7 year old struggling at school - Dyslexia / Dyspraxia?

zippybungle

Hi,

My son (7 years old) has been struggling at school academically now for some time. The school have spent a lot of one to one time with him trying to help him, but unfortunately he still has not got to the level that they would have expected him too (although he has made some slight progress).

I mentioned a while ago to the school that I thought he may be dyslexic, but the teachers didn't think this was the case. However, now they have agreed to put him forward for some kind of tests. I asked his teacher off the record if she had any ideas what the problem could be and she mentioned Dyspraxia.

The reason I suspect dyslexia is because my son gets confused with letters, such as 'b & d', he sometimes writes letters and numbers back to front and gets very confused with simple numbers, for example he will sometimes get numbers mixed up like 21 and 12.
He can read, but isn't too confident with it. For Xmas he got the diary of a wimpy kid set of books and he has absolutely loved them, he read a little bit each evening to himself in bed.

In other ways, he is a very bright boy, he has a wicked sense of humour and is very popular with other kids (easily makes new friends). He is well behaved (most of the time!) and was no trouble as a baby. He can be a bit lazy (would happily lay on the sofa watching DVD's all day if he could get away with it!, but obviously we do not let him do this!). He can be creative when he wants to, especially with drawing and making things.

Can anyone help me please?

Zippy x

marisco_2

I am a teacher of year 3. It is not unusual for children to confuse the letters b and d or to mix numbers round at your sons age. I have people who work 1:1 with children in the class and their development is closely monitored. They often surprise us though with how quickly they can pick things up that have been challenging to them for a good while. Sometimes it can just take a little time for children to get the hang of things without there being any major problems at all.

If yourself and the school feel it would be beneficial to look into things further at this stage, there are a number of tests that can be carried out. Screening tests are designed to give an indication of possible difficulties. They are not a diagnosis or 100% acccurate.

There are many different types. Some are delivered by computer, others need to be administered by a teacher. Some just give an estimate as to whether the child is likely to have difficulties. A few offer a more detailed profile of strengths and weaknesses which help inform an appropriate teaching strategy.

I would recommend arranging a meeting with your childs class teacher, any adults who have worked 1:1 with your child and the school SENCO to decide which if any tests should be done.

marisco_2

Have just thought of something else that could be beneficial to you. Does your sons school use the 'Handwriting without tears' teaching method? It is extremely good for helping children who struggle with letter formation. It would be well worthwhile asking them about this.

FBaby

Is he clumsy? Does he tend to trip easily, drop things? Does he have speech difficulties? Is he a poor sleeper? Does he get frustrated easily?

Those are a few of the characteristics of a child with dyspraxia in addition to the issues with learning.

emsywoo123

My DD is in Year 5 and dyspraxic. There is nothing in your OP that suggests dyspraxia to me? Are there other reasons they are suggesting this?

zippybungle

FBaby wrote: »

Is he clumsy? Does he tend to trip easily, drop things? Does he have speech difficulties? Is he a poor sleeper? Does he get frustrated easily?

Those are a few of the characteristics of a child with dyspraxia in addition to the issues with learning.

I would say no to all of the above. If anything he is too laid back! and loves his sleep. Never had any problems with his behaviour, apart from the 'terrible two's'

I would say he is no more clumsy than the next child.

Zippy x

zippybungle

marisco wrote: »

Have just thought of something else that could be beneficial to you. Does your sons school use the 'Handwriting without tears' teaching method? It is extremely good for helping children who struggle with letter formation. It would be well worthwhile asking them about this.

I have not heard of this, but will look into it later, thanks

Zippy x

zippybungle

emsywoo123 wrote: »

My DD is in Year 5 and dyspraxic. There is nothing in your OP that suggests dyspraxia to me? Are there other reasons they are suggesting this?

Thank you. I am not sure why they have suggested Dyspraxia, will talk to Teacher again.

Zippy x

suki1001

I just wanted to add my son's experiences. I always knew he was capable of things, but I've always believed children do things at their own pace. My son was always behind in a lot of things such as reading and both mine (dd too) would write things backwards. When he was under-performing, I just stuck with the faith that he would catch up when he was ready and at age 8 and 9 that's come into fruition.

At reception he was well behind, but I was just of the opinion he wasn't ready and year one and two. When you look at the way they teach on the continent, they don't start doing things until a lot later, while we push our children here at a much earlier age. Anyhow, we tried things when he was ready and I have to say Horrid Henry and Diary of a Wimpy Kid were great to get his interest in reading. Now in year four at his parents evening we were told his reading and his maths had gone from below average to above. For example the expected level is 3b at the end of the year, but he was measured at 4c for both. Whereas he'd been below average for many years. I know I was the same at school and so was my oh.

If it was me I wouldn't worry about him being below average, because they can often catch up like my son has and now he's over-taken a lot of people in his class. It sounds like your son will do things when he's ready - he also sounds a lot like my son.

If you actually believe he's capable, then he probably is, he's just doing things in his own time, in which case I wouldn't worry about averages and how other children are doing.

Finally sorry about the long post, but just wanted to add, when he did get it, he became far more enthusiastic about learning. What does your gut instinct tell you?

Wine_of_the_World

Dyspraxia/ Developmental Coordination Disorder is purely related to coordination difficulties / planning movement so if your son isn't clumsy / uncoordinated this isnt him.

sooty&sweep

Hi
My son is 12 but when he was 7 or 8 he was diagnosed as having specific learning difficulties with dyslexic tendencies. Learning difficulties vary from child to child.
We agreed with school that he should be tested because he was clearly a bright child but he struggled with reading & writing. The tests they do look at the child's understanding of everything & compare against their reading writing ability. The tests showed that his understanding was a couple of years older than his birth age whilst his reading & writing was below his birth age.

If you have suspicions then I would recommend that you do let them test. The diagnosis did trigger alot of support from the Senco. However the other thing was that it really helped his confidence as suddenly the teachers realised that there was a real reason why he struggled with certain things.

Good luck

Jen