Dyslexia Testing
I have a friend who I think may be dyslexic. She has managed to cover up her problems for years and only ever done jobs that don't require much reading or writing. She was made redundant a while ago from her job in a factory and now works less than 16 hours per week and claims JSA. She is now being sent on a A4e course and has been in floods of tears as of course they are expecting her to read and write etc.
I have always thought she is dyslexic as while she is not academic she is far from stupid. After years of, gently, prodding her I have finally got her to tentatively agree to be tested for dyslexia as I believe she will get the help she needs that way. When I have looked into it all I can find is places that charge money to do the test or online testing (no good for her at all).
Has anyone any advice for us?
I have always thought she is dyslexic as while she is not academic she is far from stupid. After years of, gently, prodding her I have finally got her to tentatively agree to be tested for dyslexia as I believe she will get the help she needs that way. When I have looked into it all I can find is places that charge money to do the test or online testing (no good for her at all).
Has anyone any advice for us?
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I suggested this to her (apparently she has to do it herself) but when she enquired she was told that even if she was referred she would have to pay for the test herself. Testing is not covered by the NHS.
I just can't understand why?! I am a bit shocked actually.
Lots of ignorance, not much help. Do it all yourself.
Is there a reason why your friend can't do an online test?
(If she's diagnosed I'm not sure what, if any, help is available - hopefully someone who knows will be along.)
I guess the first place to start is a word with the A4e tutor so that they know she's struggling.
To be in tears every day is bad for the psyche.
Most courses these days test for dyslexia and dyscalculia on the first day. Universities and colleges have it on their induction day/week.
Hi
I am finding it quite worrying actually :eek:
She is a bit scared of computers which is making her sound like an idiot which she is most certainly not. One of the reasons she got so upset at the A4e place was that they were wanting her to copy something from a whiteboard and do the letter on the computer and she went to pieces.
I have advised her to tell her tutor but she has spent all her life hiding her problem and is deeply ashamed. It makes me so sad. She is a great person.
Has she had her eyes tested? Does light affect her? She could have Irlen Syndrome. There are so many other things to consider when you consider learning difficulties as most are interlinked.
Well to be fair she was only in tears the once. As I say above though, she is very very ashamed of what she sees as her stupidity. It is hard for me to deal with as I am no expert.
She does wear glasses but I think it is a problem with reading and writing rather than her sight. She cannot spell even the easiest words sometimes (is this dyslexia?).
I feel out of my depth.
I would reassure her that she should not feel ashamed of a condition. As you also say, she is not a stupid.
I would be sueing her school for not preparing her for life properly. Over 11 years of schooling and no one had picked up on it. That is a tragedy and an inequality.
Good eye health and sight is part of reading and writing. It is sight in the way that she sees and reads words obviously in a different way to others. I would consider good sight to be the first base and then reading and writing to be the second and third. Copying from the black/white board onto paper naturally needs good sight.
Dyslexia has several parts to it. Spelling is part of it but it is also the way words are seen and formed as well as the relationships words have with each other such as grammar. Writing onto paper and mispositioning words is another especially if they are back to front and make no sense or the writing looks messy and immature (dysgraphia).
I had terrible dysgraphia at 5. My reading was held back until i could form letters properly. This wasn't fixed until I was eight and a good teacher got the train tracks out and I had to write daily in a double lined book.
My eyesight was poor and also held me back and it wasn't until I was 11 that I finally got the glasses I needed and I use them every day.
It is even worse than that. She is 52 and of course when she was at school it was the 11 plus. Which she failed and so went to a Secondary Modern where it was a matter of survival rather than education. She left school at 15 and got a job in a factory the next week. She has done that kind of work all her life and so reading was not as important (she is an expert at hiding her problem too). It's just now she has been made redundant and has to attend these A4e courses that she is finding all her coping techniques crumbling.
I really appreciate you taking the time to explain stuff. I am going to see her this week and I will let her know what people are telling me.
I naively thought she would go her her GP and say she wants testing (a HUGE step for her) and off she will go, get tested and go from there.
