Coping with Dyslexia at GS, advice please.

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mum23*
Posts: 417
Joined: Tue Mar 02, 2010 1:28 pm

Coping with Dyslexia at GS, advice please.

Post by mum23* »

Can anyone give me any advice. My DD is in year 7 at a GS and certain aspects are proving difficult. She has Dyslexia and did receive extra help at primary school. The difficult bits are copying from the board fast enough and getting through classwork fast enough without it being a mess of bad spelling mistakes, although she has copied out and tried to improve work at home. There is no doubt she is bright but I am not sure how to help her or what to say to school. We have bought a spellchecker which she takes with her but apart from that I am at a bit of a loss. Someone has mentioned coloured filters but I have no experience of these. Reading is ok, it is spelling and writing that are the issue.

Although I sent her LEA assessment to the school I don't think all the teachers are aware that she has dyslexia. It is early days and I am sure the school will prove helpful but can anyone recommend what might help her as I don't want her to lose confidence and she said she is dumb the other day and that hasn't happened before. Maths, science etc all ok and luckily she is good at the physical and practical bits of school so that helps. I haven't yet managed to have a meeting with senco but have phoned to do this. Worried GS might have been a mistake but I didn't want the dyslexia to be a barrier. She scored well in the test and SATs. DD1 is older and hasn't got it and younger DS hasn't got it either.
BB248
Posts: 162
Joined: Thu Sep 17, 2009 10:51 am
Location: Birmingham

Re: Coping with Dyslexia at GS, advice please.

Post by BB248 »

Have you spoken to the school? What do they suggest?

At my DC's school they readily admit that they are not experts but there are usually at least half a dozen dyslexic children there at any one time, so they have some experience. For my DC, where teachers use white boards or have electronic forms of their lesson plans, print offs are given out, to avoid that awful copying from the board problem. This has been esp helpful in subjects like Chemistry where tiny misspellings can create a VERY misleading result! Inside the front cover of each exercise books there is a word list. Each teacher can list upto 5 words at any one time that they want her to concentrate on spelling correctly. This way the task isn't too daunting - and there's more leniency about her rather indivdual approach to other words! The other thing that has helped her, was tape recording facts that she needs to learn. A Latin teacher suggested this for learning vocab, but she uses it for all sorts of things. She often drifts off to sleep listening to her own recordings! Sometimes hearing things just seems to help cement in the info.

The colour overlays are meant to help prevent the letters rearranging themselves on the page, to make the typeface clearer etc. When my DC is tired or when she needs to really concentrate, she uses the overlay. It obviously doesn't help with copying correctly from the board unless DC is prepared to hold it up infont of their faces!

The biggest thing for my DC was learning to proof read her own work. Another tip from school was to read it backwards - sometimes the spelling howlers jump out this way. Ultimately she has simply had to learn that there are certain words that she simply doesn't get. "Does" is one of them unfortunately - always comes out as "dose" so even a spell checker doesn't help. She now has to stop herself everytime she writes "does" and use her very rude nmemonic to make sure of the letter order. Nmemonics can be a great help, btw, esp the scandalous ones.

The one advantage you DC has is that she is bright. Clever dyslexic children often just figure things out for themselves, albeit that the ride might be a bit bumpy whilst they are devising their own strategies. Reminding her that she is bright and reinforcing how many poor spellers have gone on to achieve precisely what they wanted to in life, may help to cushion the frustrating moments.

Good luck to you both.
Snowdrops
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Re: Coping with Dyslexia at GS, advice please.

Post by Snowdrops »

What a brilliant, helpful post BB248!

I'm sure many people will be able to take something from the advice given - thank you :D
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mum23*
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Re: Coping with Dyslexia at GS, advice please.

Post by mum23* »

BB248
Thank you so much, your post has been really helpful and what I was hoping for. Thanks for responding so quickly too. Does/dose YES!! we have it all the time too. The same words come up as a problem and we have talked about them..next time still spelt wrong and the trouble is they are the "easy" words as well as the obvious tricky ones. Last week she wrote out all the numbers 20-30 in her french book in class and had written vingt vingnt every time. "re-write these" from teacher at the bottom. I don't mind that she has to do it again but the teacher isn't aware of her problem. Another teacher has got another girl to finish copying something for her because my DD "is taking too long", things like that. There has been teasing at the beginning of term...making her spell things and laughing, girl said my 5 year old sister can spell better than you" but DCs who did this did apologise (without adult intervention too) and there does not seem to have been anything else.

Could I ask you about the overlays please. Do they come in different colours or just one and where can I buy them to try it?

