Dsylexic kids

[Balbus]

Wotcha, long time no see, hope you're all well etc etc.

I'm here because you lot know everything between you and have loads of different viewpoints which I may not otherwise have considered.

Boy has been diagnosed as Dylexic. He's 8. It's been flamin' obvious to us since the great pandemic of '20 that he was struggling. It was obvious to us before that that he was bright - but reception and yr 1 they don't do much readin' and writin', so it didn't leap out at anyone. Since the home schooling years of the pandemic we realised there was a problem but it's taken this long to get him tested and diagnosed (budget cuts 'n stuff to blame so we're told).

The school essentially admit they've no funding and can't really support in accordance with the steps required by the SEN plan. They've already spent the academic year's TA and SEN budgets. We'll be having a meeting with them soon where the error of their ways will be explained to them in words of one syllable, but I'll likely have to accept that budgets are squeezed and if there are no resources then there really are no resources. They need to keep the lights on I suppose...

So this is where you lot come in. What else can we do? I've not got Dyslexia, I don't know anyone with Dyslexia (AFAIK) and there's no 'one stop shop' to get advice it seems. The British Dyslexia Association simply suggest that SEN kids should be supported. Great, that's helpful during Austerity Mk2. Have any of you got Dyslexia? Or kids with Dyslexia? Can you offer me any advice? There's loads of software I could buy (Text readers, Voice typing etc etc) which is claimed to be brilliant and loads of flashcard games or books we could buy, but I could easily drop several grand on that lot and have no guarantee any of it will work.

I suppose we can and will throw money at the problem - with software initially and then probably move him to the independant sector where he'll have smaller class sizes and better support (but which we'll pay for). But again, whilst I have experience of the independant school sector, I don't have any of Dyslexic kids in the independant school sector. I'm sure it was a thing when I was at school, but I don't really remember it.

And then looking into the future it seems he's great at maths, but is unlikely to ever be very good at anything where he has to read or write quickly. He's 8, so his idea of a job changes weekly but I suspect that he'll never be a fighter pilot (which is this week's dream job) - if you've experienced Dyslexia and have managed to do well, what is it that you do? Has Dyslexxia really been your super power?

Thanks all.

[DefTrap]

Not got dyslexia but regarding future careers I know a fair few programmers who are dyslexic (more than you'd expect in that field maybe) - the ones I know don't seem to have been held back anyway, potentially they have an advantage in problem solving or something.

[Cousin Jack]

I probably have dyslexia, never diagnosed, but I still have huge problems with spelling. No other issues, so perhaps it is a mild form.

More importantly, the school cannot simply run away from their responsibilities if your lad has a SEN. They have to make reasonable provision to hep him.

Is the school an academy, or part of a Multi Academy Trust, or is a Local Authority school? If it is part of a MAT, or is LA maintained you have someone to escalate to. You may also be able to complain to the DfE.

Have the conversation with the Head, and make it clear that this is not something that will go away, and that you are going to make waves. Read the schools policies (they should be on the website) and use them against them.

PM me if you need anything else, I am a trustee fir a MAT, but like everything in life, the devil is in the detail.


This is the DfE guidance.
https://www.gov.uk/government/publicati ... ce-0-to-25

[KungFooBob]

I was diagnosed in the 7th year at school (30 years ago).

I was offered glasses with colour lenses which I refused to wear. I used to have to stay late two nights a week and be mentored by a fit girl sixth former. I also got to miss double science on Fridays to go for special classes.

I don't think it's affected me much in real life, I can't spell for toffee and I transpose words (but working in IT, pooters work it all out for you, I'm scared to death of having to write anything by hand tho'). I like reading, but I know I don't read as quick as everyone else.

No idea what they do about it these days.

[Noggin]

I was never diagnosed (no way would my mother have accepted that her child might have 'problems'!) and am pretty sure it's a 'side effect' of dyspraxia - only because my sister's daughter has issues reading through dyslexia/dyspraxia

Mine is pretty mild but the biggest issue for me is how I read. I must have found a way to read that worked for me but it's not normal and makes reading documents on paper or large amount of text on screen and reading aloud very challenging. My typing is interesting as I touch type, so I don't look at the keyboard - I often use the correct finger but on the wrong hand. Computers that show when there is a spelling mistake are AMAZING!! Randomly, because of the way I read I can often proofread way better and faster than most because a wrong 'shape' stands out to me very quickly - before most people get to that word!!


