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Noskcaj86

Letter recognition and formation

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Hi everyone,

 

Jack has been learning the letters r,a,p,t,e,h,m and c since 4th March this year. They are written individually and also written as words with pictures to help such as the word cap written across a picture of a cap. Its now over 3 months since he started this book which is a book for dyslexic childeren. He is still not able to remember the letters 3 months in to learning. He seems to recognise them one day and thenforget them the next, he doesnt seem to be able to retain the information. I am very worried... Surely after 3 months with no progression there is a major issue going on here?? Is this normal for kids with asd or is something else going on here??

 

Thanx

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Hes still undergoing asd diagnosis. Hes delayed by 18mths to 2 yrs so more the age of a 3-3 and a half yr old than 4yrs 10 mths.

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He is still very young for assessing for dyslexia. Do you have it in the family?

 

I would raise concerns with school, and put that concern in writing. As he is in the process of being diagnosed I would also ask that he is assessed by an Educational or Clinical Psychologist for a Specific Learning Difficulty such as dyslexia. And you want "standardised assessments" that give a percentile, standard score or age related result so that you can see where he is at and can measure progress from there.

 

You also need him to be assessed by a suitably qualified SALT - again standardised assessments - because the more difficulty he has with speech and language and social communication, the more that will affect literacy too. So it could be a combination of an ASD and Dyslexia or even Dyspraxia or Dysgraphia or problems with short term or working memory. It could be all those thinigs, or any combination of them.

 

Many children with an ASD struggle with phonics. It can take them a long time to get started.

 

My son is 12 and still is not reading/writing fluently. He could not read at all at age 10 eventhough his cognitive ability is average. It made him very frustrated. Made him judge himself as stupid. It affected his confidence and self esteem because he could see other kids could do it. And he found the work boring because he would know that he was forgetting what he was learning.

 

At his new school [where he went from year 6], they are using a laptop and software so that his lessons are all put onto the laptop and the software helps him to read and write. He also has a specialist dyslexia teacher for maths and 1:1 literacy with a specialist teacher for the dyslexia.

 

So it is early days yet. And you may well be fobbed off for some time. But keep raising the issues - get them included in his Statement. The SEN Code of Practice does detail specialist dyslexia teachers as provision that could be provided. So read the CoP too.

 

You can also get in touch with the British Dyslexia Association or Dyslexia Action. They maybe able to put you onto an EP that could assess for dyslexia when he is a little older.

 

But he may well fall further and further behind in his early primary years. So you do need to consider what type of placement he needs for primary and eventually secondary. The assessments that will take place over the next few years are going to give you more information about that eg. is he average cognitive ability, does he also have other co-morbid diagnosis, is he coping mainstream etc.

 

For now I would think the aim is to keep learning fun so that he does not disengage, and just keep going over these basic things. Because you don't want the school to try to move him onto other things if he hasn't got the basics right first. That is what they did with my son ie. did not learn the numbers 1-10 for a year, was frustrated about it, so they moved him onto numbers 10-20. Ridiculous. A child has to learn their basic numbers and what quantity that represents.

 

So just do lots of little things yourself with him. Counting things. Saying the first letter of words. See how school are doing it because you want to be consistent. So use the same sounds that they do. And maybe just pick 5 sounds at a time.

 

I know it is very frustrating as a parent because you may slowly see how he really is struggling with basic things. And it makes you have to alter your expectations - or at least suspend them until they are in their teens - because you don't know what they will achieve. He may never learn to read and write. Or he may learn, but always have a reading age of a primary child - yet he may excel at other subjects like maths etc. Unfortunately our children did not come with a handbook!

 

What is important is the initial assessments - request in writing standardised ones. And measuring progress via IEPs and Key Stage results. If he loses learning and the gap keeps widening, then you will be gathering evidence of needing more specialist teaching whether than is ASD or Dyslexia or both. You may end up at an educational Tribunal about dyslexia teaching to get that into the Statement. And when he is in year 5 you need to start looking for the secondary school that can meet his needs, especially if the LA do not have anything suitable.

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You can ask the LA if they have a specialist dyslexia teacher that goes into schools and who also has experience of autism.

 

But you just need to monitor whatever the school or LA are providing, and that they are providing everything they can provide - which will be graduated ie. if he does not make progress ask for something additional to be done which might be specialist teaching, or IT equipment like a laptop etc. And these things should be trigged by "lack of progress", which is where the monitoring of progress becomes so important.

 

You know what letters he is currently learning. He should stay on those letters, or indeed they should be reduced to just SATPIN, until he has learnt them. So I would query that with the EP.

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