Supporting a dyslexic child

By Ellie Malt

“Do you think she might have dyslexia or something like that?” I asked.

I was standing in the playground with one of the teaching assistants, watching my 4 year old climb into her buggy, eager for her after-school snack. Although it was only her second term in Reception, I’d noticed she seemed uninterested in the alphabet, while other children could already write their names.

But I was only really thinking out loud. Even to me, it seemed ridiculously early to be jumping to any conclusions. “Probably” she shot back over the general hubbub.

I admit, I was shocked. But looking back years later, finally in possession of a formal diagnosis, I appreciate her honesty. I only wish I had acted sooner; it could have saved so much struggle and frustration.

In the following years, when I picked my daughter up from playdates, I would see the books being read by her friends. They were usually far in advance of anything we were struggling through at home. Bedtime reading had become a frustrating experience. Spelling tests were dreaded.

I turned to friends who were teachers for advice. “Each child learns at their own pace” they said. I clung to that mantra for a couple more years, until the issues became too difficult to ignore. Plucking up courage, I approached her teacher and suggested investigating dyslexia. Her reply was discouraging: “Do you really want to ‘label’ your child? In any case, there is no official diagnosis possible until she is seven.”

By my daughter’s eighth birthday, her loss of confidence was dramatic and she was falling even further behind at school. To me, it seemed obvious there was a problem. But still I had to push her school into running a screening test. psychologist for a proper assessment.” Six months and several hundred pounds later we had the official diagnosis. While it was a relief, it was also the beginning of a new and difficult stage in the dyslexia journey as we struggled to work out what to do next.

According to the Richmond Dyslexia Association: “Neuroscience has made lots of very recent discoveries about the learning brain and what a dyslexic brain looks like.” Crucially, there may be several reasons why the connections between the sounds and the shapes of the alphabet don’t establish themselves firmly in some children in the early years. An excellent strategy for parents is to find out which reasons apply specifically to their child.

“Dyslexia is on a spectrum so is it an umbrella term for a wide range of strengths and difficulties? It is becoming much less common for it to be given a single diagnosis” reports Sophie Camillieri, Chair of Richmond Dyslexia Association.

Many of the explanations for why an intelligent child finds it difficult to learn to read or write begin with the two main ways we absorb language from the world around us: our eyes and ears. Good words to google here are “sensory processing.”

For some children, discriminating between different sounds is problematic. For others, a barrier to learning might be found in the visual pathway. As a starting point in establishing which of these issues apply to your child, you could seek an assessment from a Behavioural Optometrist, Auditory Consultant or Speech and Language Therapist. Dyslexia also overlaps with other conditions that could be affecting your child’s sensory input, such as hyper-mobility and ADD or ADHD. Learning more about these could help you to eliminate them or find therapies that will remove as many barriers to your child’s learning as possible.

differently, it’s unsurprising that the brain learns to handle and store that data differently. Educational Psychologists talk about “working memory.” Neurologists refer to the “semantic memory.” This is where many of the various approaches to dyslexia learning support come into play because, by triggering all five senses, they rely on the episodic memory instead of the traditional “working” or “semantic” memory.

When it comes to reading, some learning support methods focus on breaking words down into chunks, combined with repetition. Others are more about enjoying reading. According to Dyslexia Author, Dr Gavin Reid: “Studies have shown that releasing children from the burden of decoding can facilitate or enhance comprehension.” A child with dyslexia will learn differently, you just have to work out what works for them.

While no one wants to reduce their child to a label, the official diagnosis of dyslexia for my daughter gave me the confidence to start looking for answers and to begin finding the help we needed.

Teachers are still given almost no training in how to recognise dyslexia and how to help a child. So the support your child receives will very much depend on your ability to support them.

There is no one central place to go for help and no single answer that works for all. But the more I have learned, the more I have been able to help. And while she may always have “the label,” she is now an 11 year old, with a reading age of a 14 year old! An achievement that seemed unthinkable a few years ago.

Ellie Malt is a writer. She lives in Surrey and has two primary school age daughters.

Sources of Help

It’s really helpful to look for organisations that provide support in your local area.

Here are some good national sources, some with links to local support.

British Dyslexia Association (www.bdadyslexia.org.uk) offers advice, assessments and a free helpline. It also helps you find your local dyslexia association (www.bdadyslexia. org.uk/contact/find-a-local-dyslexia-association)

The Dyslexia Association (www.dyslexia.uk.net) offers screening, assessment, tuition, assistive technology training and a free helpline.

Dyslexia Assist (www.dyslexia-assist.org.uk) provides information about where to find local support.

Achieve Now (www.achievenow.org.uk) works with pupils with dyslexia and IT. It has great resources on its website and provides all services and consultations online.

IPSEA (www.ipsea.org.uk/Pages/Category/service-overview) is an Independent Provider of Special Education Advice that offers free and independent legally based information, advice and support to help get the right education for children and young people with all kinds of special educational needs and disabilities (SEND).

Helen Arkell Dyslexia Centre (www.helenarkell.org.uk) is regional (based in Surrey) but is considered significant in terms of influence.

Dyslexia Features

Your child may:

Talk well but write surprisingly little; Be a slow or reluctant reader; Have difficulties with spelling and/or writing; Not always remember or understand what he/she has just read; Seem inattentive and unable to concentrate or remember instructions; Have difficulty organising himself/herself; Find it hard to remember the order of things, such as the days of the week; Have difficulty copying from the blackboard; Feel discouraged and at times causes trouble.

Getting a Diagnosis

Getting a full report from an Educational Psychologist is a lengthy and expensive process. Sometimes reports are required by schools before they will provide extra learning support, or extra time in exams. But they are not always necessary and schools don’t have to act on them. Learning technology consultant, Caroline Batemen, recommends parents check with their child’s school first as to what difference a full report will make. Cheaper and quicker alternatives include a level seven qualified assessor or an online screening test such as Nessy’s. www.nessy.com/uk/product/dyslexia-screening