dyslexia.......?

Question

What help should my son be receiving in primary school if he has dyslexia?

Answer 1

I am a primary school teacher, so I know the answer to this one ..

Dyslexia itself is a term which is not generally used at the moment, to try to avoid 'labelling' the child, but all of us in the profession accept that it is certainly a huge problem for a lot of children.

The support that your son recieves will depend upon how far the process of identifying his needs has gone - his class teacher will have consulted with the SENCO (special educational needs co-ordinator) who will have a)suggested strategies that can be used in class to support him, and b) referred him for assessment by an outside agency if necessary. Once he has been formally assessed, you will be able to begin the process of applying for a statement if it is felt to be necessary.

The statement will state the number of hour's support that your son will be entitled to, and the funding will be provided for them to do this. However, the process of getting a statement can take a few years, during which time your son will be struggling probable. Most schools will therefore include him in withdrawal groups, and provide T.A support (a teaching-assistant) who will work with him in class for as many hours as they are able to provide.

The problem with this sometimes occurs when a parent doesn't realise that there are often 5 or 6 children in a class who all have specific learning difficulties - they sometimes tend to think that their child is the only one in the class who needs help.

So, by all means request that your son receives help and support, and get his statement underway, but please be patient - as long as the school is providing the best support they can!

Good luck

Answer 2

I live in the UK, my son has dyslexia

Verbally he was very bright but reading and writing he was 3 years behind before he got any help. I finally got him a statement in year 5. My son got 7 and a half hours 1-1 help a week and it worked out for him.

In the UK there are Dyslexia associations and they can give some very useful advice.
It costs a few hundred pounds to get them assessed here but not all Education authority recognises them so best to check before going down that route.

Good luck with what you decide to do. Keep fighting for your child is the best advice I can give.

My son is planning on going to University next year so it is worth fighting for the help I finally got him.

Answer 3

Hi Scarlet
its great to hear that your son is a at normal school, as for recieveing help for his dyslexia his teacher will give him all the help he needs,,,, she should also speak to you ,,,, and may be arrange a one on reading for him.
Good Luck to you and your son

Answer 4

It depends what help he needs. I'm dyslexic, and pretty much the only outside help I had was a reading tutor for a while around second grade because I still wasn't reading basically at all at that point, and starting from high school I've had extra time on exams. I still read extremely slowly, but other than that I could pretty much keep up without extra help. At the other extreme, I've met people who didn't learn to read at all until they were 12-14 years old, so those people would obviously have needed a lot more help in elementary school than I did. The thing is, dyslexia is a really vague term, and there's no universal solution that's going to work for all kids. Keep careful track of how he's doing, and work with his teacher to get him help as he needs it.

In my opinion, it's better to let your son figure out what works for him as much as possible. It's important that he not get discouraged or fall too behind, but if he figures out his own way of doing things whenever possible it'll tend to work better for him than someone telling him a way to do it that they think should work for him. No one can evern understand how your son thinks better than he himself can understand it. Rather than focusing on getting him as much help as possible at school, focus on heping him understand how he thinks about things so that he can learn to adapt on his own as much as possible.

One of the most important things is just to make sure that he understands that he's struggling with certain subjects because he's dyslexic and not because he's stupid. For dyselxic students, the hardest part is usually the basics (reading, writing, arithmetic, etc.), so it will probably get easier as he gets older, and he'll be able to catch up in the areas he's behind in now. The academics will be fine, but the hardest thing to catch up on later is confidence. As long as he doesn't get discourage and give up, he'll do fine.

I have to sleep now, but being dyslexic myself, I know a fair bit about dyslexia, and you're welcome to email me through Answers or at [e-mail] if you want to discuss it further.


P.S. Colored glasses or different colored paper won't do sh*t to help a dyslexic kid. That's just an annoying popular urban legend. It's not a visual problem at all, but rather a different way of processing things, so changing the visual input won't help.

Answer 5

if the school are dragging their feet with providing help, they shoud have established a one on one with a teacher, take your son to the doctors explain the situation, and have him refer you to a child physchologist, . The physchologist will assess him, and then write to the school to stipulate what is required to help him. I had the problem with my son, they wouldnt have done anything for 2 more years but acted instantly on receiving the report from the specialist, this helped him enormously.

Answer 6

It really depends on how bad his dyslexia is. My son had one to one treaching after school to help him. Talk about it with his teacher and head teacher.

Answer 7

well i suffer Dyslexia,2.. depends which country your in but early education units are in Australia..also check with your University education, when i study a university i get a scibe sit in a darker spot in classroom,also i have Irlen Lenses which work great,

Answer 8

your son's school should have a special needs teacher who can help. Ask the school what they provide

Answer 9

i'm dyslexic and i recieve bearly any help in school. i go for an anual review to see if i still need to be on the special needs register but thats it. i used to be tutored for spelling and grammar. and were given exercises to improve my circulation wich helped. inquire to your school or local council. and don't let it stop your son from doing whatever he wants to do.

Answer 10

my mother has dyslexia and she was treated apallingly in school!! the teacher needs patience - also it is thought that using coloured paper helps as there is something in the brain that cannot internalise written word on white paper. coloured glasses can help but they look really silly!!