Ask if she wants support at her gp, it's not the same but I had a problem where I was not noticing things that I should and had been told I was unobservant all my life. My friend was with me at the gp and my appointments at hospitals later on where I found out what was actually wrong with me. I felt embarrassed and daft for bringing it up but having a friend to go with me even if it was just to stay in the waiting room was a huge help and made me feel like I wasn't being so daft after all.
Thank you. I will tell her I will go with her if she wants. She blames herself and says she is just stupid but that is just not true. I am battling years of her hiding her problem
How organised is she? My son grandson and son in law are dyslexic, the two younger ones have problems organising their lives and following out the simplest of instructions. when my son was at primary school, he used to put capital DS and B's in the middle of a sentence because he could not remember which way they went.. It must be hard for your friend not having the help when she was younger.
How did she manage at school? I am surprised it was not picked up then.
Or she could simply have been failed by the school.
There used to be adult literacy classes - do those still exist?
Anyway. Dyslexia is a complex syndrome - the reading, writing and maths problems may be the most obvious but - to give you an idea what may be the problem - you could ask her if;
when she was a child did she have
trouble learning to tell the time? (she may even still find it tricky)
trouble being able to tie her shoelaces?
difficulty using scissors?
as an adult
can she not tell left from right?
have trouble reading maps?
These are just a few of the things that may be experienced by a dyslexic person.
Or a dyspraxic person like me.
Yes,they do. My local library does courses in English and Mathematics.<<<<<<<<<<<<<
Stud's reply to my question found its way into the quote.
I thought it was via libraries - this might be the next step Starpuss.
Sorry,I forgot to bold and underline that bit about the libraries.
I have been thinking about what has been said and will probably try to get her to go down the Adult Literacy route. At least that way she will be getting help and also they may have knowledge about learning difficulties too.
I am going to make enquiries then speak to my friend. Hopefully she will see it as a positive step.
Thank you again
But later in life it become harder for him to find work due to all the application forms and other forms employers require you to fill in. He finally with the prodding of his wife decided to tell the people at the job centre about his problem. And they offered to help with applications and such, but they also referred him to his local Comprehensive School as they were doing workshops for adults with learning difficulties. Since attending those workshops he has been able to read some stuff, not complex things but simple stuff such as application forms, food packets, and short passages from books or from whiteboards. And he can write things down himself now at least in regards to his job.
He is a fully qualified security guard now and has been with his employer for close to six years, which he would never have been able to do, if not for the workshops he attended. Whilst he still is not great at either reading or writing all he really needed was to be good enough to fill out his report sheets for work.
He is also still trying to read and write more himself, and whilst it is taking him a while he is gradually getting better. So Starpuss make sure to tell your friend that its never too late, the old saying of "You can't teach an old dog new tricks" really is a load of old rubbish.
Thank you. I will tell her that. Her situation is similar in that she has always worked in places where she doesn't need to do much reading and writing but now she is unemployed (or according to the Jobcentre as good as) she is finding that all jobs need some level of reading and writing and she is in a panic.
I am ringing round to see where I can get help with her literacy and hopefully I can find something suitable.
There are a lot of knowledgeable people on dyslexia on this thread.
I am dyslexic, and was lucky that I was in the school system when dyslexia was being spotted due to updating/ new training in the area of dyslexia.
It look like from the age you gave your friend unfortunately when though schooling in a time where dyslexia did not exist to the teachers of the day.
Does she have children, if so do any of them have diagnosed dyslexia, as undiagnosed dyslexic parents usually have diagnosed children. This could be a comfort point for guiding her to help.
A friend of my Elizabeth Wilkinson, gives advice on this under the name of The Dyslexic Dyslexia Consultant , as she herself is dyslexic (found out after her son was diagnosed with dyslexia). and does free information days in Shropshire.
You may also want to look at the British Dyslexia Association website
Hope she comes to realizes that she should not be ashamed of dyslexia, but to be proud, to say, yes I am Dyslexic.
I actually do think her children have problems. They are bright kids but both of them have reading problems, her daughter especially was a very late reader and has writing problems but there has been no mention as far as I know of any dyslexia.
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