[senco-forum] [SENco-forum] dyslexia -screening/testing/assessment

A full response -
Many thanks Sharon -
My 'expertise' is at the secondary level ...
I get my department to screen all pupils age 12 and 13 on entry with
LASS and NFER single word spelling ... we can then go onto:
WRAT 4
ERTi
Lucid Rapid
TOWRE
DASH - not used it yet
BPVS
DST

I make up a 'monitor' list and give out to HoDs with Headmaster/Director
of Studies present - 

Rely on teacher feedback and both pupil/parent input too (that may come
first!)...

Come age 16 we screen using LADS and if a difficulty use ERTi and ask
for teacher feedback and discuss with pupil and then letter to parent -
first year of doing this.

I believe it is worth the work.

Not sure about Primary - but via my own two daughters I believe I was
more aware of their learning style and hitches prior to teachers
becoming aware -
But teachers very helpful once initial concerns raised. They have always
been open to meetings and ideas ... I guess from a parent's point of
view ... my children were in the 'middle' reading group and that did not
seem right!!!!!!! Surely my wee one should be in the top group (well
should be doing better than she is!) - very good vocally and very good
vocabulary - even at age 3 the nurse was saying 'wow' - and yet a
miserly 'middle' group!

Unless you have been labeled as 'average' throughout your school career
(when you probably thought you shouldn't be) you do not know the
torments of the label 'average'!

AAAAaaaaarrrrrgggggggghhhhhh!

Surely it cannot be that difficult to have a 'template' of good practice
to cover 'most' eventualities to do with dyslexia in
Primary/Secondary/Higher-Further Ed???????

All the best
Stuart

-----Original Message-----
From: senco-forum-bounces at lists.becta.org.uk
[mailto:senco-forum-bounces at lists.becta.org.uk] On Behalf Of
SEN at tringham.net
Sent: 04 March 2008 08:58
To: Becta Senco
Subject: Re: [senco-forum] [SENco-forum] dyslexia
-screening/testing/assessment

As a mother of 4 with SpLD first and then through LA resistance to
supporting them  an SpLD tutor 2nd I agree that thorough testing when
the
child registers difficulty - according to child, parent or teacher, is a
good age.

I love the idea of supporting in a dyslexia friendly way from day one so
that no one needs to be 'labelled' and can be 'supported' in class, but
it
is only a start point at best and a cop out at worst.

I'm with Mary Kelly and I am glad that the time she puts in to find out
where on a continuum a child lies in a crossover of areas (including IQ)
lies as in reality without identification and testing early on the
'problem'
is just pushed further down the line.

My oldest daughter did not get help until she was at University. She
suffered a lot before that but I was too busy trying to support the
child
that was so bad that she had have a Statement of Educational need! The
one
with the statement is doing fine. the one with likely APD and chronic
short
tern memory has been ignored and has to learn to cope best she can with
her
multicoloured highlighter pens and the allowance of taking exams in a
quiet
room as no one, including me, knows how to help her.  The youngest has
just
hit high school and guess what - while on School Action Plus I am being
told - 'He is not as bad as the rest so he does not need any additional
support'.  Probably my mistake for spending 2 hours minimum every night
re-jigging or 'differentiating' his homework into a form that allows him
to
succeed rather than to fail. On the up side my math is improving and I
am
being forced to learn 2 languages!  Anyone need some good cards for
German
numbers and colours?

As for EP's and the debate on how, or 'if', dyslexia can be identified -
The
first one explained that it was easy for teachers to overlook High
IQ/dyslexia as they (the teachers) were only averagely intelligent, and
then, stunned by the results from overlooked child 3 -overwhelmingly and
undeniably dyslexic- proceeded to over look child 2, noting her
explanation
and spelling of 'desiccated' for 'deserted' as  'charming'. Or say her
lack
of mental math was not much of a problem as it was 'average' - when her
overall IQ is 135.  The 2nd & school EP when faced with child 2 stats
-of
WISC NV 141/ v 93 the BAS NV 91/ NV 141 agreed that 1:1 teaching was the
only way to go at this late stage (Year 5).  Then said off the record
that
the LA did not allow this to be written down, hence our rush to then
pursue
the statement to Tribunal. EP3 was the 'score on a scale of 10 how you
are
feeling about.....type'.  Honestly at this stage I did not think it was
wise
to tell him.  The feeling of farce when faced with a room of 12 people
at a
transfer meeting for an all but illiterate 10 year old, for which the
cure
seemed to be to decide what piece of furniture we all were ....

Although to be fair I have now learned the importance of rating a
child's
feelings and thought of self via the 1-10 scale, but at the time..   So
on
to EP 4 a fine succinct piece of mechanics with test scores to die for
all,
neatly laid out and no one thereafter to interpret them.  Dropped the
report
to school, sat back and waited and nothing happened as no one there
could
read, interpret, understand or get the appropriate support in either.

More training was needed, nothing was forthcoming so I forked out and
did
the Dyslexia Diploma training myself, just to wipe the smug smile off
the LA
Cognition & Learning manager if she ever dared asked me again why I
thought
I knew what was best for my daughter.

As a family we suffered horribly for years and I don't mean in a middle
class 'Oh no Olivia is not going to make Grammar shall we go private?'
I
mean years of stress and illness and tiredness and thoughts of
suicide(from
a 9 year old when literacy hour came in), school refusal and frustration
with LA stupidity, ridiculous homework demands due to lack of
discrimination, lack of teacher training, or worse, lack of interest and
all
the while trying to balance the overwhelming feeling of failure with
trying
to remain positive, be good parents and school governor/supporters.

So - yes to better teacher training that includes assessment and testing
using summatative and formative means to ensure those with 'problems' to
be
identified early and appropriately supported. Or at least computer
screeners
in the mean time as a start point.

Yes - to 'dyslexia friendly' teaching that harms no one until the
children
become an independent, knowing their own way of learning.

Yes - to 'personalised learning' if there is enough training so that
teachers become more flexible in Primary and Secondary in order to teach
successfully from Pscales to Einsteins in one breath, magically doing
away
with any need for SEN labelling and support.

Or are we are going to have to accept mixed age classes as has been
suggested by the powers above so that all can work at their own level?
Who will be qualified to work out what that level is, or should be?
Whatever happened to that debate where most on this site decided that it
was
not OK to advance or hold back a child for a year?

Sharon Tringham

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