The tips you mentioned sound perfect, I had been wondering if I could suggest the teachers print out or email to us then at least she could either write them out in her own time or stick them in her book. I am going to try the recording too and I did notice that a dyslexia website had some of the novels and plays for GCSE on audio disc which might help in the future. The trouble is I find the websites on dyslexia I have looked at seem to be selling goods and services and offer almost too much information but nothing that practical and helpful. Your post has helped far more. I feel I have something to go on when I talk to the SENCO and can try and help at home. :D
Greta2
Posts: 180
Joined: Wed Jan 09, 2008 2:21 am

Re: Coping with Dyslexia at GS, advice please.

Post by Greta2 »

Mum23
There is an audio download site that you can find from a link via A****n (online bookseller). They have quite a few text books and study guides and you can download them onto an MP3 player.
My DS (who doesn't have dylexia but has other issues) now has his GCSE English texts and study guides on his iPod. He then listens to them on the bus / when feeling too tired to read for himself. I know that your DD is only in year 7, but the range is growing all the time, and you can listen to a short example of each one to check that you like the reader first before buying.
DS also records his own work (especially languages practice) onto his iPod and listens to it when on the way to school. Everyone else assumes that he is listening to music on the bus!
SSM
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Joined: Sun Feb 08, 2009 12:09 pm

Re: Coping with Dyslexia at GS, advice please.

Post by SSM »

Greta,

how do you search for the MP3 study guides, and do they do them in other subjects?

Thanks
mum23*
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Joined: Tue Mar 02, 2010 1:28 pm

Re: Coping with Dyslexia at GS, advice please.

Post by mum23* »

Greta 2
Thanks for that tip. I think listening to things might help. My DD does learn in that way eg very good at learning song lyrics and can hear and repeat sounds/notes accurately I could see that working. Although reading is not a big problem I think she finds it tiring and is probably slower than many DCs at school. I will take a look at the download site.
Greta2
Posts: 180
Joined: Wed Jan 09, 2008 2:21 am

Re: Coping with Dyslexia at GS, advice please.

Post by Greta2 »

SSM
Most of the study guides that I have found on the site I mentioned so far are for the English texts. They include summary of plot, discussion of characters etc. just search by book title.

I don't want to be had up for advertising, but hope I can mention that BBC bitesize audio who also do free download audiofiles which you can transfer to MP3 player. They have a range of science topics, which for my DS is a good way to reinforce knowledge and an easy and cheap way to start to see if your DC likes learning in that way.

There are a couple of other sites I have found (some free, others charge) and I tend to just search by the topic he needs. But if you search for "mp3 audio file gcse" you will come up with a couple of the better sites .... If you can't find them i'll pm you. They are not restricted to GCSE level, as some are for KS3 and some for A level, but that tends to give the best search results.
inkypinkyponky
Posts: 1863
Joined: Fri Feb 27, 2009 1:41 pm
Location: Gravesend, Kent

Re: Coping with Dyslexia at GS, advice please.

Post by inkypinkyponky »

mum23* wrote:BB248
Could I ask you about the overlays please. Do they come in different colours or just one and where can I buy them to try it?
'scuse me for butting in, but here's my reply to another poster with a similar question about coloured overlays and coloured glasses:-
inkypinkyponky wrote:
nell wrote:Have just googled the glasses- sounds interesting but I fear that my son doesn't have visual dyslexia - will look into it though
The eye condition that is helped by using a coloured overlay or glasses is called Irlen Syndrome. But a dyslexic doesn't necessarily have Irlens's and someone with Irlen's may not have dyslexia!

My DD2 has poor vision and we have had her eyes tested at our local Specsavers every 6 months since she was 3 (she's now 12). When the school Educational Psychologist found out DD2 was dylexic she encouraged us to request through Specsavers an appointment with an Optometrist.

The Optometrist visited only one afternoon a month and we had to wait three months to have an appointment of about an hour which cost £25. He tested DD for Irlen syndrome by asking her to read a passage from a book. He then laid many different coloured overlays on the book to find out if any of the colours helped her see the words better.

In DD's case she didn't have Irlens but he found another problem in that her eyes focus at different lengths and independently of each other!

If you have never had your son's eyes tested it might be worthwhile having them tested, or if he already does wear glasses, ask his opticians how to get an appointment with an Optometrist.

Have a shufti at this website too, it's very informative 'irlenuk.com'

Good luck!

Edited to add:- If a coloured overlay is useful, it is possible to have a block of plain writing paper in that colour for the child to use because obviously you cannot write underneath the overlay!
SSM
Posts: 646
Joined: Sun Feb 08, 2009 12:09 pm

Re: Coping with Dyslexia at GS, advice please.

Post by SSM »

Thanks Greta2, i shall have a search around, and pm you if I need more help.
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