dyslexia

Hi Hallos,

this annoys me, i haven't got children but my boyfriend has it and only since going to uni (as a mature student at 28 :D) did he get tested and had something done about it.

I think teachers need to be more aware of this as it is something that can effect a person throughout life, things like being teased, or being afraid to read can really put a child at quite a disadvantage. Not to mention the many adults i have some across in work who really look down on people that can't spell properly and aren't that articulate through no fault of their own - makes me angry.

Here's a link for a testing website, i'm sure you must be doing your own research though.

http://www.dyslexia-test.co.uk/

Oh there is also a book called 'The Gift of Dyslexia' by Ronald D Davis, which is very interesting.

I hope your son gets help, if he needs it that is. But on a positive note, even if he does have dyslexia, many people with it are very creative to make up for not being too academic, as they find pictures and sounds better to work with than words - my bf is a prime example and i wouldn't have him any other way 😀

x

Hello Perse,
Thankyou for your reply. Yes very frustrating.!! I have watched my son struggle for three years now and yes i can see his confidence has been knocked, due to him not being able to read like his brother and sister. He is a very clever special boy and as a parent i wont to give him the best start and support in life.....yet again its all about money...! The senco officer said what difference do you think it will make if he has got dyslexia?? ....Well how about choices etc?
ummm......
Rachelx

Persse you must be so frustrated, it seems that you are not getting the support from the school that you had hoped for. Your son is lucky that you are willing to speak up for him and offer him the support yourself. Your story reminded me of a friend whose child with ASD was not getting the support from her school.... you know what she did?

My friend went part-time at work and started going into the school herself with the child (school must have agreed to this) to help her. The happy ending was, that after only about half a year of this, the child had improved so much that her mum didn't need to keep going in any more.

The moral of this is not that you need to go into school with your child, probably few of us are in a position to do that... but just that you do what you already are doing, which is to be the assertive mother who brings it to their attention and keeps it there. I wish you the best of luck, and your son too!

Hi I am dyslexic and my parents were fobbed off right from the age of 8 (like your son) until I left school at 16. Told things like "we can't give her help, she's too old to be helped at 13 she should have been helped years ago, we can't allow the brighter ones to get behind just for her, no we can't give her help." Those were just some of the excuses the schools I attended over the years gave my parents. It is only now as an adult I am finally accessing the help I need.

You will need a full assessment carried out by a qualified and registered educational psychologist. You may have to pay private for this which could cost in the region of £300 to £400 pounds which is costly and will only last you for a period of 2 years.

So what I am saying is try not allow the school to fob you off like they did with my parents and I. Yes of course there is a limited to what they can do but most school will try and fob parents off if they can.

One of the biggest ways to help a person with dyslexia is to have the patience and understanding that a dyslexia will find learning hard, to varying degrees and in different ways and not to get annoyed with them. It is not unusual for many dyslexics to have low self esteem or have their confidence knocked back; this is believed to be linked with dyslexia due to their problems with learning and processing of information etc.

I hope this helps you.

Claire

Hi all

Just a quick message of hope for all you struggling with dyslexia.

My husband had dyslexia he is now 42 so went to school at a time when the condition was hardly acknowledged so got no special help. It took him 3 tries to scrape the lowest pass at English O level.

However - as we all know dyslexia comes with gifts as well as challenges and in his case he has a brilliant Engineering mind. He managed to get a Phd in Engineering, went on to win the Rolls Royce young engineer of the year award again with no help or extra support ( however the spell checker being invented in the 1990's helped to a certain extent but some of the wilder spellings defy even that ).

It's great that recognition, help and support is now available ( although it can be hard to access ) and alot of the challenges of dyslexia are around trying to fit a round peg into a square hole when it comes to education but keep in mind that despite all of this amazing things can be and are achieved with or without it.

Good luck to you all

love Lou xxx

I'm dyslexic and it wasn't identified until I was 11, that nearly 40 years ago.

I don't see dyslexia as a problem anymore because other gifts far out weigh the disadvantages. Like one of the other posters, I've enjoyed a successful career in engineering and don't consider it's held me back.

I used to say, what's the use of a dictionary when I don't know what letter the word starts with. Spell and Grammer checkers have been a fantastic aid that have enabled me to write technical reports etc.

Dyslexia can be quite entertaining because it effects the instant recognition of words, so bill boards take on a complete new meaning. I see words within words and wonder if I see the writers intent as opposed the the words they write.

