Archives for "Dyslexia"
Sign of the Times
Due to the fact that my 14-year-old daughter is extremely dyslexic she has not studied a modern language at secondary school. I’m convinced this is the right choice for my daughter and was extremely grateful to the school for not forcing her to continue with French. It does raise the question however as to what language could a child study if they struggle to write. I’m sure there are conversational classes but they tend to be geared towards adult learners.
This got me thinking and on one of my many dog walks I bumped into a friend I had not seen for a long time. When I asked her what she had been doing she said she was doing her level III British sign language course. She told me that she had done level I years ago but had not taken it any further. Wow I thought here is a language that has no written form and would be perfect for my daughter. I mentioned it to her school who looked as if I’d gone completely mad. So I started to do a little research myself. To my amazement I discovered that British sign language (BSL) was only recognised as an official modern language in March 2003, even though it is the first language of many British people. Around 70,000 hearing and deaf people use BSL in the UK, this means that it is used more than Welsh or Gaelic. Currently there is not a GCSE in British sign language which seems a shame – though you can do an NVQ in British sign language and there are tutors local to where I live.
Many years ago when my now 11-year-old daughter was two and a half and still not talking I was given the opportunity by her speech therapists to do a couple of courses in Mataton. I am a huge fan of Makaton, I am absolutely positive that without learning this sign language my daughter would not have made such rapid progress. Makaton is a language that uses signs (and sometimes symbols) to help people communicate. It is designed to support spoken language and the signs and symbols are used with speech, in spoken word order. When Makaton was originally developed in 1972 it only used speech and manual signs, but by 1985 graphic symbols were introduced for those who found signing difficult.
Today over 100,000 children and adults, use Makaton. Most start using Makaton as children then naturally stop using the signs and symbols as they no longer need them. However, some people will need to use Makaton for their whole lives. It is also a useful temporary language for example with someone who has had a stroke or want to tell their children off in public spaces or congratulate them from a distance, it is also very useful in swimming lessons!
When I was a child the TV show Vision On had a lady who signed BLS and today Mr. tumble on the TV show Something Special signs in Makaton. They are living modern languages, with job opportunities, in fact there is a shortage of BSL translators currently. In school there should be opportunities to learn BSL or Makaton. How do I persuade my daughter’s fantastic secondary school to include a sign language on the curriculum?
Irlen Syndrome
My daughter has been using her rose pink coloured overlay in school for a week now. I thought that I ought to inform her teachers that she has Irlen syndrome. I emailed the head of learning support at school explaining. She knew all about coloured overlays and obviously passed this information on to my daughters’ teachers. Two of her teachers have already printed worksheets and tests on pink paper! Aren’t they wonderful, I cannot believe that a school can act so quickly and can be so supportive.
I have now found a very good website that explains Irlen syndrome. It is a specific type of perceptual problem that affects the way the brain processes visual information. It is not an optical problem. For those with Irlen Syndrome, the brain is unable to process full spectral light. This can result in distortions in the environment, printed page and lead to physical and behavioural symptoms.
It can be exacerbated by environmental factors such as lighting, brightness, glare, high contrast, patterns and colours. Irlen Syndrome affects people of all ages.
Studies have shown that 12-15% of the population are affected by Irlen Syndrome. However, it is largely undiagnosed because it is not an obvious problem and it is not identified by standard eye tests, my daughter has regular check-up’s at the opticians and it was undiagnosed. Also sufferers think that the perceptual distortions that they experience are “normal”. They assume that everyone else perceives the page and the environment as they do.
There are many symptoms of Irlen Syndrome which include problems with; attention and concentration, effects on reading and writing, headaches, underachievement and behaviour problems to list a few.
It is difficult to say how many of these my daughter suffers from, however what is clear is that since she has had the overlay she has spent far longer reading. The wonderful thing about the overlays is that it is a simple fix to helping her get closer to achieving her full potential. The coloured overlay will not help her spell, that she will still have to work very hard at that.
Most of this information I have got from the very clear website www.irlenuk.com
This website has a great page on Myths & Facts and some lovely Testimonials. My advice to any parent of a dyslexic child or in fact any child who is struggling to read it is worth contacting your GP to get a referral to see an Orthoptist. I don’t know if we’re just lucky where we live that the Orthoptist automatically tests for Irlen Syndrome or whether that’s something you have to ask for.
