[senco-forum] dyslexia

currently looking at a petition for assessing for dyslexia by age 7 -

Tks Jean -
Most useful -
Yes - if problems show - go for it ...
In my case I was observing a child and could see quite clearly a 'slight
difficulty' with reading - checked out eyes with a orthoptist - tracking
problem - but also, slight processing problem - but I was only looking
at one - whereas the class teacher was looking at many and hadn't
noticed by age 6 though I had been observing since age 4!

p.s. now a few years down the line and the reading is great - now
dealing with the writing (spelling!) -

Tks
Stuart

-----Original Message-----
From: Jean Dowding [mailto:jeanld at fish.co.uk] 
Sent: 03 March 2008 19:32
To: Stuart Lucas
Cc: senco forum
Subject: Re: [senco-forum] dyslexia - screening/testing/assessment

As someone who is qualified to assess for dyslexia, and who was until
last
summer Senco in a primary school in South Wales, I have always
considered
an appropriate age to be the one at which the problems make themselves
obvious.

To expand on that: when a classteacher and/or parent expressed concern
to
me about a child's lack of progress, or other problem, I would talk
(separately) to child, parents and teacher; observe the child in the
classroom and elsewhere and look at child's exercise books.  I would ask
parents to make sure that the child had recent sight and hearing tests
(to
exclude these sources of difficulty).  Then, with parental permission, I
would assess the child for dyslexia.

Assessments used:
My initial assessment was either the Dyslexia Early Screening Test
[DEST]
-below 6:6 years or the Dyslexia Screening Test [DST] - 6:6 yrs onwards.
If this produced no indication of dyslexic tendencies, I looked for
other
reasons for lack of progress etc, but was always ready to repeat the
test
at a later date, if that seemed necessary: sometimes children do not
respond as anticipated in assessment conditions!

If there was an indication of dyslexic tendencies, I would use other
assessments, including parts of the Aston Index, miscue analysis,
spelling
tests etc, in order to obtain as full a picture as possible of the
child's
strengths and weaknesses.

I hope that this is useful.  My situation was rather different from most
schools in my LA in that I was qualified to do the relevant assessments;
there are currently very few sencos in that position, so that most
schools
rely on assessment by Specialist Teachers from the Pupil Support
Service.

Regards

Jean

 A member of the Cross party group at the Scottish Parliament is
> currently looking at a petition for assessing for dyslexia by age 7 -
>
> Turned into a lively debate!
>
> Collegues - questions:
>
> 1.	What do you think is an appropriate age to assess for dyslexia ?
> 2.	What tests are used to assess primary pupils for dyslexia and at
> what age? - is it successful?
>
>
>
> Will try and collate responses - both from the Forum and from our CPG
> petition!
>
> What is happening in Wales around this topic?
>
>
>
> Tks all
>
> Stuart
>
>
>
>
> Loretto School is a Registered Charity, number SCO13978
> Registered Office: 16 Heriot Row, Edinburgh, EH3 6HR, number SCO59500
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