Dyslexia and benefits

stephanie123_2

hi

does anyone know that if your child age 17, as been diagnoised with dyslexia and learning disability if they are entitled to any help from the DLA or any other kind of benefit.

Thanks

singlehouseholder

Hi Stephanie,
depends on what you mean by learning difficulties, on the level of disability as there are many degrees. Dyslexia, as such, while it would certainly impede the persons chances of finding work isnt really a disability. Have a word at your local connexions office, there may be some king of course he can go on to improve his skills. Both my brothers(twins) have dyslexia- but they had it when the school of thought was they're just thick!! They both found work through agencies, back when agencies were good ways of finding work. One of my bros works for a big auto manufacturing company and the other manages a warehouse. I think because they showed they are bloody hard workers they got on, it wasnt for their reading/writing/mathematical skills thats for sure- they struggled at school with no extra help.
You could ring your local jobcentre and ask to speak to a DISABILITY EMPLOYMENT ADVISOR, they may be able to advise on courses, work trials, something to get the confidence up, I also think if the young 'un has an interest in something, turning that interest into a training/career prospect may be a good option.

stephanie123_2

thanks for that i shall speak to our local connexions office on monday and see what they can offer, she is actually at college now til next year but i was not quite sure what a student disability grant was for

Penny-Pincher!!

Remember you dont get DLA for a diagnosis or illness but how this effects you in your daily life.

PP
xx

Jo_R_2

stephanie123 wrote:

hi

does anyone know that if your child age 17, as been diagnoised with dyslexia and learning disability if they are entitled to any help from the DLA or any other kind of benefit.

Thanks

Hi!

I was just curious as to what effects the learning disability has? Only I work in the field of learning disability so am quite interested.

notakid

Hello
Dyslexia is classed as a disability, and it is covered by the 1995 Disability Act.
but a high number of employers will not employ someone if they are told they are dyslexic (there was a survey recently but I can't remenber the exact number I think it was 7 out of 10 but I'll check.) And 29% of workers would be concerned if their boss was dyslexic. (that I'm sure off) you gov survey for scope.
If your daughter is in futher education the college should have a dyslexia support unit. its ironic, but at most schools no help is given because "they don't like to label children" but you can get help at college but how many children feel they are worthless and don't go to college? If you have a psychologists report stating your child is dyslexic you can get help with costs for a laptop or other things that may help for studying. It depends where you live,
British Dyslexia Association
https://www.bdadyslexia.org.uk/
on their web page are telephone numbers for your local associations who may be able to give you futher advice.
I know of parents who have claimed successfully for disability living allowance for their dyslexic children.
With regard to the other query, I read well but find it hard to pronoce words correctly can not spell to save my life, and mix up numbers ie. 59 becomes 95. I'm always dialling the wrong number, and I don't know my ABC's. One in ten people are dyslexic to some degree.
If you have any other questions l'll try to help

stephanie123_2

Thanks for that

The dyslexia has only just been picked up on at college, where she is getting extra help and support through the staff, but what you said about numbers being the wrong way round and dialling the wrong number is exactly how she is. i have a report from college by the way clearly stating that she has dyslexia

thanks for all of your help

Astaroth

Certainly the fact I am dyslexic never gets mentioned in any job interviews etc. I personally have no problems with numbers but I am a slow reader that becomes terrible when trying to read a loud and cannot spell at all (as my history of posts will prove).

There is still very much a stigma attached to the condition and because of this I personally havent made a big thing about it... whilst there are laws to protect people with disabilities you do still have to question if a multinational company would employ someone whos job includes writting 11th hour presentations for the CEO to give to the world who has a condition that means they cant spell? I am sure what ever the laws are they will find a legal reason to turn you down.

Jo_R_2

Hi!

I was not sure if you were talking about yr daughter having dyslexia AND a learning disability or dyslexia as a learning disability, but I think the latter?

As an aside, I work with adults with a learning disability and we actually refer to people who have dyslexia as having a learning difficulty, ie the two general terms are different things. Although both fall under the umbrella of disability, the causes are certainly different and the care can be as well. A case of semantics for some, but very significant in the care of the people we work with.

If I have misunderstood and you should need any advice about DLA for a learning disability as well, then feel free to ask for pointers - I have picked up some great tips along the way.

stephanie123_2

No sorry Jo R i pperhaps did not describe myself very well the college have siad that she as dyslexia and spld on her assessment of needs form, not quite sure what spld means as she brought the form home friday evening and could not speak to anyone at college as it is the weekend

thanks to all and everyone for their previous replys and suggestions

sproggi

You may already know this but, as your daughter gets extra help at college due to her dyslexia, she may also be entitled to extra time in her exams.

My eldest daughter (16) has Irene's syndrome which is a form of dyslexia, she has extra help at college and extra time in her exams. She has just been accepted at another college on her chosen course, but the terms of acceptance were 'if she obtains the needed grades' and 'If they are able to provide someone to give her the extra help' Hmmm I think there might be a bit of an uproar if she is now turned down because they cannot help her. They do go on to say that they guarentee her a place of some discription :huh: Will have to wait and see.

My daughter also wears scoptic (sp) lenses which have shown to greatly improve her reading speed. She was tested with coloured overlays by a lovely woman from NIB whilst she was still at school, her reading speed almost doubled, unfortunatly she could not have glasses made up to the depth of colour she really needed as they would have been too dark to see through, but there is still a good improvement.
The woman from the NIB mentioned that they are testing more people with dyslexia and finding that in some cases the overlays are working wonders. It may be worth checking this out for your daughter.

With regards to DLA, I do not get anything for my daughter as her condition does not affect her day to day living enough. My OH does get it though as he has dyslexia as well as severe learning difficulties (can't get much more severe than not being able to read or write and not being able to learn:rolleyes: ) So it really does depend on how the condition affects her.

Sorry I've rambled on, but hopefully something amongst the waffle helps.

Sproggi