Can anyone help me with my 9 year old?

victory

Hi:D my 9 year old is having some probs reading, writing, speaking, keeping up with his class mates. At school he has been tested for dyslexia and passed so that is not it, he is friendly, outgoing, enthusiastic with his homework even though he knows he struggles, so is not autist, cuddly, has lots of friends so it is not introverted or shy or retiring, he is very sensitive, gets frustrated at his lack of abilities, has trouble reading names, like 'dylan' the other day was 'duzz' or 'dunc' or something that is near but nowhere near, however many times you re read it for him he struggles, sometimes he reads beautifully and others a simple word like was he says saw (backwards dyslexics but no he isn't) he always wants to do his homework.
Speaking he will drop letters but when told will say it fine, can't spell unless you say it to him letter by letter or he googles it or copies it from his books. Excellent at maths, very vivid imagination, loves his toys, lego,computer games, xbox, making stuff but he can't sometimes think of something and vocalize it, by the time he goes to say it he has either forgotten it or it comes out mumbo jumbo.

We help him remember, we help him read and write and try to pre empt him so that he does not get so frustrated and to make it easier for him but if anyone recognises what it could be has a name for it we would be very grateful.

Speech therapist is coming in on 1st october to test him and I will be there also, the school says not to hold out hope for a name because sometimes it just is what it is but what is it? He is a very happy, smily kid that is struggling and no one knows why and however much we read here at home with him daily and pick up on his speech and make him do writing, practice his spelling with him he makes no progress, even the beano is a struggle for him, all we want as parents is the best for him and to find a way to help him so he can compete with his class mates on the same level.

~*Plushroom*~

victory wrote: »

Hi:D my 9 year old is having some probs reading, writing, speaking, keeping up with his class mates. At school he has been tested for dyslexia and passed so that is not it, he is friendly, outgoing, enthusiastic with his homework even though he knows he struggles, so is not autist, cuddly, has lots of friends so it is not introverted or shy or retiring, he is very sensitive, gets frustrated at his lack of abilities, has trouble reading names, like 'dylan' the other day was 'duzz' or 'dunc' or something that is near but nowhere near, however many times you re read it for him he struggles, sometimes he reads beautifully and others a simple word like was he says saw (backwards dyslexics but no he isn't) he always wants to do his homework.
Speaking he will drop letters but when told will say it fine, can't spell unless you say it to him letter by letter or he googles it or copies it from his books. Excellent at maths, very vivid imagination, loves his toys, lego,computer games, xbox, making stuff but he can't sometimes think of something and vocalize it, by the time he goes to say it he has either forgotten it or it comes out mumbo jumbo.

We help him remember, we help him read and write and try to pre empt him so that he does not get so frustrated and to make it easier for him but if anyone recognises what it could be has a name for it we would be very grateful.

Speech therapist is coming in on 1st october to test him and I will be there also, the school says not to hold out hope for a name because sometimes it just is what it is but what is it? He is a very happy, smily kid that is struggling and no one knows why and however much we read here at home with him daily and pick up on his speech and make him do writing, practice his spelling with him he makes no progress, even the beano is a struggle for him, all we want as parents is the best for him and to find a way to help him so he can compete with his class mates on the same level.

I know that this link starts off about dyslexia but read on and there is some interesting information on other options http://www.childdevelopmentinfo.com/learning/dyslexia.shtml one of the things they suggest is a speech therapist so you're definitely on the right track, if I find anything else in my googling I'll post it up for you.

~*Plushroom*~

Dumb as a post I am, I forgot to mention Dypraxia http://www.growingkids.co.uk/ClumsyChildrenDyspraxia.html

You'd think I would seeing as I have that myself

sharronloves2spend

Agree with the teacher, diagnosis is an absoloute minefield. My ds3 (9) Has a severe learning disability with some asd traits. Our local education test children's iq scores to determine if children are mild, moderate or severe. It took 6 years to get that diagnosis, and only after much persisitence on my part.

The crunch of the matter is not the diagnosis but how the difficulties are dealt with. I remeber after ds's diagnosis i was an absoloute wreck, i no way thought he was severe, but after i pulled myself together i realised he was the same beautiful boy he was before the diagnosis.

