Dyslexia testing

[Kat1975]

Hi I'm looking for some advice. I believe my son has dyslexia, he is 10. Assessments have been done in school and he was referred to speech and language as well. He struggles at school and to be fair they have offered support and he has been in extra support groups for some years now. An educational psychologist came into school and assessed him and they will treat him as dyslexic but they won't do formal testing? Is this correct? He has one more year til secondary school and surely he needed a formal assessment for any support to be put in place for the rest of his education? Sorry this is garbled but any advice would be appreciated thanks

[austinsmrs]

I have a son aged 11 and severely dyslexic and dyscalculia and dysgraphia. Aged 7 he was identified at school as a slow learner and help put in place ie school action / plus. If it wasn't for my persistence nothing would have happened. I had him privately assessed as school wouldn't assess as basically he wasn't naughty or a problem. The assessment cost me £250 and identified severe problems as above he was now 9 yrs old and a reading age of a 5 yr old so significantly behind his peers. I requested the local authority to assess which was refused on the grounds that his national curriculum levels were ok. I knew otherwise so took them to tribunal. They conceded and agreed to assess but I got in first with two further independent reports and looked at specialist schooling which I was advised he needed. To cut a long story short he has now completed two school years at a specialist dyslexic school in Lichfield and is a different child. Now a fully restored self esteem before he called himself stupid and an idiot. He is now achieving and within 6 months of specialist teaching he had caught up 2 years on his reading.

Schools I have found can only do so much u need to get ur child assessed to see what u r dealing with and then see how far behind they are their peers. Schools only have so many psychologists visits per year so the chance of getting one is small. Speak to the senco at ur school tell her u r concerned ur son is receiving extra help but limited progress ask how far behind his peers is he. Dyslexics cannot learn phonetically yet all help throws more of this learning at them so improvements are very small.

Think abt getting a private assessment or visiting a school near you that specialises in dyslexia visit ipsea website for loads of advice and look at sos Sen website part of Sen legal free advice site. This journey will open ur eyes to see how schools fail children with learning difficulties. Good luck

[Giosang in reply to austinsmrs]

I totally endorse what you say austinmrs. It's interesting that parents have to be so assertive, and push for what their children need. I advise you to push hard, don't let them fob you off. An assessment done by an educational psychologist will carry weight in secondary school - and it will help you to know exactly what needs to be put in place. Good luck.

[Stephanie1]

Hi,

I am the mother of a 9 years old girl that had problems with reading: she started to read the second letter from a word instead of reading the first one or read in the wrong order the last letters. Soon she lost her confidence that she could do this and she refused to practice. Reading a book was like a punishment, she would rather prefer to do any other activity and to avoid reading.

To help her improve her reading I thought to create a game so she would practice reading in a funny way. With the help of some friends we created a game that would allow her to read faster some short words (two letters) and then to increase the length of the words that should be read in the same amount of time.

She played the game for some time and the progress was amazing. Now she reads as fast as an adult and the most important benefit is that she enjoys reading books.

I am not sure the result will be ok for any other kids but maybe it worth trying:

Speed Reading Academy

adamoapps.com/?portfolio=sp...

If you are interested in trying it and you have an iPAD I can give you a promo code so you can install it for free.

[callum19]

There are two solucitors who I know of that takes action against lea to get assessment of statement these are as follows

Burton law bangor North Wales ask for Julie burton herself

Russell Jones and walker South Wales ask for Michael imperato

Please let me know how your get along they don't statement these days unless it's private assessment or legal action it's sad it's down to budget!!.....

[Lj08]

Hi I have just read your comment from a year ago and was wondering what happened with your son did you get him tested for dyslexia? I think my son maybe but the school day no he does get extra help but still is behind