I have no experience of help at school but my niece did get a fair amount of help and uses a coloured film to help her read (no idea how that works but it does).

I'm sure there will be a 'support group' nearby or online that will give you some more and current info tho. I think my sis did a LOT of research herself and went to school armed with that info. The help was set up a few years ago and I'm not up to date on what's going on at the school currently

[Tigs]

I'm dyslexic - I was diagnosed at 11.. I have taught myself to spell - through touch typing.. but still struggle with spelling when I'm stressed =- I also found reading an analogue clock really difficult

It was game changing for me when I realised that NASA often has a dyslexic on their team - as they are 'outside of the box thinkers'.. they can see a problem from all angles. It made me realise that I was not stupid but potentially valuable.

I have an 'all round' approach to things - and am quite a physical learner - you will notice many threads on here - where I'm finding the logical side to things.. I'm often asking 'what would happen if'.. or 'why' ...

A lot of dyslexics go in to programming - it does not stop you - if you have a passion you find your way.. I'm a teacher and help others over come their difficulties.

I'm also beginning to find the link between dyslexia and ADHD - so I have hundreds of 'doom boxes'/piles around my house - I'm great at planning a big picture - I love house design - but 'doing' I get 80 - 90% through and stop!

[Taipan]

Evening Squire. Nice to see you posting, albeit for this reason.

Anyway, in my dim and distant past, I got conscripted onto a disability working party to help students with a variety of things. One of the teaching aids we had to provide was pastel coloured papers, which can help with dyslexia. So you may try printing a sample batch of a block of text on each of the different coloured papers to see if any of the colours help him?

[Mussels]

- if you've experienced Dyslexia and have managed to do well, what is it that you do? Has Dyslexxia really been your super power?

He just needs to play to his strengths, being a bit different can really help sometimes. I've worked with a few wealthy financial traders with more serious mental health issues, their obsessive behaviour could really drive success.
Coding was great, it's pretty simple so not much schoolwork and then if you click with it you can get ahead of the rest. I say was as it's now a bit mainstream with thousands of graduates being churned out so getting started is a bit more difficult even though most of those graduates aren't suited to the job. Something else will come along where there aren't any established learning paths and companies will pay good money to anyone who can grasp it without sitting in front of a blackboard. Quantum computing could explode at about the right time for him with many existing coders unable to get their heads round new ideas, I suspect that tomorrow's opportunities will surprise me but I'm sure there will be something.

[Greenman]

I'm dyslexic.

I had at to attend evening classes as back in my school days in the 80/90's it wasn't really recognised as an issue. My parents had to pay for private lessons after school even though they couldn't really afford them!

It did help me and i did improve a lot over about 6 months attending the lessons.

I also find Dyslexic people don't really have academic brains, and i would thoroughly advise pushing your kid into more creative academia once he gets older.

My school life was shit, i have no GCSE's due to missing a lot of school and struggling with my dyslexia, i would love to have had someone push me down a more creative route back then rather than expecting me to achieve the same as everyone else in the usual mainstream subjects.

All schools are struggling at the moment but i would expect them to have provisions to cover SEND issues such as these. However, saying that, some of my schools i support can't even afford to buy books for their library or to employ the staff they need to cover poorly teachers etc, it really is in a bad state.

Does you child attend a Bristol school?

[Balbus]

Thanks all for the thought provoking comments. I have responded below where I think appropriate. If you're not quoted it's not because I didn't take on board what you typed!

Not got dyslexia but regarding future careers I know a fair few programmers who are dyslexic (more than you'd expect in that field maybe) - the ones I know don't seem to have been held back anyway, potentially they have an advantage in problem solving or something.

I've read that's a thing. Dyslexic people look at things differently and are therefore often good at problem solving, coding, maths etc.

I probably have dyslexia, never diagnosed, but I still have huge problems with spelling. No other issues, so perhaps it is a mild form.

More importantly, the school cannot simply run away from their responsibilities if your lad has a SEN. They have to make reasonable provision to hep him.

Is the school an academy, or part of a Multi Academy Trust, or is a Local Authority school? If it is part of a MAT, or is LA maintained you have someone to escalate to. You may also be able to complain to the DfE.

Have the conversation with the Head, and make it clear that this is not something that will go away, and that you are going to make waves. Read the schools policies (they should be on the website) and use them against them.