What you really need to do is get the school's education pyscologist to asses him, this will identify his difficulty's and give advice on how they are overcome. I have had a very negative experience of speech therapists, but your may be great, however they can not give a diagnosis. Please pm me if you need any more info, i can give you as much help as my experience will afford you.

Lots of Love sharron xx

victory

Thank you:D only the dyspraxia side he has some of the symptons but then again we can match symptons to him because we are desperate to, none of them shine out to us and we have an answer:rolleyes: on the baby front he has none of them on the 3-5 one or two and the 7 and up one or two:rolleyes:

Savvy_Sue

The thing about so many of these conditions - dyspraxia, dyslexia, autism - is that there isn't one checklist, and if you get enough ticks then that's the diagnosis.

But I agree that as much as a diagnosis, you need for your son to be getting appropriate help, and while it sounds as if the school is trying to get that in place, have they worked out which strategies work best for your son and helped you use them at home?

I know someone whose dyslexia was helped by being taught spelling rules, for example! In those days (a good few years ago, I admit!) that just wasn't the done thing ...

sandiep

How is his writing? My youngest hates reading, is learning through the jolyphonics system. But if she hears the sounds she has no problem working out the word, and her writing and spelling is really good. I currently figure not to worry about her too much because the writings good......

pink_princess

I can t recommend the toe by toe system highly enough,Its helped my daughter who was struggling.Its a very structured 20 minutes a day system.Within 2 months she d went up 1 full sat level at school.It was well worth the money and she has gained in confidence.
PP

victory

sandiep wrote: »

How is his writing? My youngest hates reading, is learning through the jolyphonics system. But if she hears the sounds she has no problem working out the word, and her writing and spelling is really good. I currently figure not to worry about her too much because the writings good......

His hand writing is terrible, he has been taught the imaginary line and if he thinks about it his hand writing can be legible but more often than not you just have to guess what he has writen which puts the teachers off, I help him so much he practically gives me the home work to do which is not the way to go about it:rolleyes:

victory

pink_princess wrote: »

I can t recommend the toe by toe system highly enough,Its helped my daughter who was struggling.Its a very structured 20 minutes a day system.Within 2 months she d went up 1 full sat level at school.It was well worth the money and she has gained in confidence.
PP

You mean the books? Read about them on amazon they are highly recommended that is for sure a real confidence booster:D have you finished with your book?:rotfl::D

fernliebee

It might be how he is being taught that he is not understanding, maybe he is a kinaesthetic learner, so is finding it hard to concentrate his mind on what he is trying to learn. Brain gym type exercises are really good for kinaesthetic learners, and if you google them you will find lot's of them. (I do not mean the company brain gym who run courses on longwinded pseudoscience, I just mean the simple act of standing up, taking the brain somewhere else for a second to re-focus.) An example of a brain gym exercise would be to try and pat your head and rub your tummy, then swap. Or to pinch right ear with left hand and pinch nose with right fingers, then swap to pinch nose with left, and pinch left ear with right hand- it is surprisingly tricky, and is a good giggle if you both do it!)

Apparently people can only give something 100% concentration for a minute for every year of their age, up to a limit of 20 mins. So at 9 he will be able to fully concentrate for 9 minutes. So if you are doing his HW, after 9 mins, stop and do something else (like brain gym exercise for a min or two) then move onto next question etc. he may well take more in and find he improves slightly faster.

Also another common problem in children is turning their focus from one thing to another, so if he has been playing outside, running about, watching TV, playing lego etc, it is sometimes hard to focus back on schoolwork, so you could try doing some relaxation exercises with him prior to HW, which would help to focus him on the task in hand. They sound hippy dippy but you can just get him to lay or sit down, eyes shut, get him to listen to the sounds around him, visualise a scenario such as walking through a garden and imagine what flowers, trees animals he would see there etc. Even a few minutes would be effective.

HTH until you get a bit more support from speech therapist, and a diagnosis (if you do)

He sounds like a very happy chap, and that is great, your obv doing a fantastic job. Much better than being an A+ student who is very unhappy!