What happens if my child shows signs of dyslexia?

Teachers will usually pick up if your child is having difficulties learning to read and write and will discuss them with the SENDco. A variety of strategies to support your child will then be put in place to try to boost their literacy progress.  They may also have interventions, such as additional reading support.  One of the key elements of a diagnosis of dyslexia is that appropriate interventions have been tried and have not helped the child as much as would have been expected.

If your child still does not make much progress, this will then usually be discussed with parents. Sometimes there are other family members with dyslexia and it is useful for the school to know this.

It is often inadvisable to assess a child for dyslexia at an early age, as their difficulties may just be due to immaturity and will resolve as they get older. If your child is still having difficulties towards the end of Year 2, however, the SENDco will often then start to investigate.

Initially assessments will be carried out in school. The SENCO may discuss the results of these tests with the specialist teacher from the Learning, Cognition and Interaction Team (LCI) to see whether they indicate dyslexia.

The SENDco and class teacher will talk about strategies to help your child and all teachers will try different strategies in class to support your child.

If your child is still not making progress, the SENDco may ask the specialist teacher from LCI to carry out more detailed assessments and to make recommendations for how the school can better support your child. Parents will be consulted and asked for permission for this assessment to take place. The specialist teacher will provide a report for the school, which will be shared with parents. This report may confirm a diagnosis of dyslexia.