PM me if you need anything else, I am a trustee fir a MAT, but like everything in life, the devil is in the detail.


This is the DfE guidance.
https://www.gov.uk/government/publicati ... ce-0-to-25

I'm also a trustee at the MAT where he's schooled. I'm aware that I need to walk a *really* fine line between being a parent and a trustee. I know form the governance papers I have just how parlous the finances are and what issues they have. One of the problems they have across the MAT is that the county council are reducing funding to the specialist high need SEN specific schools and forcing the 'normal' schools to take a much higher proportion of high need SEN pupils. In his current class for example there's a TA who spends all of their time with a very high needs SEN kid. Plus they have a disruptive kid in the class too - so the TA is completely tied up timewise and the teacher is constantly fighting a rearguard against bad behaviour from one kid. All of this against a background of there genuinely being no more money - not if the lights are going to stay on. And this in a 'nice' OFSTED outstanding (albeit one of those inspected years ago), in a MAT which has carefully husbanded resources and which went into this year carrying a budget surplus from previous years.

The county council have also begun to refuse to re-assess SEN need, to refer for testing (so we were lucky to have him assessed at all) and have (I am told) moved admin staff from the SEN team at the council to other departments. They are themselves facing a funding crisis.

I'm also aware of what *should* be done - the required actions are clearly laid out. I just don't believe that they can be delivered at the moment.

In many ways it would be easier to be 'just' a parent. I could much more easily charge both barrels and let them have it! Part of the problem is that I can stand and fight, meanwhile boy gets further and further behind and his confidence drops and drops. Knowing what should be happening and making it happen to my satisfaction within a timeframe I think acceptable are likely to be two very different animals. I *will* fight the good fight, but it's likely to be for those other kids who have similar issues rather than my boy.

I'm dyslexic - I was diagnosed at 11.. I have taught myself to spell - through touch typing.. but still struggle with spelling when I'm stressed =- I also found reading an analogue clock really difficult

It was game changing for me when I realised that NASA often has a dyslexic on their team - as they are 'outside of the box thinkers'.. they can see a problem from all angles. It made me realise that I was not stupid but potentially valuable.

I have an 'all round' approach to things - and am quite a physical learner - you will notice many threads on here - where I'm finding the logical side to things.. I'm often asking 'what would happen if'.. or 'why' ...

A lot of dyslexics go in to programming - it does not stop you - if you have a passion you find your way.. I'm a teacher and help others over come their difficulties.

I'm also beginning to find the link between dyslexia and ADHD - so I have hundreds of 'doom boxes'/piles around my house - I'm great at planning a big picture - I love house design - but 'doing' I get 80 - 90% through and stop!

I'll tell him about the NASA thing, thank you. He's a bright boy and his elder sisters is also bright. Before we could get him diagnosed we were talking about his sister sitting the 11+ and he just burst into tears and said he wouldn't be clever enough when the time came. Clearly (to us) not true. I know every parent says their kids are bright, but he genuinely is. Since the diagnosis he's taken great comfort from the likes of Albert Einstein and Richard Branson being dyslexic. I've also told him that lots of 'spy catchers' at GCHQ and MI5 are neuro-diverse, so he'll like the NASA bit.

Evening Squire. Nice to see you posting, albeit for this reason.

Anyway, in my dim and distant past, I got conscripted onto a disability working party to help students with a variety of things. One of the teaching aids we had to provide was pastel coloured papers, which can help with dyslexia. So you may try printing a sample batch of a block of text on each of the different coloured papers to see if any of the colours help him?

I vaguely remember similar from an instructional course I did years ago. Thanks for jogging my memory, I'll look that up and see what I can do. I won't be able to change the colour of the pages of a book, but I may be able to with an ebook. Worth trying.

He just needs to play to his strengths, being a bit different can really help sometimes. I've worked with a few wealthy financial traders with more serious mental health issues, their obsessive behaviour could really drive success.

I think we're trying to use neuro-diverse rather than 'mental' these days!

Coding was great, it's pretty simple so not much schoolwork and then if you click with it you can get ahead of the rest. I say was as it's now a bit mainstream with thousands of graduates being churned out so getting started is a bit more difficult even though most of those graduates aren't suited to the job. Something else will come along where there aren't any established learning paths and companies will pay good money to anyone who can grasp it without sitting in front of a blackboard. Quantum computing could explode at about the right time for him with many existing coders unable to get their heads round new ideas, I suspect that tomorrow's opportunities will surprise me but I'm sure there will be something.