There's something magical when the words on a "page" dance and that's helped review user guides and websites. There's nothing worse for a dyslexic than a sea of words.

I understand as a parent we want the best for our children and these things can become the focus. But I'd ask any parent don't let the badge of being dyslexic become the child's life, but instead let them find and experience their natural abilities.

I know when I've used the wrong word in some of my posts it's made some smile.

When I was at primary school I had to stand outside the headmaster's office as a punishment for my poor reading and writing, but I was always top for maths. Those days have gone and we live in a more enlightened age. Dyslexics can rise to the top of their chosen careers.

As for tests.... do we need to be tested for the obvious? If the help's there use it, if not bang on the door of the headmaster.

My own son is excellent at English, but he was having problems with maths at school. During the 2008 summer hols we did maths exercises everyday, and now he's in the top set.

We don't have to accept any situation with our children's education and there's a lot of mis-information about dyslexia. Now I'm thankful for mine because it's opened my eyes to so many things.

Myarka.

I had to fight all the way for my two dyslexic boys at school. You have to be a nuisance and keep at the school head almost weekly. The child needs assessing by an Educational Psycologist and if bad needs a 'Statement of Special Educational Needs which specifically identifies his/her needs and what is to be done.
Its tough to get that far, and is dependant on the Local Authority you are in.
Its a long fight and the child easily can end up in the lowest class (which reduces their confidence even more).
YOU and only YOU will get the educational requirements that the child is entitled.
Also try an optition who is dyslexic friendly. Coloured lenses in glasses (plain glass if no prescription needed) really help.
Good Luck

I totally sympathise. My DD is 9, nearly 10 and I have been fighting every year since she was 6 to have her tested by the the SENCO lady, to no avail.

I had a meeting with her teacher last week and after some discussion she basically said " perhaps Kirsty is not as able as she would appear, by that I mean she comes across as confident, capable of understanding, bright and articulate but is unable to put her thoughts and suggestions down on paper" Well, hello! that'll be because she is so bad at reading that it affects her writing and spelling, etc., as well. She finally agreed that Kirsty should be tested by SENCO but it will take a while. To be honest I have given up on the school on this front, it's a great little school but it has let my DD down on this issue.

As someone said, I don't need her tested just to confirm what I know so I've decided to handle it myself. I have bought a fantastic book called Toe by Toe. So every night instead of the painful struggle of Kirsty trying to read I now spend 20 minutes doing the structured exercises as laid out in the book. We have only been doing it for a week or so but already it is helping with just the basics and having read through the whole book I can see how it works and think it will be a tremendous help for DD and me.

For me it's not about 'label's (as suggested by her teacher!) but about being able to do something that is so fundamental to practically every aspect in life.

You should have a look at this book, if you have the time it may be worthwhile for you and your son. However, I hope you manage to get whatever help your son needs.

Good luck.

Hi everyone

Yes coloured lenses in spectacles can be a God send unfortunately they can be expensive particularly if a person needs prescription lenses, they can cost a few hundred pounds. A good alternative is a colour overlay which is not that expensive try, experimenting with different colours to see what works for the individual.

And scoobylw/Lou that is a very inspirational story there about your husband. 🙂

hi i used to be a teaching assistant in a junior school and unfortunately, the only way to get help for your son will be to fight, keep demanding attention and help. You are doing the absolute right thing by acknowledging this and being their for your son, giving him all the help and support will pay off in the end, it will help his confidence and he will trust in you to turn to with any future problems education wise and anything else. good for you, just keep on at the school .There are lots of good books out there about dyslexia, also lots of theories about dyslexia and indigo children, your child is probably very spiritual, there are crystals that can help with concentration such as fluorite and apatite, well they help me anyway and i have often wondered about my autustic tendencies and attention levels! One bot i used to work with found that amethyst crystals helped him when he was feeling nervous about certain pieces of school work, you could visibly see the difference in him. Hope some of this helps xx

Hello Thunderbird,
Thankyou so much for your reply, it has really helped. When i came out of the sencos office after requesting he be tested and being told its not that straight forward.....i said fine i will pay for it private....she then replied..well lets not gone down that route just yet.!! I have had my concerns for three years and i kept being told about all the extra work he has been having.......blar, blar.
So i went and saw his teacher the next day.....and before i could say anything..she said i understand your son is struggling..blar blar....was going onto say how much help he is getting......then i said ive requested he be tested for dyslexia..... She paused and went on to say that it was hard to get him tested and the funding wasnt there....blar, blar, and private testing wasnt that good...etc.
I said why are there not teachers to pick up these things....??as my son as been struggling for three years...she went on to say..but we are only teachers we are not trained..in picking up dyslexia!

