?
Rummum

rummum , no one has actually diagnosed it beyond the various motor skill issues, gross and fine, problems with coordinating and refining movements and the visual tracking. Putting 2 and 2 together from the terminology used we suspect he is slightly dyspraxic. He has OT once a week including exercises for the visual side.

It is interesting as we were told that an ordinary optician wouldn't routinely test for visual tracking or necessarily pick a problem up. We're not in UK atm but ds had an eye test there and passed about 18 months ago. We are likely to return to UK to live this summer so am looking for ways of continuing his assessment and development, hence my interest in this.

Hi LIZS... The optition put 2 and 2 together, she asked if Daughter had any problem with her eyes and I told her about the copying from the board and the fact we think she is dyslexic/dyspraxic, and she carried on from there.. gave us some eye excercises to do.. one was a piece of newspaper and daughter had to go through it and cross out all the a's or e's etc... (you wait all the optitions out there are now going to write and tell me its a load of crap... lol)..
what exercises does your son do?

Hello...My 9 year old son is dyslexic and it's taken alot of pushing by me to get his school to do something for him....They normally wont do anything until the childs 8!!....Ask the school for the Parent Partnership phone number, they are the people who'll go in to the school and fight for your childs needs.

hi everyone I am still reading your messages and haven't dissapeared.we now have an appointment with the school and i will post again soon.It is a huge worry to me though.

How did you get on?

the appointment is on tuesday

have you heard of the ddat centres

Catwalk
sorry to have disappeared from your thread - I just didn't see it.

Your ds sounds like mine - dyslexia masked by high intelligence - so that they just appear to be a bit thick to teachers and its only at home where they really talk and you know them that you realise there is a big mismatch between their intellignce and their formal ability at school.

I don't think we got any real help from primary school. Lots of resistance until the last year when he suddenly had a teacher who said to me this boy is really bright - and treated him as bright. Secondary school (DS is now 13) - wouldn't help on the dyslexia as he can read and write - and they have to concentrate small resources on those who can't. Having said that he is much happier at secondary school, because they learn interesting subjects not literacy - no more spelling tests etc. His teachers all know he is dyslexic and it doesn't worry them - they teach the bright kid not the bad speller.

We went to DDAT (www.ddat.co.uk/). Didn't help spelling (he can read, though slower than expected), but it did help self confidence a lot - quite expensive so no holiday for a couple of years. I don't know what effect it would have on reading. The DDAT people are lovely, very warm and professional and I think he liked the attention from them and from me - but you do get a huge number of tantrums when you do the programme. They say you will, part of the process.

I went into it thinking we would come out with all problems solved. A year after coming out of it, he is much happier in himself, happier with being dyslexic. I think there has been a real difference - I don't worry about him anything like as much as I did. He still can't spell but he is learning to touch type and to spell check - this is probably the best thing because in future he will rarely write by hand in formal situations.

Again, it was self help -the school tried to fit in touch typing lessons but it was one every other week -no good. Pointed us to dyslexia touch typing course - v expensive all day for 5 days in his holiday - not in the least interested in doing that! So we got a really cheap and cheerful programme called Garfield's Typing Pal which has doen the trick and now he writes long stories on the computer.

I don't think you can cure dyslexia. I think it can come with other benefits - lots of creativity. What I think we can do is equip them with coping strategies and enough selfconfidence for it not to matter too much. The primary school curriculum seems designed to knock dyslexics down at every turn, so you may need to do this out of school. DDAT was good for that I think - he was taken very seriously but light-heartedly at the same time - dyslexia is not a huge burden, it's just one of those things and this will help. I think he found the scientific aura of the tests and the silliness of the exercises interesting in itself.

How did your ds fee when he found he was dyslexic and highly intelligent? Mine was thrilled because he had spent years thinking he was just plain no good. He'd got very unhappy. Now he is weird in his own teenage way but not unhappy