Dyslexia-personal experiences and help

I wouldn't blame the individual teacher daph I blame the education system, lack of training and lack of resources. There are schools that deal specifically with thi s, but they are all fee paying. My daughter explored the possibility but couldn't afford it.

I know. I also know that some of the fee paying schools are a rip off. They generally have smaller classes, so can give pupils more individual attention, but they don't all have dyslexia specialists. Some of my private pupils over the years have been dyslexic or autistic, which is why I've made an effort to find out more about the conditions. Unfortunately, I can't afford the specialist courses. In fact, the more I find out about dyslexia and SN, the more I realise that very little is invested in training for teachers or resources for pupils. Some SN units in comprehensive schools are still little more than 'sin bins' for the naughty and those with general learning difficulties.

How amazing to read how well children are doing but I know from experience just how much parents have to work to get a lot of the help available. My daughter is doing well with severe dyslexia - diagnosed in the early 80's when I was too. I find not many of my generation actually had a diagnosis but it does help to find the right help. I do hope no one calls any child ignorant or stupid these days but I can remember one of my teacher's shaking me until I was sick one day because I was so careless! Strangely I didn't bear any grudges as I felt just as frustrated as he did.

Worse, I felt, was the junior school teacher who stood my daughter on a chair a chair in the classroom so she could tell the class how stupid she was. Although we moved her from that 'lovely little school' it probably took another six to nine months for her to get over the trauma and start talking to people again (since then she hasn't stopped ). She had become so withdrawn but her new head believed me when I said all I wanted was for her to be happy and worked with her until he could do some simple tests. I always hope the days of blaming the child are over. We then had to pay to get a diagnosis - I wonder if there has ever been a time when these were quickly available - and she then got some tuition through the school, but we had to back that with private lessons when this stopped (cuts of course). Thankfully they were not £50 Whitewave! I remember people talking about word blindness Anya and the exhaustion from concentration certainly rings bells.

We did seem to have quite a lot of occurrences of dyslexia in the family and I wondered how many of you have found it within your extended family or has it just been one person?

I love the idea that some of you are able to take your learning on this still further. For me the greatest advance is in the technical side of things. I don't enjoy my computer talking to me - I find you loose the nuance but my daughter uses her reading software and has dictating software too. I heard a programme on the radio talking about an office where they had put in dictating software for a member of staff who was dyslexic but they decided to put it in on all the computers - apparently everyone's work improved

Good to talk isn't it gg? I am amazed at how many have responded.

Can I suggest you have a look at the website of Barrington Stoke. They publish books especially for reluctant and dyslexic readers. They use well known authors and have the books especially adapted to suit those with reading problems, such as the colour of the paper, the use of appropriate fonts, text that is checked by experts so that it is easily readable. They also have great illustrators.

There are a great variety of books and grouped into ages.

If any of you live in Edinburgh they usually appear ar the Festival and promote their books there. I think they are based in Scotland.

Rinouchka I'm pleased you have found a specialist school for your GS. I'm sure his term of home education will help him as well. Hope all goes well
Congrats to all doing courses linked with dyslexia.I think the more we learn the more support we can give.
It is amazing all the achievements that have been posted about.
I think there's definitely a family link, I have a nephew who is dyslexic and I once helped some parents get a proper assessment for their very bright daughter, After she was diagnosed the father revealed that he had a daughter from a previous relationship who was older and was dyslexic.
I've seen some very helpful teachers and TAs who really understand and appreciated all the problems, and a few 'dinosaurs' who thought all that was needed was a bit of hard work.

Thanks NanKate that web site is brilliant. Just what I need for the DGS(9). He hasn't had a diagnosis of dyslexia, his SEN is short term memory issues. Very late starter to reading, still has special class for literacy, but is now a competent reader when the books interest him, so I want to get him more onto books that he hopefully can want to read himself. We have had great success with the Project X series from Oxford Owls.

One of my sons (now 35) had a dreadful time during his early school years. We knew him to be intelligent but at primary school we were told he wasn't the brightest of children and should aim for an apprenticeship (please don't think I'm knocking apprenticeships but in those days, it wasn't a lot to aim for). School phobia soon followed with bullying. We were so lucky with the head teacher who called in the Educational Psychologist who diagnosed him as being dyslexic and things were turned round. The school concentrated on what he could do well, he took music lessons in lunch hours, helped setting up the computers and with science projects. In his secondary school, the help and support continued, he moved into the top maths group and took part in extra science lessons run at lunchtimes for the older pupils and grew in confidence.

