Slow processing and A levels

[SweetChilliGirl]

I am hoping someone will be able to give me some advice as to how to help my daughter.

She was diagnosed with dyslexia at 7. Her IQ is in the top 1% but her reading speed and processing speed are in the bottom 5% or so. Her eyes get increasingly tired as she moves through text.

She got 6s, 7s and 8s at GCSE with 25% additional time but struggled to finish the papers - she should have done better than this.

She is doing AS levels at the moment (A levels next year) in maths, economics and history and hopes to do economics at university.

Unfortunately she has yet to finish a paper - even with extra time, the reading load is too much and she processes so slowly that even high she is capable of high grades, she's not getting them, in economics and history, at least.

What can we do to help her? She is coming home in tears and demoralised 😢

I am sorry to hear your daughter is struggling.

Can you speak to the SEN department at school? Would she do better with a reader or supervised breaks during an exam?

I second looking at other access arrangements as well as extra time. If after considering other access arrangements such as rest breaks and a reader/computer reader and maybe the use of a laptop DD is still struggling, depending on her more recent standardised scores, more extra time may be possible.

Thank you very much for your replies. Do you know what the criteria for rest breaks is? After talking with my DD, she thinks this would be the most useful adjustment, on top of her additional 25% extra time but I'm doubtful school would push for more adjustments.

You can see the JCQ’s guidance here. Rest breaks need to be needed because of the student’s disability and it needs to be their normal way of working.

Definitely ask for rest breaks, it is something easily given. If our SEN kids don't qualify when we know they really need it we'll record it as a toilet break as there's no difference really. We also have students with 50% extra time (very severe dyslexia), I'd be asking about the possibility of that too. If she's not getting the grades she's capable of then to me that is strong evidence that she needs more adjustments.