Frustrated Mum with dyslexic 8 year old daughter.

[HeidiHi]

My daughter was diagnosed with developmental dyslexia 2 years a go by Dyslexia Action. She is on Action Plus Star and does now get a lot of support at school but she is still not making much progress. A couple of educational psychologists have come into the school to assess her and give the teachers new strategies to help her but they have both said that she is above the level for a Statement. However, she is only on level 1 work and she is in year 4, so she is currently working 2 years beneath her peers. Help, I don't know what to do, should I seek extra tuition?

[Hidden]

It is likely that your daughter would benefit from 1:1 or small group help from a Dyslexia Specialist. Usually this work is 'multi-sensory' in that learning is enhanced by the child seeing, doing, hearing and sometimes touching/moving all at the same time. For instance a visual clue which is said to help remember the beginning sound (dog /d/), with an associated action (wagging tail) for the picture.

If you decide on external specialist tuition you can e-mail the BDA asking for a list of teachers in your area or look at the list on the Patoss website patoss-dyslexia.org/ or contact a Dyslexia Action centre near you. Alternatively you could ask if a specialist could be brought in as part of 'School Action' which is defined as when external help needs to be given to school. Ask to see the reports by the Psychologists and see if they have recommended specialist help as this could aid your case.

[FlemmingAst]

You could consider CapturaTalk 4 from iansyst on a pone and/or a Tablet to help.

[Lottie91]

I had exactly the same frustration as you last year. My daughter is having a lot of extra help at school but was at the same level as my son who was two school years below her. I wrote on here and of the comments that were left a lot of people suggested a book called toe by toe. It has been amazing and I can't reccomend it enough. Her reading is still below average but it has improved so quickly. You can buy it through amazon or ebay and I think it is well worth a try!

Also keep on at the school....they'll get so fed up they'll do anything to keep you quiet! ( that's what happened in our case anyway!!)

Good luck.

[austinsmrs]

In my experience I would use a private Ed Psychologist and get an assessment privately. Check the Dyslexia Action report (was it done by an Ed Psych) mine wasnt just a Psychologist. Unfortunately, to get a statement you have to score a very low percentile and the proof here for you is your daughter is not making progress with the interventions the school has put in place. You need to know what percentile she scores on the WIAT-II test have you got these. To get any further action you need an uptodate WIAT test not older than 6 months if the scoring is low you could write to your LA and ask for an assessment enclosing the report with a view to getting a statement. From the statement you may get extra teaching from a trained dyslexic teacher and personal support from a trained dyslexic teaching assistant. However, if your daughter does score high on the WIAT test then you are looking at financing extra support yourselves ie from a BDA teacher or Dyslexia Action. Bear in mind any teaching through these people you are allowed to take your child out of school for the lesson. Also with an uptodate report she will get extra time etc for exams

[bevyking]

I am going through the same, my daughter is in year 4 and is about 2/3 years, behind she has been under action school plus since reception, The school agreed to apply for a statutory assessment last year but this rejected as she was deemed not bad enough and the school told that the decision would not be overturned, after some expert advise from The BDA and brilliant Educational Psychologists, and I was refereed to a Lawyer who made a new application in October last year and was granted statement within 26 weeks, but I am going back to appeal as I am insisting that she must has a Dyslexia specialist to teach her, so keep fighting and look at this website ipsea.org.uk/ they give geat support and advise, you can apply for a SA yourselves but check with IPSEA as there a shift in the Child's bill and how these application are being made, keep fighting ask for IEP and time table as to see the qualification of the TA. Good luck I still fighting after 2 years and may still have to go to the court of appeal.

[nutty66]

I agree with Binnyg. Do try Easyread - we've had very impressive results. They have a ten day trial so you can get a real sense of how it works before you commit. Our son's confidence has increased so much. Our learning support person is amazed at how much progress he's made in such a short time.

best of luck

[Gwench]

I know how you feel! My son is in year three and has the same problem, 2 ed psych reports, action plus and quite a bit of support from school and still very little progress. I've checked out some PATOSS teachers for extra tuition but the problem is my son is so fed up with literacy (and numeracy) that he really really doesn't want extra lessons. We've tried toe to toe but he quickly got bored and frustrated with it. At the moment I'm concentrating on trying to make sure he doesn't miss out on things because he can't read (I don't think he's even at level 1).So, he loves audio books and is really enjoying having a cd player in his bedroom so that he can choose when to listen etc - gives him some independence that readers have automatically. It's really helping with his vocabulary as well.

[neddesh]

Sorry to come in a bit late, I & a number from my family & friends have undergone the LASD treatment which has recently arrived in the UK from Australia where it's been done for 25 years. Sucess was very good, see lasdbrighteningfuturescentr... for more details. My brother just hated reading before, as did my friend David and both are now ramping through anything they can get their hands on! However I guess it really depends what you are wanting - as this is to really get to grips with the Dyslexia, rather than just support the person with it.

[HeidiHi]

Thank you everyone for your comments. I will keep up the fight....

[yeswecanread]

Please would you look at our 'yes we can read' website. It is a manual, which anyone who can read can just pick up and use to teach someone from 8 to 80. All you have to do is read the general instructions in 15 minutes or so. Please look at the videos you will be inspired. One-to-one is the key. it works, I promise you.

[FlemmingAst]

Try and take a look at i.e. CapturaTalk 4 or mobile112 Lite. You read using your ears and the camera in 8 seconds in 40 languages.