He is able to explain how he manages his reading difficulties. Apparently, he scans a few lines of text at a time, looking for longer words. Then he tries to work out what the longer words mean. Once he has done that, he goes back over the text and reads it again, inserting the meaning of the longer words into the text until it makes sense. It sounds incredibly difficult but he has worked out his own way of dealing with it. No one working with him would know. I don't know how schools deal with dyslexia now but thought it may help some to understand how one dyslexic copes.

That was an amazing turn-around NanaMacGeek.

I have often wondered if it wouldn't be worth doing a mini-test for dyslexia at a fairly early point in schools, obviously followed up if it shows the dyslexia issues. Once picked up it needs a different way of teaching but that different way could make all the difference. I just think about the fact that it is 'estimated' (which tells me no proper research has been done so shame of all governments) the general average of dyslexia in prison-based studies is about 30%.* I just can't believe that, as well as improving lives screening might well save us money if it was picked up early.

*https://www.theyworkforyou.com/whall/?id=2012-11-21a.198.0

It was always something that was supposed to be in the pipeline GGMK2 I imagine it is something else that will be cut. I agree about the subsequent cost. Looking at the stories on here it seems that at the top end supported dyslexics do well and really achieve, unfortunately the bottom end are the ones who end up in prison. I remember sending a child from a very poor area for a dyslexia test. He was a difficult lad, lots of challenging behaviour and messing about in class. I can imagine if he didn't get the support he needed he would have strayed and finished up inside.

Jut thought I would add info. on the psychological tests used to diagnose dyslexia ( at, least as it was when I was working as an EP.)
First, an intelligence test such as the WISC :
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wechsler_Intelligence_Scale_for_Children
Then routine reading and spelling tests.
If there's a large discrepancy between IQ and reading/spelling scores, this suggests dyslexia. Then look for the cause of the problem, using the test called the Illinois test of Psycholinguistic Ability - which should reveal strong and weak learning areas.
www.proedinc.com/customer/productView.aspx?ID=788
Remedial work in those days involved a lot of repetitive drill in phonics and word recognition, but might be more interesting now, with modern computer programmes.

That is my memory of the teaching we helped my daughter with TriciaF but she also did seem to get lessons in what I suppose were general coping strategies - she still uses a lot spidergrams and mind mapping when starting a project and she teaches them within her standard classes I think. I could be wrong about this but I think that she learn some of this (it's quite a long time ago at our local Dyslexia Institute. I know how lucky we were to a) be able to afford the lessons and b) have this virtually on our doorstep. She has picked up things about how people 'read' what you write and the assumptions they may make. Learning to write longer sentences is one thing I can remember her commenting on for instance.

One thing that always makes me smile is that both DD and myself have often been asked about a spelling 'because you'll know'. This is by people who have no idea of the dyslexia. Of course we don't and I am blessing the computer as I type this and see the correct letters pop in - as long as I have got it nearly right. What we are good at is find out the correct spelling (if we know we need it) and giving the time to do so and also in lots of proof reading and proof reading for each other or asking other to do it if there is a need. It is hugely time consuming though.

My son who rights loads of reports at quite a high level, totally relies on the computer. He occasionally asks me to proof read if it is of the highest importance. Makes interesting reading sometimes Goodness knows what his work colleagues must think. It doesn't seem to phase my son remotely though!! And it certainly hasn't prevented his progress in his chosen career. I suspect there is a large element of problem solving concerned, and imaginative solutions.

I think there is a bit of 'getting past' the three Rs bit WW. I wish I knew all the details but I think, on my DDs work for her Masters it says they may not penalise for spelling errors, etc. She still gets extra time in exams too and has had since her GCSE days when she got the maximum available but it has become just part of what happens now. That sort of thing has certainly helped her get to a stage where what she knows seems more important than how she writes - would that is was like that for everyone but, of course, this spreads across the IQ spectrum and includes children with other problems as trisher said.

My DS uses a spell checker on his laptop that suggests words by context rather than by the first few letters. So helpful because his spelling guesses are sometimes very bizarre!

A couple of little tricks I learnt were to give pupils a ruler when reading to stop lines 'jumping' and make sure worksheets were uncluttered. I can't imagine what a person with dyslexia makes of an average computer page with side bars, pop up ads, etc. Different coloured paper and coloured overlays can help with reading.

