Dyslexia

My dd was diagnosed dyslexic when at uni.

Turned out there was a reason why when at school/6 form why her English was so poor but it wasn't picked up because apart from that she was an A student. This actually should have been a red flag, that there was such a disparity.
At uni after the first year, she approached the department that dealt with student welface and they arranged a test. She knew herself that there was a problem. The written work was getting Cs. Uni organized it and there was a very obvious positive result. She also was provided with her own computer so as not to have to queue in the libraries. (This was many years ago). Was also given a time allowance for exams.

At 6th Form she had been getting marks in the 90s but just not for English. And a couple of times had marks of 100% for the science subjects. This was without any allowance for the undiagnosed dyslexia.

At uni she slightly changed her course and because of the timing had to actually repeat a year but she felt it was worth it to be able to do a course that required less of the written essay work.

Uni was very supportive and also arranged attendance at a weekly half day course for academics who had such difficulties. This course taught ways to cope with dyslexia, tricks of the trade.... a different way to learn certain aspects.
And none of this cost her a penny.

I just noticed your comments on your daughter I am very sorry.

There seems to be some good advice already given and the thing is he as every chance of having a wonderful life like my daughter with some help.

I am confused, is this your daughters son?
If so why are you involved in this problem surely your daughter and sil should be dealing with it.

Back to the subject matter though.
Our daughter had the same problem, we weren't aware of it but it was picked up by the college when she did her A levels.
The college dealt with it all and she got extra time in exams and help with equipment and extra tuition.
She eventually received a 2-1 degree and as done very well in her career. My daughter says she needs to double check all her written work and it's something she will have to do all her life.

Whilst I do not disagree with the need for students with dyslexia to be properly supported the fact is that when a system is so underfunded a child getting good grades is off the radar.

I am currently working in a SEND base at a school. The child I am employed to teach, in isolation, is waiting for a more appropriate school to meet his needs. The wait for a proper assessment, referral, family/professional meetings is horrendous. Not because the professionals don't care or are stupid or inefficient..they are just swamped with too many caseloads and insufficient resources.

The English teacher at college did give my GS a basic dyslexia test. His results weren't low enough for them to confirm dyslexia but she said his spelling shows definite dyslexic traits. They are not going to take any further action as far as I know.
I will try to contact this teacher during the week to see if I can get some more information.
The BDA don't have any assessors west of Bristol but I have found a couple of Ed. Psychs nearer to home who do assessments. Will look into them later.

As Trisher wrote the child should be tested with the Weschler (WISC) to assess general intelligence level, as compared to his/her peers. This has a battery of about 10 tests, some verbal and some non verbal.
We also used this test:
www.academictherapy.com/detailATP.tpl?eqskudatarq=DDD-711
which picks out particular areas of weakness.
Plus thorough reading and spelling tests. So it takes a long time.

kathsue because of the way funding is now administered it would have been the school's responsibility to have him tested, and they would have paid for it.
There is a thread on mumsnet about this and how you might get funding! www.netmums.com/coffeehouse/special-needs-disabilities-1194/other-special-needs-chat-502/540099-gaining-grant-dyslexia-assessment.html

The SENCO at school said it to me and the English teacher at college, who arranged this latest test, said it to my GS. I think it depends which LEA you come under --some have more money than others.
I did pester the school a lot to get him extra help but it always took a long time to put something in place, then when it finished they'd forget about him again until I went to see them again.
I think the children who get the most attention are the ones who misbehave and cause trouble. My GS is polite, quiet and very popular with the teachers. He never likes to ask for help in class so he'd get left behind sometimes.
Anyway thanks again for yourhelp.

When you talk to your DGS may I suggest that you make him aware of the successful Dyslexics as a balance to his view any disadvantage if he has Dyslexia.

The BDA have some good information but what turned it around for me was a book, "The Gift of Dyslexia" bit old now but it reframed my view of me.

I wasn't diagnosed until I was 28 and back then it was thought that I'd find it too hard to undo my coping strategies, now I'm not so sure. 17 is still young enough to get help.

However, apart from not being marked down for spelling in exams I was never given any other consideration but I like the idea of the software mentioned earlier.

I consider myself lucky as I did OK, I ended up with BA (Hons), MA, 1 MSc and a some good jobs along the way, now happily retired. I was very fortunate as 3 of the professors I met along the way were also Dyslexics.

I hope he is willing to take the help that there is now, it's a different world for the young people today, better in some ways harder in others.

Wishing you all the best

I cannot add more because trisher has said it all. Make a fuss and point out the law to them. And keep on at them.

We are talking as (retired?) professionals and know how it works.