I now need to research binocular vision and reduced convergence and make sure my daughter is doing her eye exercises!
Better in Pink
This week I took my daughter to our local hospital for an appointment with the Orthoptist, this was her second visit booked through our GP. My daughter is dyslexic and finds copying off the board very difficult and our GP was good enough to refer us having seen the Kara Torrington don’t call me stupid.
At the first appointment they checked her eyes to make sure that she did not need glasses. At this second appointment they looked to see how her eyes focused. She had to do a number of exercises including looking at the end of her nose. The results of these exercises showed that her right eye could not focus as quickly as her left eye, in fact she cannot cross her right eye at all. This means that looking at things in the distance and then focusing on something close-up is hard. This might explain why she finds copying from the board at school so hard.
They then checked for Irlen syndrome. She had to read a list of words that did not make sense and this was timed. The Orthoptist then placed coloured overlays over a piece of writing and my daughter had to choose which one was the easiest to read. She chose rose pink! She then read the same list of words using the coloured overlay. It was incredible instead of this taking 106 seconds it took 55 seconds.
We have come away clutching a rose pink overlay and a list of eye exercises which may improve her binocular vision and reduced convergence. This is all new language to me and I need to do some research
Do I Have to be a Squeaky Wheel?
My daughter’s primary school drew my attention to a meeting that the local authority was having. It was inviting parents and carers of children with dyslexia and other learning issues. It said “Do you have a child with Dyslexia and / or Developmental Co-ordination Disorder [DCD] or another specific learning difficulty i.e. Dyscalculia or Attention Deficit Disorder (ADD)? We want to hear your views on the provision made for your child and how we can improve our support.” It then went on to list the various venues within the authority.
It was very short notice, less than a week. However I was able to go along with four other parents from my daughter’s primary school. A large room was set out with chairs and cups of tea or coffee. However there can have only been a handful of parents there. Most of these parents knew of the meeting through a Private dyslexia school.
The meeting went on to describe how the authority had provided provision and how it was going to change. Most provision needs to be provided in the child’s local school with only very extreme cases being taught in specialist schools. This seems to make sense, since most children and parents want their child to be in mainstream school. However every parent at the meeting felt frustrated by the lack of understanding teachers seem to have about the condition. Some teachers of course are fantastic but it does seem to be very hit and miss. There is hardly any training at teacher training college and most teachers are meant to learn on the job. The trouble with this approach is that it seems to take too long to trickle-down to the individual teachers in the classroom. As much as the specialists say that there should be no copying off the board in lessons or lots of dictation, it continues to happen every day in classrooms up and down the country. These are things that dyslexic pupils find almost impossible. No matter how many times you tell a teacher this they do not seem to understand: they make comments like, ”I moved your daughter to the front so she can see, ” or “How did you spell this wrong? it was on the board.”
At the end of the meeting as we all stood around chatting we came to the conclusion that as a parent you tend to know what is best for your child and that it is up to you to get it. The best way to do this is to keep good channels of communication with your child’s school and to keep nagging! As an ex-boss said to me, “it’s the squeaky wheel that gets oiled.”
Voice Activation
Well, it arrived yesterday. My voice activated software only took minutes, to install. It took far longer to plug-in the microphone! It’s great, I can say anything, and up it comes on the screen. It’s like magic. So I’m writing this blog by talking to the computer. For those of us who find typing difficult this is truly amazing. I do think it will change my life. I have already sent voice activated e-mails and typed my to do list. I am sure that it will make me use my computer more and perhaps bring me into the 21st-century.
Did you see Kara Tointon: don’t call me stupid on TV. In this intimate documentary, Kara is tested for dyslexia and undergoes specialist help. She meets other young dyslexics, many of whom share Kara’s experience of feeling ‘stupid’. She also visits a visited Shapwick School, near Bridgwater, an independent specialist school for dyslexic children. It was a lovely program. I will make sure that my dyslexic daughter watches it. Kara is a fantastic role model for dyslexic girls, because often dyslexia is seen as a male issue. I have asked that all my daughter teachers watch the programme. I feel it will give them a better insight into how hard my daughter is working at school, even though it often looks as if she ”could try harder