When teaching blended phonics (syllables) I used to encourage pupils to close their eyes and 'write' with their fingers, which seemed to help by getting them to concentrate on the shape of the letters and avoid distractions.

Different coloured text helps dd. I usually use a mid blue rather than black on a computer and then 'select all' and change the colour for the rest of the world.

My DD's dictation software has us in fits at times. She often uses it to type notes and, while it is great most of the time, we do get the odd really weird word/s when it tries to make sense of some to the academic words relating to what she is doing (I know how it feels) but there is also the odd 'hi Mum, put the kettle on' in the middle of it when she forgets it's listening

dd I wonder if the writing in the air helps by working with, rather than against, the brain - I can imagine it might.

I don't know. It was something I came cross, when I was teaching my DD (who isn't dyslexic) to write. It seemed to work well, so I tried with some dyslexic pupils and they said it helped. When teaching foreign languages, pupils have to learn some different spelling patterns. I was always quite careful to teach them explicitly and not assume they could do them, based on knowledge of English spelling. I did it with all pupils, so dyslexics weren't necessarily disadvantaged. They were learning and being taught something new.

dd I was thinking that many dyslexics (sorry that is a bit of a broad sweep) seem to have a high spatial ability so I can imagine placing the letters might help them register but, to be honest, I don't really know enough about the spatial bit.

Multi sensory approaches are really supposed to be helpful, so seeing the letter/word, saying the letter/word, feeling the letter/word and writing the letter/word can help. Sandpaper letters are used as well. Think this probably ties in with writing in the air. The problem with children being diagnosed at older ages is that they don't want to be seen as 'thick' so are reluctant to engage with anything they consider 'babyish'

daphnedill - my husband often uses that trick with the ruler.
Another point about assessment - other reasons for reading problems need to be ruled out, eg vision and hearing problems, school time lost from illness, emotional problems etc.
There used to be a lot of children with blocked nasal tubes leading to partial deafness, who eventually switched off in the classroom, either sat in a dream or becoming naughty. This was treated with gromets in their ears.

Try the Dyslexia SOciety for info and possible reading lessons

If you can afford it (like all things in life money talks!) try a specialist optician who can check out responses to different colours and lights.

Specialist typing lessons for children who can't cope with handwriting (also helps with spelling and using a keyboard)

My DGC diagnosed 4 years ago now reads really well but has has an hour a week one to one reading and two hours a week typing course. Not free but worthwhile.

Ahem! You might guess from the above that I have the same problem.

Back in the 80's and 90's I was fortunate enough to work for a forward thinking Local Authority who put support into secondary schools for children with Specific Learning Difficulties (SpLD) including Dyslexia. We were given free (and inspirational) training and also learned from the pupils themselves.

In the school I worked in we developed systems to allow pupils to photocopy legible class notes from friends, gave them a 'bolt hole' area to 'de-stress', developed their touch typing and computer skills (multisensory - visual, auditory and kinaesthetic), lobbied examination boards to allow readers and scribes to demonstrate skills in areas other than English and literacy, personally read books onto tapes to allow them to hear great literature, set up an active parent group, did fund raising to provide spellcheckers, early laptops and dictaphones and much much more, including staff training (by us) which resulted in amazing achievements and raised self esteem of the pupils. They became genuinely respected members of the school community.

We persuaded the authority that support given earlier to these young people would be even more beneficial and cost effective and so were deployed into primary schools. We even introduced peer tutoring so that secondary pupils could go into the primary schools, read to younger children at their own level and help them with writing. The confidence of the older pupils was massively improved as a result.

Guess what..... rationalisation and cuts meant that initially schools were delegated the money that (allegedly) paid for us and we were reorganised (every few years) until the service became unrecognisable and had to deal with the whole spectrum of SEN. We had less and less contact with actual pupils.

Schools were expected to deal with SpLD pupils themselves. For some reason !!!! Behavioural problems escalated. I wonder why?!!!

I apologise for going on.. but I feel so angry that all our hard work was wasted and we seem to have gone backward. Now not only the pupils but the teachers are crying out for this kind of support. It isn't only money. It requires creative thinking - maybe that of a dyslexic!!!!

I remember those days too Grandma2213. There were teachers' centres, which ran evening courses (so no supply needed) and where groups of teachers could meet and work on specific projects. Local Management of Schools mean that money was no longer available to local authorities and the centres gradually closed. This coincided with the 1988 Education Act and National Curriculum, which placed education firmly in central government's hands, rather than locally, which was the myth 'sold' to the public.