My nearly 7yo DD still can't read but is otherwise very bright - is she dyslexic?

jellyhead

sorry for that long waffling post, by the way!

milliebear00001

As a teacher, I would say seven is late (under our schooling system which begins to teach letter sounds from Early Years) to still not be confident with all the letter-sound correspondences.

I too, would be pushing for a formal assessment for dyslexia.

pinkclouds

Mics_chick wrote: »

She has shown some progress over the last school year coz she now recognises most letters (lower & upper case) by their sound rather than their name but still struggles with some sounds.

Have you tried teaching her to read yourself? You write that she struggles with "sounds" but you also imply that she can recognise all the letters (by "name") - it's just the phonic noises/grunts that she doesn't get. I can't do the noises for each letter - all that "eh eh grunt" stuff. I could already read when I started school (my mom taught me with flashcards and storybooks) and the phonics stuff just went over my head. My school had no objections so I never bothered learning how to do the sounds. But I can sing you the Alphabet Song and I was a very advanced reader compared to the rest of my junior school class.

Of course, if she really is dyslexic then I am barking up the wrong tree. It was just the quote above that reminded me of my school days.

FIASCO_2

My 10 year old has been tested recently and found to fall into the dyslexia spectrum.
I thought from the time she was 7 there was something not right. I mentioned to the school my concerns then. It has taken until a couple of weeks ago for this formal assessment to be completed.
It takes a long time....and a lot of energy....to get the school to assess. Mainly I believe due to restrictions on money and resources.
Go with your gut feel and push on if you feel it necessary. The thing that troubled me the most was the fact my child has been in a classroom environment for such a long time and her learning needs were not being met as she needed a different teaching strategy. Very isolating for the child and very demotivating too.
Good luck and stick to your guns.

LillythePink

We recently had a letter from my daughters school saying that they thought she could be dyslexic and were monitoring her.

She is 10 - after looking at some stuff on the net - quite a lot of the symptoms fit - but then again - most do with all children! lol

The coloured acetate is a good thing - I got her eyes tested first just to be sure it wasn't that she needed glasses as she had said that the words used to dance around (a classic symptom) and the opticion gave us some blue coloured stuff - there are a range of colours and the child sort of decides depending on what they find comfortable - she did mention about the glasses - but said to try this first as the glasses cost money.

Go with your instinct - or even monitor it a bit more at home - then push for an assessment.

Mics_chick

My DD is actually in Year 2 so this is her 3rd year in school although she didn't start her first year until January.
Her birthday is 6th June so she is one of the youngest in her year.

When I ask about being assessed for dyslexia, they say they'll do something but never get back to us ???

We have tried to help her at home but she often refuses to let us help her

I did go into school one morning a week for a term to try to help her but if anything I thought it just distracted her that I was there - she would sit on my knee and suck her thumb.

At the moment I just get her to sound out simple words when the opportunity arises coz that seems to suit her more - she's less likely to complain about it

SingleSue

My eldest son has dyslexia and it has blighted his school life until he reached his GCSE years....then he flourished! He was lucky to find an English teacher who recognised that although his writing and spelling were really poor, his talent for writing stories and poetry was amazing. The upshot of it is that with all her extra help (after school, during break, lunch etc), he went from a predicted E/F to a predicted B or above in English and was then put in (very late) to do English Language too.

It also had a knock on effect on his other subjects....at the start of year 10, the highest grade he was predicted was a D, now it is an A* with none below a C and is thought to be one of the brighter students by his peers.

He is (fingers crossed) going to be studying English Lit and Language at A level in September along with Philosophy and film studies/Government and Politics.

Not bad for a child who was labelled the slowest in the class in year 5.

I also have a form of dyslexia, the words will swim and jump about on the page when I am reading and when tired, my typing gets all muddled too! I always thought it was normal, had no extra help at school and it was only picked up because of eldest being assessed....I was reading year 6 books in reception class and adult books by key stage 2.

Savvy_Sue

It may be dyslexia, or it may be that the approach to reading used in her school just hasn't 'clicked' with her, and she needs a different approach. At my sons' school, they had a Reading Recovery teacher who took those needing a bit of a push out of the classroom for a short session every day, this was the year 1 and 2 children, and they used a variety of approaches with them which probably helped. These children hadn't been formally assessed as anything, apart from being slightly late readers, the reason for it didn't matter.

Anything like that in your DD's school?

[Deleted User]

I have a son with dyspraxia and Aspergers. He was diagnosed with dyspraxia at 8 and aspergers at 10/11. It has taken years to get his education sorted, but now it has been, (he's 14) he's gone from the school keep trying to put him in remedial classes to being regarded as super bright.

My stepson is 10.., with a literary assessment at 1A. His school were initially very reluctant to do much (said they were aware of his problems and were giving him additional help, and he was showing some improvement). NOT GOOD ENOUGH lol. A literacy assessment of 1a is low for his age. So we pushed his school to be aware of his low concentration span (he's also been discovered to be red/green colour blind which no one was aware of somehow - we tested him here and found that out unofficially and is now been confirmed officially) . He's having tests for Irlams (a special sort of dyslexia where the words jump around on the page) because his sister had this and his mother has dyslexia.

It seems as if his school weren't adding all the bits that go together. They were aware he had a low literacy ability, but were ignoring what his mum said about the possibility of dyslexia being a problem. This seems to be a common problem with schools where the right hand doesn't know what the left hand is doing. I must admit, he is now being assessed properly, the school is moving, but as others have commented, I am astonished he is in year 6 and nothing was actually done before, or concerns expressed.

I would want no other child to go thru the daily hell my son has gone thru thinking he was a 'retard'.

As others have said, believe in your instincts and push for him to be assessed. I wish I had done it a lot earlier. Contact the head, his form teacher, the SENCo at his school and the ed. psychologist for the school (phone up your civic centre, ask for the numbers for educational psychology, ask who is the educational psychologist for his school and speak to him/her. Insist on your rights as a parent to ask for him to be assessed (they'll probably say only the school can ask for an assessment but its amazing how that drizzles to nothing when u persist). Contacting all of them seems to get things moving lol.

jellyhead

I've seen Irlem and Irlams mentioned - I thought it was called Irlen syndrome. Not trying to be pedantic lol, just wondered if the OP is going to google if Irlen would produce better results.

I did some research on Irlen for my project at uni, when deciding on a colour scheme for a website. I think the research was american though, so it may not be called that here. The coloured lenses help lots of children. I remember a dyslexic girl in year 5 when I was parent helper had an acetate that was so dark I couldn't see through it (double purple), but it helped her.

The year 2 girl I mentioned, apparently her acetates were only provided after her mum pushed for them - there's no diagnosis and she doesn't get any extra help really. The TA got a selection of colours and gave it a try but she couldn't see a massive difference, the mum says there is though, and it's been mainly at mum's insistence that school provided this help. I'm not sure that would happen at the school my son goes to though, it's a smaller school I'm volunteering in at the moment, with an enthusiastic TA and a new teacher who is full of ideas. In my son's school I remember the coloured acetates for the year 5's were just an idea that their TA had, so if she hadn't been their TA it wouldn't have happened.