Dyslexia

[GazeboLantern]

My 16yo thinks he may be dyslexic. It never occurred to me until he mentioned it, but I think he may be.

Ds is autistic, has appalling handwriting and very inconsistent FMS. He has such a slow writing speed that he types his exams on a laptop. He gives excellent verbal answers in class but can't produce the same quality in his written/typed answers. His reading ability is also hugely inconsistent, both in fluency and understanding. And just the other day he asked me to massively enlarge a text we were reading together on the laptop, as the words kept 'jumping'.

Where do we go from here?

Is he still at school? You could speak to the school or college SENCO to see if they will do anything for him. Very few schools do assess for dyslexia as they would need someone with a level 7 specialist assessor qualification.
If you don’t get anywhere there you could pay for a private assessment. They seem to range from anything from £300-£600. You need someone who has an APC number if you want to be able to use the report to claim Disabled Student Allowance when/if he goes to university. I would also look for someone registered with BDA, PATOSS or Dyslexia Guild and they need to be insured and DBS checked.

Thanks - has no idea of pretty much everything you mention!

Ds hopes to stay at his school for A-levels. I didn't even know there was a Disabled Student Allowance, and wasn't thinking about finances but about support to enable him to achieve his potential at A-level and further.

If you have him assessed he will get a full report which details his strengths and difficulties. It will give recommendations of support for school/college to help him.

At university level he can apply for Disabled Student Allowance for money towards things which would help him such as a laptop or someone to support with study skills etc. Where abouts in the country are you?

Thanks for that link, I'll have a look at it.

We're in Berkshire.