Bucks Appeal - Dyslexia severity question

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tobyprice
Posts: 65
Joined: Wed May 01, 2013 7:57 pm

Bucks Appeal - Dyslexia severity question

Post by tobyprice »

I know there are other discussions on this board, but I have a specific question about the criteria used to measure the severity of Dyslexia. Does anyone know what criteria the schools and LAs use? If you can prove that Dyslexia is Substantial, it also proves (according to law as I understand it), that it is a disability in a child and must be considered by the LA/schools. Substantial is also defined as MORE THAN Minor or Trivial. Our first appeal notes said that our child had not been considered Disabled and we are disputing that.

As an aside, it strikes me as obtuse, and on poor legal ground, if the less significant Dyslexia is NOT considered by the LA, but the more significant IS considered. That surely is unfair on the ones who just fall short of the significant level, but may have been very close to the pass mark or may have received less support through school than someone statemented. Any thoughts?
Sally-Anne
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Location: Buckinghamshire

Re: Bucks Appeal - Dyslexia severity question

Post by Sally-Anne »

tobyprice wrote:Our first appeal notes said that our child had not been considered Disabled and we are disputing that.
I would advise you against doing that as part of FCO, because that is about challenging the process, and not the panel's judgement. You could certainly ask exactly how long the review panel spent on your case "to satisfy the appeal panel that it wasn't a hurried decision". You won't get a clear answer, of course - but that in itself should tell the panel quite a lot!

If you want to argue disability as part of your case for Selection, ideally you will need to be able to produce a report from someone like an Educational Psychologist that specifically mentions "moderate" or "severe" dyslexia.

The panel would consider a milder form of dyslexia as an extenuating circumstance, but it will probably only support your case if the score is borderline.

The Selection Review policy of requiring exceptional extenuating circumstances irrespective of 11+ scores seems an incredibly simplistic approach, and I cannot bring myself to believe that every case that was successful genuinely had such evidence.
Sunshine 11
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Joined: Thu Nov 01, 2012 7:29 pm

Re: Bucks Appeal - Dyslexia severity question

Post by Sunshine 11 »

My daughter has dyslexia but when I asked her educational psychologist if it was "severe" or "mild" she said that no such terms technically existed and the an Ed Psych would not use these terms. ?
Sunshine 11
Que sera, sera
Etienne
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Re: Bucks Appeal - Dyslexia severity question

Post by Etienne »

I used to see EP reports that referred to 'mild' or 'moderate' dyslexia. Agreed that not all did. Some referred to 'dyslexic tendencies'. Perhaps the latter diagnosis is more common nowadays?

It also seemed quite common for educational psychologists to recommend extra time where they considered it appropriate. Presumably the maximum recommendation (25%) would indicate at least a moderate, if not severe, need?

It was the Equality Act (and its predecessor, the DDA) that used the definition 'more than minor or trivial'.

If an educational psychologist or other appropriate professional cannot interpret the test data in broad terms (mild, moderate or severe), I very much doubt that LAs, SRPs and appeal panels could be expected to do better!
Etienne
inkypinkyponky
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Location: Gravesend, Kent

Re: Bucks Appeal - Dyslexia severity question

Post by inkypinkyponky »

My DD2 is now in year 11, but when she was assessed by an Ed Psych, in year 5 at primary school, I was told by the SENCO that a child does not simply have dyslexia, they have a combination of 'tendencies'.

SENCO explained that to think of dyslexia as an umbrella, that many things under it may be a problem for one child, but different problems under the umbrella may occur for other children.

DD2 has 80% tendencies, which is obviously better than 100%, but much worse than 0%!

She has recently been allowed by Edexel and AQA an extra 15 minutes time, for every hour of her GCSE exams.

Maybe it's worth asking your Ed Psych for a percentage of dyslexic tendencies. If he/she says that Ed Psychs don't use this terminology, they certainly did in Kent 6 years ago!
mystery
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Re: Bucks Appeal - Dyslexia severity question

Post by mystery »

Ha, the Ed Psych you used in Kent 6 years ago might have done, but that was that particular psychologist I bet, or things have changed since. I've asked around lots of school and the Ed Psych section, and the specialist teaching section for a definition of dyslexia as used by state schools in Kent .... no clear answer. I've read several school special needs policies and asked them for the definition of dyslexia they use .... no clear answer.

There are nearly as many definitions of dyslexia and ways of assessing it as there are numbers of children with dyslexia - I jest a little, but it's nearly like that.

This is why for exam concession, and Disabled Students Allowance, there are usually some definitions relating to writing speed, reading speed, reading accuracy, spelling accuracy etc set by the examining body and for the DSA, the government.