Yet again im shocked...at how very important issues regarding our children are being put to one side.....due to funding.!

I will be of course pushing to get the right support for my son and yes i think you are right he is very spiritual...and is very much into crystals and seems to know what people are thinking.....i just feel ive let him down as a mother.. and should have done something sooner!!

Love and sunshine
Rachelx

Hi,

I've not posted before - just looked in and read the posts.

Anyway, I read your post and I've had a similar problem with my 8 year old son. We moved to Cyprus when my son was 3 and put him straight into local nursery as we wanted him to learn to speak Greek properly. Even though my son is in local school he has private English and Greek lessons and is totally fluent in speaking both languages but we have really struggled with his reading in both languages and his attention span was limited - the moment I'd take my eyes of him he'd "escape" to his bedroom to play. He's been having Greek and English lessons for almost 3 years now and although he can read he's behind for his age.

So to cut a long story short - his English teacher asked to see me one day and mentioned that she thought he could have mild dyslexia and may be worth getting him tested (costs about 400 Euros), I spoke to his Greek teacher and she had been thinking the same thing. So the long and short of it is that I tracked down a Special Educational Needs Teacher (she is Cypriot but had trained and lived in the UK for a number of years and is President of the Paphos Dyslexic Society). She said that it's wrong to diagnose a child under 9 as apparently children go through some big changes around this age. She said that we could have him tested when he reaches 9 but whether they decide it's an attention defecit disorder, dyslexia, learning difficulties it is the same teaching methods they use. She gave both his English and Greek teachers some books to read on these teaching methods, explained some techniques and methods for them to use with him.

One method is that his English teacher reads a book at a slower reading speed into a dictaphone and then he listens through headphones and follows the words/story with what he's hearing. We then do pair reading - he reads one page and I read the next. His reading has improved so much, he's much more fluent and he puts expression into it as opposed to slow, laboured, monotone reading that was really difficult for him. He was aware that he had problems and had convinced himself that he couldn't read and would do everything to wriggle out of it - now he even reads my pages if I've left the table for a minute. His confidence has improved hugely.

It seems that he learns differently from other children - he needs, to "see and feel" things as well as just listen. There are lots of other simple methods she uses and he now reels off his alphabet with no mistakes.

He's only just started with his Greek so not had time to see much improvements there yet.

He just couldn't learn his tables - nothing would sink in, but again some simple techniques and he's learned 2 sets of tables in a week.

The dinosaur, sorry I meant headmaster, at his school knows he has a problem and is behind but that's because he's binlingual apparently!!!:confused: and doesn't see the need for a special needs teacher a couple of times a week for him (even though it's the education authority that will pay)

In conclusion (finally!!) after seeing how my son's confidence has grown by using some of these methods and how much better he feels about his abilities I would say don't wait for the school, look into these methods and try them out with him yourself - neither my son's English teacher, Greek teacher or myself have any special training, it seems that it's the methods you use that are the key.

My son does have a coloured filter that he uses for reading when the page is white - sometimes if the page background is white, it can be hard for some children/people to process the information/words (something to do with eye/brain co-ordination) and it can look as if the words are moving but if the page background is coloured my son doesn't have a problem.

Sorry that I've gone on a bit (ok, a lot) but as soon as I read your post I joined the site just so as I could reply as there are quite a few similarities to our situation - my son is the same age and we have only just found out and also the frustration about what to do, where do I go from here.

I hope this helps and makes you feel a bit better knowing that there are things available to help - I'm not saying that this is the answer for you as every child is different and not all problems are the same.

I you want the name of the books/methods my son's English teacher is using let me know and I will ask her 🙂

Paula
xx

Hello All,
The lastest with my son is the school have said they are treating him as if he has dyslexia tendencys and that there hands are tied with regards to getting him tested? Now adays to get an actual report stating he is dyslexic is hard to come by as its all tied up with red tape...
Im going to do abit of research but feel alittle lost as to why something so important can be just left to each parent having to fight...to get the best and right outcome for their child.

Love and sunshine
Rachelx

Hello Paula,
Thanks for your reply. Yes the teachers dont seem to wont to test or give them lables...i feel..i dont really care as long as my child get the support he needs....!
I am trying to look into what might help etc...but its a bit of a mine field.

I have to say..there seems to be alot of sites offering this and offering that...and nows its a case of filtering through..and trying to work out the best way forward.