Dyslexia

Jimney

Hi, my sister in law thinks her 6 year old daughter may have dyslexia. She is divorced and getting working family tax credit. Thing is she has to pay £125 to get her tested and it will be £60 for special teaching if she has it. Question is can she claim any money from anywhere?

nenya

The school your sisters child goes to should be able to test the child for free, and most schools i have been to will provide free speacial classes if needs be. Or at least thats how it was a few years ago when my bro was at school and he has severe dyslexia.

Prudent

Your local education authority may have a legal obligation to do testing if the parent requests it. Certainly this is the case in Scotland. One in ten of the population has a level of dyslexia - she is unlikely to get any direct financial support, but should be able to access suitbale services. Six is very young for a diagnosis, many eductaional psychologists would not consider testing until a child is 7 as children develop at different rates.

Jimney

Thanks Nenya & Prudent I will tell SIL what you said.

notakid

The last post is correct in saying that the age a school will test is seven and above and you best bet is to ask the school to carry out the assessment which the ed ph.
Go to http://www.bdadyslexia.org.uk/
They will have a list of local associations which can help fund testing and tuiton. if you are on a limited income.
I know the local association in Birmingham offers the above but it does depend n area and most assocaitions are very small and need monies themselves!

There is a good book on amazon callled Beat Dyslexia which helps teach dyslexics

janeawej

To help her yourself there is a book called toe by toe it realy helps with learning sounds and recognition I think it is a bit pricey £26 when i brought it a few yrs ago but it is the best! you do approx 15 mins a night with child, at first it seems bizzarre as the words are not realy ones! but persevere it is excellent

your local ed authority should have dyslexia advisor ring up and ask to speak to them

good luck
Jane

Jimney

Thanks Jane & notakid for your most helpful replies, my SIL will be really pleased with all your help.

youngie

my sons are both dyslexic I had to push the school to get help but they did toe by toe was used and supplied by the school and helped my sons progress very well although niether of them is brilliant at written work they both left school with gcse passes and both hold down good jobs.
Your sister in law needs to see if the school has a SENCO at the school (special educational needs co-ordinator) and talk to them if not keep pushing the school for help even write to the board of govenors she should not have to pay to get help for her child,she needs to remind the school it will get a grant if her child is statemented

emg

Every school has a SENCO and has access to a team of specialist teachers from the LEA for assessment and advice, this includes assessing for Specific Literacy Difficulties (Dyslexia) - (in my county the specialist assessment team is called the Inclusion Support Team). Each school also has access to the Educational Psychology Department.

Your sister-in-law should arrange to meet with the SENCo to discuss her concerns and find out what the SENCo plans to do to support the children. If she gets nowhere with the school then she should contact the LEA and ask for the number of the Parent Partnership Service. This is a parent advice service and can give you all the facts about what a child is entitled to and may also provide advocates to come with you to school meetings and help you write stroppy letters, etc.

I would beg your sister-in-law not to part with any money until she has exhausted the school/LEA route. All the assessments and teaching support are available through schools (but in my experience sometimes parents have to be a little bit pushy to make sure they get what they want!).

Ted_Hutchinson

BBC - Science & Nature - Human Body and Mind - The Omega Wave
Food and Behaviour Research: Fatty Acids in Dyslexia, Dyspraxia ...
Dyslexia Research Trust - About Dyslexia

Research to prove the effectiveness of omega3 in helping dyslexics used Welcome to Equazen online eyeq which is 550mg epa+dha
the EPA can be changed into DHA so you need to ensure that if you decide to use a different source of omega 3 it provides and equivalent effective amount of omega 3. Many of the KIDS chewable Omega Tablets have such a small amount of omega 3 they are an expensive rip off.
Omega Juice from ZipVit Online provides 900mg EPA +600mg DHA=1.5g omega 3 for around 8p day.