The key to getting the best out of a dyslexia diagnosis is knowledge!
It is understood that 1 in 5 individuals are dyslexic, but 80% are undiagnosed by the time they leave school.
Having dyslexia brings wonderful strengths and creative sought after skill sets, but often they are not easily tapped into as children get stuck in the academic teaching that, despite all that we know, continues to rank students in ability to spell, read, remember things by rote.
Using these academic grammatical measurements in school without recognising a child’s difficulty can lead to a chronic lack of self esteem. All they can see – no matter what subject they are studying is that they can’t read aloud and are always found under performing in spelling or writing multiple ideas. At this stage, children can struggle to see the benefits of trying hard as they are often really bright individuals but score so poorly in their written work. It starts to appear pointless to try hard. Common indicators of dyslexia are:
Often there is a clear mis match between aptitude and grammatical performance in a child.
They often struggle to make a clear point, going around the houses, not quite being able to articulate succinctly what they want to convey.
They can struggle to recall simple things such as days of the week, months of the year – things learned by rote.
They perhaps look as though they are not paying attention, but they are simply trying to process what has been said. There can be a time delay in processing information.
There are some wonderful creative talents that a dyslexic student may have, but the struggles above can make school years really difficult and be emotionally very challenging for a child.
These children know that they should be getting on as well as their peers and will often find this incredibly frustrating. It can lead to crossness, anxiety, low moods, not wanting to go to school, behavioural issues at home and school and tummy aches, headaches can all start to appear as the stress becomes chronic.
If you feel that you recognise some of this in your child, do contact school. Let’s face it, if 1 in 5 students are dyslexic, then these things will not be unusual to see in a classroom. Most schools have the ability to do some screening in house. If they can do this quickly, it is the best way to get some initial feedback from testing that there are dyslexic processing patterns going on.
