Has my son dyslexia??? my school is not very understanding!!?

Question

When my son finished nursery and went into yr 1 he was put on an i.e.p for his reading, this did help him. He is 9yrs.
He then moved up to middle school his i.e.p had lapsed so a new one was started again, for literacy.
He was bought back up to standard and taken off the i.e.p, but because of problems with bullying i changed his school.
His younger brother goes to a nice little small country school (he is 5yrs) and the reason he went to a different school was because he went to a playgroup within the next village, and so i wanted him to stay with friends!! So now my older son goes to this school, he started there 1yr ago.
I had a parents eve last week, to be told that he is bottom of the class etc and needs to go on an i.e.p
His teacher said she is not happy as she read his file and was unaware of the previous history!!!!!
My son is left handed, has no self esteem, no friends, no concentration, and does not complete work, he gets angry when he cant do the work??? He is 9yrs old

Answer 1

If your son has reading problems that leads to frustration and anger. The frustration and anger make it even harder for him to learn. So it is a never-ending circle.

Has your son ever had an educational assessment? Are there any testing services at your school or school district? You need to ask to have your son assessed to find out what the problem is. You need to know the reason he is having trouble learning to read in order to address it. He may have dyslexia - a learning disability - or he may not.

Some teachers refuse to read a student's file right away because they say they don't want to be "unfairly influenced" by what might be in there. I disagree with that approach. In future when your son has a new teacher go and talk to that teacher to make sure he/she reads your son's file.

Identifying the cause of the problem is the first step to finding a solution. Ask for some assessment to determine if your son has a learning disability.

Here are some links that may help you learn a little about dyslexia.

Answer 2

Ask the school to bring an educational pyscologist in. It is not as bad as it sounds, he or she will pinpoint the type of dyslexia your child has and recommend steps to be taken by the school to help the problem.

This is coming from personal experience. I have cerebal palsy which mainly effects the legs, but the school noticed that I was very intellegent, but for some reason I could not write well. Although I knew exactly what I wanted to write I would miss out the odd word etc..it also took me longer to write things down than other people, but they realised that this was to do with the brain damage I had after birth.

I kept missing words, spelling things wrong and I had a problem with Maths. This confused my school since at 13 I was reading 600 paged book on Hiistoryll! But they knew something was wrong.

So they had me assessed by an educational pycologist who said I had visio spatial perceptial difficulties, and I was very high level of intellgence the message from the brain to the hand would get lost and that is why I would miss out words

As a result the school now knowing the problem began to sort it by allowing me to have a scribe for exams. I would tell the scribe what to write and she would write it down for me therefore overcoming the problem.

As a result of this system I flew through my exams, went to uni got an MA and I am now doing a PhD in history.

So an educational pyscologist may be the answer

Answer 3

A number of points for you to consider.
Firstly I would be writing to the Chair of the Governors at your son's previous school as they have not sent sufficient information up to his new school. This is very sloppy.
Also at his previous school you were given the impression that your son had reached the required standard in reading - have you kept his reports or copies of the IEPs (which the school is legally obliged to give you) that indicate this?
It is possible for two separate schools to have different expectations of their pupils' achievements; but the fact that the new school wants your son on an IEP infers that he is below the required national expectation of a child of his age.
Clearly his former school has let him down badly.
TAKE THIS MATTER FURTHER - the National Curriculum was intended to iron out such discrepencies - you and your child seem to have been shoddily treated by this school.

Answer 4

Changing school will not help him. As a mother if u know he is 2 grades behind i.e. u know where to start from don't worry about the current grades. begin from the grade 1 basics in other words start from what he knows. gradually give him little more in a very playful way. Give him simple question to think. ( if u think he is losing interest or getting confused prompt him to think better.) Let this go on till he reaches to the current level of knowledge. As a mother u need to have lot of patience. mother is the nearest and the dearest person to the child. Constant and continuous observation is required. no doctors required to observe or guide. mother's own instinct and understanding is one thing that requires. Note: If not mother than father. one more important thing do not pressurise the child and do not expect too much from the child. Even if he shows little improvement do not try to get 100 % perfection . be little easy. have patience. this will work. have patience get the victory.

Answer 5

If your son is dyslexic than he should have been tested there at the school and then possibly placed into a special education track. As far as being left handed, no concentration, no friends etc... you should consider taking your son to a therapist. He might seem young, but these kinds of emotional situations can stick to a child for years to come if they do not learn to properly cope and accept the situation.

Answer 6

OH how i feel for you i had all this and more and they did not like it because it was me that discovered my 7 year old had Dyslexia the school teachers bulled him the kids picked on him and i fought them all we saw a physiologist and he said your son is dyslexic then they all came out with all there rubbish like we thought so etc,any way the long and short of it is he is now 29 his reading is slower than mine ,but he is clever,artistic,can take things apart and fix them and put them together again.he is brighter than all his old class mates,he has a good job and a lovely wife.AND the more you support and fight for your son the better because if you don't do this for him no one will. Good luck and always be there for him xx

Answer 7

As an experienced teacher of 15 years I wouldn't like to diagnose dislexia. Especially as you don't say what particular difficulties your son has.

However I respectfully suggest that the number of times he has moved school may have something to do with his frustrations. Personally as a 'leftie' myself I don't think this has any thing to with it.

You need to meet with your son's teacher again and discuss what is written on your son's IEP. You should have recieved copies of all of the previous ones - this is your entitlement!
You need to work out a programme of study with the teacher that you can work on with him at home.

As for his anger and lack of friends suggest to the teacher that some sort of social group would be appropriate. At my school we have a learning mentor who runs such groups with vulnerable children.

I hope you succeed with this as your son only gets one chance at his education.

Answer 8

you must ask to see the SENCO of the school, and tell them that you want your son tested to see if he has dyslexia.

for the low self-esteem you could ask the school if they have a mentor or support worker to do one to one or group work with your son this should help him with self-esttem, self image etc. hope it goes ok, but be persistent some schools are better then others at asssessing children.

Good Luck !!!!

Answer 9

There are usually certain programs that help with these problems.
You might want to research and see if there's a group that helps/works with strictly dyslexia diagnosed children. There should be an education group near you, or in a near by larger city. I think that it would be worth the travel if it would help your son.
Hope this helped somehow.

Answer 10

we had serious problems with my son because of the same reason, the fact of the matter is that schools are no longer statementing children, as refugees take priority status. My advise is to keep on at the school non stop until someone finally listens, failing that you could get him diagnosed privately, this does cost but at least you get the statement you need. good luck...