Dyslexia and specialist teaching ?

[Becandvern]

Hi i have a daughter 8 this month in year 3 at school she saw ed psyc a year ago (severe dyslexia and dyscaculia), has had 3 specialist teaching reports carried out in the last 18 months but has not made any improvement with intervention carried out at her mainstream state school in her literacy or numeracy (2 years behind literacy and numeracy even worse)her self confidence has been hit hard and we need to help her. We are applying for a statutory assessment but even if she gets a statement of needs i dont feel her mainstream school can help her without specialist help being brought in, we have briefly looked at independant specialist dyslexia schools we live in Aylesbury buckinghamshire does anyone have any advice please be it independant or state schooling ?

i contacted dyslexia action (formerly the dyslexia institute) about my son and was told that they will take children out of
school for specialist teaching on a weekly basis. it is apparently very successful and usually lasts somewhere between 18 months and 3 years. the lady had lots of success stories about people who had been given coping strategies to help with school work. it was quite expensive but the first consultation is free and they had lots of info and advice at their fingertips. it would be worth talking to them as they may be able to give you some impartial advice.

good luck!

Hi
We were in a very similiar situation a couple of years ago, our child was significantly behind in literacy and maths due his severe specific learning difficulties. We went to the dyslexia workshops - which were good. However our child needed more support than this. We went through the statement process. It is not an easy process, i would advise you keep a file your childs records and to seek support from organisations like IPSEA as soon as possible. We were advised to have an independent Educational Psychologist assessment (dyslexia institute) which confirmed severe dyslexia and the recommendation for 1:1 support in all lessons. Our child self esteem was extremely low. We looked mainstream and independent schools with dyslexia specialist support (CRESTED school - check their site they give you a list of schools that are regulated by dyslexia action as dyslexia friendly every three years). We opted for the independent school as it had small class sizes, the teachers all had SpLD training, our child had similiar learning styles to the other child. This school was named on his statement. Our child is now a much happier and gaining confidence daily, he loves his school, he is still behind in his literacy skills, but he is making progress and using the strategies he has learnt. Good luck.

Hi Thankyou very much everyone for your help on this, we are in the process of trying to get her statemented and looking at different state/independant schools. If state mainstream are unable to help her needs (there does not seem to be anywhere that specialises in spld) would our daughter be able to get funding for Independant specialist dyslexia school as we cannot afford this. surely our daughter is entitled to a full curriculum like her peers, we just feel helpless at the moment, please help if anyone has more info thanks.

The educational psychologist report stated that our child needed 1:1 support in all lessons. When we were drawing up the statement we named an independent "crested" school for the statement. I think a lot depends on the cost, we were lucky the school fees were less than the cost of 1:1 support. Then it was just the transport to agree on. The LEA funded the placement. It was the right move for our child, there are still significant problems - but happy, loves school and making progress and much more confident. Good luck