Sorry kathsue the only way to get anything done is to cause a fuss. Try talking to him about hidden disabilities and disability rights. It isn't actually causing a fuss as far as he is concerned it is getting what is rightfully his. Having created a fuss all the way through my DSs education I know that young people sometimes wish you would shut up or go away, you have to try and strike a balance but it is difficult.
I'm a bit confused who said you had to go privately the school or the college?

Thank you all for your advice.
I was told by the school that the only way to get a full assessment is to do it privately.
I haven't had any contact with the college yet. Now he's 17 (today) he is considered more independent and there isn't the same parental involvement as at school.
I've been looking at the BDA website and I am going to take things further. I need to get my GS to agree first as he is doing so well in other ways at the moment he doesn't want to cause a fuss.

The law on special needs has been changed and people are now entitled to help until they are 25. It is also expected that young people and their families should be fully involved in the provision for special needs and their opinions taken into account.
The point about dyslexia is not that the child is acheiving a satisfacory level but that there may be a distinct gap between what level they could acheive with help and their performance without help. So your grandson may be getting results that are considered OK but if he is dyslexic and received help he would be considered excellent. Hope this explains a bit. Do go back to the college and pester!

Daddima his mother took her own life when he was 4 years old and just started school. His father has never been around--never seen him.
As you can imagine, he has had some emotional problems over the years which have affected his learning and have made the situation more complicated.

Why is it up to you to do anything? Where are his parents?

It wasn't the same psychologist.

Any Ed Psych who is not offering a proper dyslexia test to a child referred to them is failing in their duty of care and if the same Psych offered a private test he was actually being professionally negligent.The child should be offered a Weschler test.
kathsue Inform the college that dyslexia is a disability and that in refusing a proper test they may be in breach of Disability Rights Legislation. If he should be dyslexic he would be entitled to an awful lot of help including a laptop and special soft ware which uses context for spell checking.

I don't know if it's the same now, but when I was working as an EP if the child/young person was diagnosed dyslexic they got extra time to take their GCSE/O levels.
In those days there was a lot of help for children with reading problems but they weren't given that label. So many other reasons for being behind with reading.
Most people with these problems learn to compensate, or find they have other special skills which they use to get on in life with.

It is well worth paying for a private assessment if you possibly can.

A friend's child was seen by the local authority psychologist, who used some very basic standard tests based on visual dyslexia(seeing letters the wrong way round etc) and said the child was not dyslexic, when he was seen privately, the psychologist did wider tests and it turned out that the he was dyslexic but the cause was poor transfer of information from short to long-term memory not a visual problem.

He had specialist tuition based on the specific cause of his dyslexia and while he will always find reading hard work, he has gone on to have a successful career.

Assuming you are in the UK try the British dyslexia association

Hi Kathsue my son and DGS are both dyslexic. My son had private tuition with a dyslexic teacher as a young child and improved to the extent that the subject was never mentioned again in school or in his later working life. When my dgs was also diagnosed he (my gs) was allocated extra time in lessons and tests due to his problem . My son who had coped well up to this point was studying for further exams and decided to have himself tested again. The report following his test said that amongst other things he had a problem handwriting and processing questions etc due to his dyslexia. He put forward a case to the authority dealing with his exams and was allowed extra time in those exams both to read the questions and write his answers. I just use this to illustrate that even in later life a proper diagnosis can have benefits. Good luck to your GS

She simple applied to the institute which was in our nearest city it was an in-depth test covering all areas reading writing spelling dyspraxia, concentration, memory she then was sent a break down report a good number of pages with all the break downs of the tests and what they recommended to happen in school/ colleges etc
She has an anxiety about reading out loud in class (fear of getting it wrong) and when she was asked to my daughter was able to point out that one of the suggestions was that she should not be made to read out loud if she didn’t want to so, that was helpful she wasn’t made to after that

Thank you BlueBelle. My GS got 2s and 3s in his GCSEs but I'm sure he would have done a lot better if his writing was more legible and his spelling better. He does work hard and knows his subjects but has trouble getting it down on paper. I wish I'd had him privately tested years ago but then I didn't want him to feel different to the others.
Can I ask how your daughter went about getting the test done.

My daughter paid the money and had my granddaughter tested privately as the school said she was an A student in all subjects expect English (B)(her spelling was awful for a very intelligent young lady) and Spanish so they wouldn’t pay She came out of the private test as 98% dyslexic and was then offered help but she has preferred not to take the help so far (as she hates being different to everyone else) She is projected to get very good grades in her exams this year and wants to go on to 6th form and Uni my daughter is glad she did get the test done as she could need recognition later She is excellent at the sciences and maths she can read to her normal age but she doesn’t enjoy reading it’s hard work and slower so not pleasurable

The schools it seems will only pay if the student is failing

Kathsue I will pm you.