Yeah, I have heard that. I don't know if he's that interested (to be fair he's 8, he mainly wants to ride his pushbike and play football), but I'll mention it to him again.

I'm dyslexic.
I also find Dyslexic people don't really have academic brains, and i would thoroughly advise pushing your kid into more creative academia once he gets older.

I'm not pushing him into anything. I'll advise, encourage, support and signpost, but I won't push.

All schools are struggling at the moment but i would expect them to have provisions to cover SEND issues such as these. However, saying that, some of my schools i support can't even afford to buy books for their library or to employ the staff they need to cover poorly teachers etc, it really is in a bad state.

There are some pretty serious issues at the moment. The governance piece has opened my eyes to just how bad it is. And that's in a well funded and supported MAT. Admittedly the 'per pupil' funding isn't as high where we are as it is in some other places (for a ridiculous historical reason to do with roads funding apparently), but it's a poor state of affairs. The recent amount of money promised in the budget sounds like a lot, but when you look at how many schools it has to cover, then suddenly the jam is spread pretty thin.

Does you child attend a Bristol school?

No, I lived in Brizzle years ago, but not since well before having kids.

[Cousin Jack]

I feel for you Balbas! My child is grown up and gone, so I can take a fairly dispassionate view of school stuff, it must be a nightmare to have to juggle parent and trustee hats when they conflict. I also understand the finance bit only too well, our LA is also cutting back on support for SEN and almost everything else, and the schools have to pick up the pieces. School finance has always had a crisis looming in Year 3 of the budget, this time around it is in Year 1 or at best Year 2.

Not much else I can offer, except have a word with the SEN leaders for your trust. They may not be able to do anything, but may have good advice about what you can do to help your lad. Encourage him to read as much as you can, because (as I am sure you know) if you can't read a raft of knowledge is closed to you. One school in our MAT has reported that paired reading, a good reader and a poor reader, reading to each other alternately, has produced good results. Try that, you read to him, and let him read to you. As I said, I think I have more than a touch of dyslexia, I can read words and 20 seconds later have no idea how to spell them. As long as he can pronounce and understand stuff, spelling can be sorted by spellcheck.

Good luck, and if you want to bounce ideas off me you know where I am.

[MrLongbeard]

Just a flying visit

I vaguely remember similar from an instructional course I did years ago. Thanks for jogging my memory, I'll look that up and see what I can do. I won't be able to change the colour of the pages of a book, but I may be able to with an ebook. Worth trying.

Sure you can change the colour of book pages, it's a known resource for those with dyslexia, helped my little 'un when she was in school;
https://www.thedyslexiashop.co.uk/produ ... 5UQAvD_BwE

[Rockburner]

IIRC my brother (Rev Fred) was diagnosed dyslexic when younger, but I've no idea what, if any, extra tuition he got.

He did end up doing English at Uni, and became a Patent Attorney, so i don't think it held him back that much .

Good to see you online mate.

[Tigs]

I also find Dyslexic people don't really have academic brains, and i would thoroughly advise pushing your kid into more creative academia once he gets older.

There are dyslexics who are academic - you just need to find the passion and support. (Equally there are dyslexics in practical applications too).

I was taught how to teach a dyslexic to spell - it makes sense to me and my son (who is undiagnosed.. but I strongly suspect is dyslexic too).

For any one long word - you break the word into 'chunks' and learn how many 'chunks' you can hear - and then the pieces that make the chunk..

so Wednesday

This would be a 3 pile word - and each pile would have 3 cards.
Pile 1 - wed
Pile 2 nes
Pile 3 day

in your head you imagine 3 piles - with 3 cards..

Or Aggrievement

Agg - riev - ment

3 - 4 - 4
(I'd also look for 'rhyme that help '.. I am aggrieved about my Kiev - falling on the floor

You can learn to 'beat' the pattern - so make a symbol for 3 (tap your hand ) 4 tap your leg.. Wednesday would be a a 3 hand tap - as you say it - aggrievement would be a hand -leg - leg.

As I said typing really helped me - and I still spell check by saying the word to my phone.. and then reading it!
But instead of learning 'the whole' you earn the parts to build the whole - if that makes sense. It does help!

