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Dyslexia Too Late

Posted: Fri Mar 16, 2007 10:00 pm
by HP
Hi Help Needed
this message is for etienne , my daughter has just failed her 11 plus by a couple of marks , on the math test
however, this week she has been tested for dyslexia and has indeed a mild form of dyslexia. i always knew that she had something wrong, but the school always said the symptoms she displayed meant she needed to read more , that was why she never understood the questions.
my question is this , if i knew that she was dyslexic she would have had the extra time in her 11 plus exam to get the extra marks needed.
when i go to appeal, can i take the evidence of the dyslexia test?
would it be considered as enough evidence, to support these lack of marks and support her to grammer school, would they ask her to re sit the test? i am so confused and dissapointed that the school never diagnoised this, and that she would have had the extra time for her to read and understand the questions better.

It is not unusual for schools not to pick up dyslexia particularly in a bright child who is achieving above average but perhaps below his/her potential. Often one of the key indicators in a bright child is when the written work doesn't reflect the verbal skills of the child, but even then it can be overloooked. Does the report pinpoint any specific difficulty in maths, and how did your child score on other papers sat?

Yes your daughter may have had extra time if the dyslexia had been diagnosed if this was deemed necessary to enable her to access the tests, it would however depend upon the severity and the recomendation by either your school (via SENCo or HeadTeacher) or an involved profesional eg Educational Psychologist.

However, if you look through the threads on this SEN section you will see that undiagnosed dyslexia doesn't guarantee success at appeal. You will need to prove a high innate ability (presumably your report does give an I.Q.) which is not reflected by the 11+ scores, you would also need to demonstrate that the extra time would have been sufficient to make a difference - often very difficult to prove unless your child failed by say one or two marks.

Not an expert on appeals per se but can say that you need to have strong academic evidence if you are presenting any extenuating circumstances (in your case undiagnosed dyslexia) to improve your chance of success
Also, have you approached your school with your report, what is the response and will they support an appeal?

Finally, I have been viewing this forum for well over a year and am not aware of 11+ re-sits taking place.

HP