Moral is, if you are tested and you want concessions in an exam at school/ college / uni or DSA while you are at college / uni is to read as slowly and badly as you can, spell everything wrong, and write slowly too.
Belinda
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Joined: Thu Nov 08, 2007 10:57 pm

Re: Bucks Appeal - Dyslexia severity question

Post by Belinda »

I'm not sure if this link is helpful or not. As Mystery says, there are many differing views and policies, however, many higher educational establishments use the Social Model of Disability.

It may help you to better understand where confusion may stem from.
http://www.scope.org.uk/about-us/our-br ... disability" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

Edited to add:
X University works with a social model of disability. This means that we acknowledge that students are disabled by the social barriers which they face, barriers which can be removed.

The Equality Act 2010 defines a disability as a long-term condition, which lasts, or is likely to last, over 12 months and which has a substantial and adverse effect on someone’s ability to perform day-to-day activities. The Act gives disabled students protection from discrimination and the right to request reasonable adjustments as a result of their disability.

The Disability Office works to support students with any difficulty which is having a disabling impact on their studies. This might include, but is not limited to, Asperger’s Syndrome, visual or hearing impairments, medical conditions (including for example, epilepsy, diabetes, cancer and HIV), mental health difficulties, specific learning differences (i.e. dyslexia, dyspraxia, dyscalculia), AD(H)D and physical disabilities.
mystery
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Re: Bucks Appeal - Dyslexia severity question

Post by mystery »

Mmm that makes it clearer doesn't it?! At least the literacy levels for DSA are clear - see the SASC website. All this stuff is just so vague it's irritating. You could spend your life reading it all and get nowhere.
inkypinkyponky
Posts: 1863
Joined: Fri Feb 27, 2009 1:41 pm
Location: Gravesend, Kent

Re: Bucks Appeal - Dyslexia severity question

Post by inkypinkyponky »

mystery wrote:
Moral is, if you are tested and you want concessions in an exam at school/ college / uni or DSA while you are at college / uni is to read as slowly and badly as you can, spell everything wrong, and write slowly too.
That's not a very nice comment at all. It's not a thing to jest about.

It's not very sensitive to children like my daughter who has struggled with vision and many other problems since the age of 3. It implies that she is faking her problems. The years of being sick with worry, many nights of tears and "why can't I see/read/write properly?" have been awful, along with hospital visits, optician visits, school visits to her on School Action Plus.

The extra 15 minutes per hour of exams that she will get from AQA and Edexel took a year of fighting from me, and several visits from the exam boards to test my daughter in school. All the tests and all assessors agreed she is 4 years behind her peers in reading and writing.

I think she deserves sympathy, not mockery.

I was trying to help on this thread, and I did make perfectly clear that the Ed Psych testing and report was in Kent, 6 years ago.

I think the percentage figure given was useful, as opposed to a mild, moderate or severe definition. There is the 'National Curriculum' so maybe UK ED Psychs could agree to use the same tests and give results that are the same for all counties.
mystery
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Joined: Tue Jul 21, 2009 10:56 pm

Re: Bucks Appeal - Dyslexia severity question

Post by mystery »

I wasn't really suggesting any of that - sorry you were offended. I just think that it is a system that is open to some people playing it a bit - just like any grant system.

Also, for those who do need the exam concessions / extra tuition at school / DSA money at college or uni it is a flawed system as it depends which definition is being used whether you are defined as needing some help or not.

For examples, in schools that use the IQ discrepancy definition you can have a child not being adequately taught to read for years because there isn't an IQ discrepancy so it's felt that their poor progress in learning to read is because they are unable to learn to read well. In fact it's only a miniscule proportion of the population that can't if the right methods are used.

It would be much better if help and support were given to children / students with literacy difficulties whether or not some cases are branded as "dyslexia" and others are not. There are many people who get left out because of the vague notion of "dyslexia" rather than just saying "oh dear, this aspect of this child's spelling / reading / writing needs to improve - let's make sure we teach them in a way where they do improve".

And it's very said that it took so long and all those experts to agree that she was four years behind in her reading and writing etc. It only takes a few hours at the very most to establish that, and it must have been obvious to her teachers too for several years. It's partly all the fog around dyslexia that makes it so hard.

There are children at our primary school who get concessions in KS2 sats who needed teaching to read well, simple as that. They sat around for years getting more and more left behind. It's sad.

Getting full vision tests for the kind of things that can cause difficulty reading other than just a straight prescription for glasses is difficult too.

If you read all the bumph and gumph on dyslexia it just goes on forever and is mostly of no help whatsoever other than delaying poor parents in getting what is needed to enable their child to read and write well.
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