"Of course parents don't cause dyslexia but it's a good idea to ensure that a dyslexic child receives the necessary help and support - preferably from properly trained people. Teachers nowadays are tained to spot children with Special Educational Needs (and this includes especially gifted children) and have an obligation to ensure these kids get the support they need in the classroom, even if that means bringing in additional help. Even classroom assistants are now being trained to work with SEN often because, unsurprisingly, their own children have SEN. I suspect that it would be harder for home-educated children to get the level of support they can in schools, but this probably varies from one local authority to another."


Total crap, levels, sorry.

At 7 years old my son was being publicly ridiculed for the mistakes in his spelling tests...by his teacher.

Just a few weeks back I went with a friend of mine to help support her talking to her son's teachers, about him being dyslexic. They'd tested him at primary school and found him to be borderline...she disagreed with this result. So did I. I knew ages back that her son is dyslexic, his Mum too.

She had a test done privately, cost her a small fortune..and guess what? Yup, the tests showed her son does have dyslexia, on a greater scale too than she was told by the school.

Interestinly, the school will NOT accept the word of this eminent Educational Psychologist, so they want him to be tested again by their man, who is, of course, the same man who gave him a very short test last time round. The private test last for far, far longer and is far more detailed. But...they don't want to know.

They told her that he had symptoms that 96% of the kids have in their school and didn't really see much to worry about. Her son worries though, he gets desperately worried because he can't keep up, has trouble writing, gets worn out with it, totally worn out (same as my son does, same as my brother did/does)

Ben, another friend's son, who has Aspergers.....found on the outside windowsill of his bedroom, at just 10 years old, wanting to jump off because school was causing him such distress. He doesn't understand other kids, finds being around them deeply stressful etc..etc..etc...and the school did NOTHING!

I told her to take him out, there and then..and she did.

She then home educated him for a while, whilst searching desperately for another school that would take him. They all said the same thing to her, that they couldn't help him in the way he needed because they didn't have the staff, didn't have the money.

She's very lucky though, because her father-in-law is wealthy, and so, he paid for Ben to go into one of the few specialised private schools where they take only high funtioning autistic (asperger) and severely dyslexic children. He's calmed down, a bit...and they don't put pressure on the children to get loads of examns, although they can take them if they so choose.

But..if Ben hadn't had a rich grandpa, he'd probably have jumped off that windowsill by now, just another victim of a System that doesn't give a shit..

I'm not saying that some people within that system don't care, because some of them do, passionately, but The System itself is only geared for square pegs in square holes, and if you are the wrong 'shape' then I'm afraid that life isn't good.

I could tell you other examples too, over and again, the same thing...the quiet, shy, sensitive, overly intelligent, struggling to survive kids...