[Greenman]

I also find Dyslexic people don't really have academic brains, and i would thoroughly advise pushing your kid into more creative academia once he gets older.

There are dyslexics who are academic - you just need to find the passion and support. (Equally there are dyslexics in practical applications too).

I was taught how to teach a dyslexic to spell - it makes sense to me and my son (who is undiagnosed.. but I strongly suspect is dyslexic too).

For any one long word - you break the word into 'chunks' and learn how many 'chunks' you can hear - and then the pieces that make the chunk..

so Wednesday

This would be a 3 pile word - and each pile would have 3 cards.
Pile 1 - wed
Pile 2 nes
Pile 3 day

in your head you imagine 3 piles - with 3 cards..

Or Aggrievement

Agg - riev - ment

3 - 4 - 4
(I'd also look for 'rhyme that help '.. I am aggrieved about my Kiev - falling on the floor

You can learn to 'beat' the pattern - so make a symbol for 3 (tap your hand ) 4 tap your leg.. Wednesday would be a a 3 hand tap - as you say it - aggrievement would be a hand -leg - leg.

As I said typing really helped me - and I still spell check by saying the word to my phone.. and then reading it!
But instead of learning 'the whole' you earn the parts to build the whole - if that makes sense. It does help!

I get the premise of reading in general but used to struggle with Bs Ds etc. I used to enjoy writing adnventure stories when i was about 14 in english lessons rather than listen to them babble on about some shakespear crap! but after being told all the punctuation was wrong and all the B'd and D's were a bit messed up (i was asked to see what was wrong with the doc and i couldn't see anything wrong) i kind of gave up! at 15!

My main issue is following lines.

I get confused with where i am on the page.

[Tigs]

I used to put a piece of paper under the words - to follow along - I don't really find coloured paper helps at all - but I know overlays do help for some people (apparently its a slightly different thing - not dyslexia but dyslexics have it - but - I can't remember what).. some evidence says yes they work - other evidence no they don't For the cost of a set of dividers from ebay/rymans it is worth trying them.


With reversing letters some evidence shows that using playdough to build the letter and 'hold'them can help - as I said typing helped me (and that is very much using your hands over your eyes!).

[Cousin Jack]

My 'problem' was always spelling, my wife and daughter regularly point out my mistakes, and almost every school reports had a snarky comment that "His spelling lets him down". I never had a problem reading, but I names get me, especially awkward and unusual from Russian authors, like Dostoyevsky. I just assign a symbol to each word shape and I can read the story. Discussing it with others is a bit awkward. For technical stuff I persevere and actually sort out the names of things (eg chemical names) but for reading a story it doesn't matter.

[KungFooBob]

My problem is numbers.

Give me four numbers to remember for more than 10 seconds and I'm out.

OTP codes are a disaster for me.

[Balbus]

Just a flying visit

I vaguely remember similar from an instructional course I did years ago. Thanks for jogging my memory, I'll look that up and see what I can do. I won't be able to change the colour of the pages of a book, but I may be able to with an ebook. Worth trying.

Sure you can change the colour of book pages, it's a known resource for those with dyslexia, helped my little 'un when she was in school;
https://www.thedyslexiashop.co.uk/produ ... 5UQAvD_BwE

I've seen some of your other posts recently. Thanks for stopping by and taking the time. It means a lot. We've never met (I don't think), but if you ever want someone to talk bollocks to, send me a PM with your number.

[
I get the premise of reading in general but used to struggle with Bs Ds etc. I used to enjoy writing adnventure stories when i was about 14 in english lessons rather than listen to them babble on about some shakespear crap! but after being told all the punctuation was wrong and all the B'd and D's were a bit messed up (i was asked to see what was wrong with the doc and i couldn't see anything wrong) i kind of gave up! at 15!

My main issue is following lines.

I get confused with where i am on the page.

One of the early warning signs for us was the confusion between b and d. We've found it helps him to remember the word 'bed' where the b and d face each other, but it's just one of the many signs of the struggle he's having.

My problem is numbers.

Give me four numbers to remember for more than 10 seconds and I'm out.

OTP codes are a disaster for me.

Interestingly (to me), I can remember 7 or 9 digit numbers as quickly as looking at them - but I put that down to working in the Argos stock room when I was a teenager rather than any Neuro diverse superpower!

He seems good with numbers and actively enjoys maths - the weirdo.