[Lesley Silvester]

I am doing a course to qualify me to teach learners with dyslexia and I'm really struggling with it.  Yesterday I was tested and....... I'm dyslexic.

I've suspected it for some time but, despite having a Batchelors' degree, a Masters and a Post Gtaduate Certificate in Education, and struggling with all of them, no one has picked it up before.

At least I can understand where my learners are coming from.

[Cinderhills]

And you've written your book too so a great achievement. 

[Sylvia]

I suspect a lot of us are to a small degree. I put it down to us being so clever, our brains go faster than our pen I know I have to read through everything twice, read and written and it often doesn't make sense then

[tizaala]

This quallifies you for a job writing Welsh road signs.......

There are several specialist schools and a very good private school near Romsey in Hampshire called Stanbridge Earls, My wife used to teach there part time.

[Bert]

Welcome to the club . As you teach pepole that are dyslexic you know there are lots of different degese of it. Your is ovicely a very miner case, don't worry about it, I've known lots of dyslexics right letters backwards and spell in a very odd way. As a dyslexic I have truble reading and if it's not spelt right I don't stand a chance (i'm my own warst enamy ) One of the bigest ways it afects me is my balence. I often veer off course like I've had half a shandy to meny .
I've not used spell check hope you can read all this.. 

[robert waddell]

my eldest daughter has dyslexia primary school we alerted the teachers that she could be dyslexic they rubbished the idea secondary school the same problem   until one night on the news they were doing a feature on dyslexia   one of the key words was to write kilsyth (i think that was it)   and they showed you how a dyslexic would spell it     asked daughter to write kilsyth down and she wrote it the dyslexic way informed the school and they immediately assisted with her school work and went on to college and assistance again
not so sure about veering to the left i always thought that was a sign of a stroke/heart attack minor one

[FiB]

Very interesting all.  MGM do you think it is important to know - I am unsure wether to push for testing for son (aged 10)  as the school say they dont get any extra help (so nothing changes potentially) but he does get a 'label' . Like me he does have many of the signs but can read fine (after a very late start).  Good luck with your course, you are a very busy and talented lady!!

[rbarlo32]

its very important to get him tested. he will be at a disadvantage against the "normal" student. with out the assesment he will miss out on the extra support that there is. he will need extra support when it comes to exams and to be honest until i was assessed at college i alway felt like a failer.

of course it could be that you son is lucky and can function without any extra help but it could be he just needs minor changes to improve his learning. from coloured sheets to extra lession that teach coping stratages. without the assesment he will not get aqny help. im sure my fellow dyslexics will agree finding out why we are diffrent really takes a stress off you.

and the best person to teach dyslexics is a person who has an understanding of the condition so you go for it mad goatwoman you have done amazing you keep it up.

[northfifeduckling]

it's a weird one, Dyslexia. My eldest is borderline but only according to the optometrist - it is an issue with the muscles in her eyes. My eldest stepson is - but only with our Roman derived script, he is absolutely perfect in reading and writing Tibetan and is now learning Arabic too. I felt when my daughter was in primary school that the tests are mildly put not adequate to diagnose according to all the different causes and degrees...

[anderso]

it was not until I left school that I  was told about Dyslexia, (This was when in the Army Collage school had said I would only end up in the pit) they give me the advice of read lots and don't let people tell you, that you can not do anything. I had a career in the Army came out went to Uni and was CEO of a national charity- not bad for some one that the schools said was a bit thick (that's what they say in Yorkshire)
I would say if you feel your little ones have a problem get them reading anything and support them in anything they wish to do,
And remember the impossible we do today miracles take a little longer..

[robert waddell]

worked beside a guy that the headmistress had told him you will be working on the streets
he did outside his former school  he went in and said to her if you come outside you will see me working in the streets

[jaykay]

It just makes me cringe what horrid things some teachers say - why do they teach, if they don't like kids  (I'm a headteacher, and would discipline any of my staff I found out had said anything similar, cos it does such damage  )

My Dad's dyslexic but very stubborn  He reads at snail pace, but read he does, all the time and got himself an OU degree too 

Of course some things make life more difficult for certain kids. But if we make sure they know we believe in them, and that their value as people is not related to how easy they find academic stuff, and they can stay determined, I'm coming to the view that in the long-term that determination will see them get further in life than the ones who find it so easy they never fail, and then collapse at the first major hurdle.

[Lesley Silvester]

I love these posts.  I would agree that getting tested is important.  The trouble is that schools don't like doing it as it costs them money.  I don't know about elsewhere but here children are only screened for the possibility not actually tested.  My friend was worried about her son but the school kept saying nothing was wrong; he was just naughty.  When I saw his work I said I thought he could be so she marched to the school and said, "My friend who is a teacher thinks he is."  This time they took notice.  Not only is he dyslexic, he has mild learning disabilities and a form of ADHD.  He is severe enough for the parents to be able to get Disability Living Allowance for him.

I wanted to know because I was struggling to take in what I was reading and also to put down on paper what I wanted to say.  Fiction is fine, mostly, but non-fiction is very hard, essays, etc.  My younger son is dyslexic as are my neice and nephew and it does tend to run in families.  Fortunately, I am not too badly affected.  If I had more sense than to try taking even more courses (at the age of sixty) I wouldn't really have a problem.  One thing that did come up is that I have developed my own coping mechanisms over the years.  I'm glad I know as it explains a lot.  I don't worry about any stigma.  After all, Einstein was dyslexic so I'm in good company.

I lose my balance quite often as well (even when sober) but hadn't thought about a link with dyslexia.

[Norfolk Newby]

Dyslexia Rules, KO!!

All of us here are dyslexic to some degree. When my son started primary school he did well for about 6 months. He announced - proudly - that he could write his name. He did this with his right hand in block capitals. I asked him to do it again and he picked up the pencil in his left hand and wrote his name backwards in mirror writing!

After that, things went down hill fast. After 1 year of arguing with the local education authority, he came home from school with his legs black and blue where the other children had been kicking him round the playground. We complained to the school and the teacher said it was just typical children's play!

However, dyslexic children are different and often get bullied because of it.

So we were still arguing with the local council. But we heard of the Dyslexia Institute and my wife took him to their centre in Chelmsford where he was given a series of tests proving (to us anyway) that he was severely dyslexic and slightly dyspraxic. Even then the council wouldn't agree to a process called 'statementing' which was a formal assessment of a child's needs.

So, we paid for him to go to a special boarding school in Ramsgate (East Court School) where he became a weekly boarder for 2 years. The improvement was enormous.

Finally we had to hire a solicitor and a barrister to hold a tribunal with the council to consider the situation. This cost us about £2000 for one day but the council accepted the situation and the costs from then on of the special school and a subsequent more general one near Goudhurst in Kent (Bethany School) until he was 18. We didn't get back any of our costs prior to the tribunal.

So fight for your kids even if the odds seem against you and Good Luck!

[robert waddell]

the secondery school that my children attend has a  bulliing policy  that the child that is bullied gets f***** out the school  the teachers that run the school have never been bullied themselves so do not know what these children are going through  children can be and are little shites towards each other devious manipualative  little turds
the bullied has to suffer in silence or fight back then they are the one being disruptive the bullies always win