Guidance dyslexia or poor English,how to establish which?

[Janus]

I`m trying to assist/give some support to someone who has confided in me. This adult person is having problems with basic writing & spelling. The tutors (on unrelated courses connected to job seekers) have suggested that he could be dyslexic, although it could simply be just quite a poor grasp of basic writing.

 

Where can I take this person to establish what the problem actually is? I`ve never dealt with this sort of thing, but am keen to help. What or where would be the first step?

 

We are based in Rotherham if that makes any difference. Thanks.

[Mister M]

Is this person on a college / university course? If so, they can do a dyslexia assessment to check whether he/she has dyslexia, or an issue to do with processing speed, or a poor grasp of English.

If they are not on an academic course then maybe they'd have to go private & pay for one of those doing. Where they'd get one of those done I don't know....Maybe Reigate in Sheffield holds a list of private providers?

[Janus]

Hi, and thanks for your reply.

 

No not on a college course. He is signing on at job seekers, and what happens these days is that they send the claimants on work experience, I believe it’s called. So this young man-early 20s, is on this 6 wk `hands on` construction course. Tiling, joinery etc. However, he has told me that he has failed the mock exams 3 times for the CSCS card (construction skills certification scheme). Apparently his basic written word is poor. (He does not know how & when to use capitals etc for example).That`s what he has told me.

 

The tutors running the course have suggested getting checked out for dyslexia. It’s either dyslexia or simply very poor at writing. Whichever one it is will not be a concern for me-I’m still on board to help. I’m just trying to establish how/where he would get checked. Don’t GP practices get involved with this sort of thing, or any aspect of the nhs?

[Mister M]

THB I'm not sure whether GPs do....Of course you could advise the young man to ask his GP if they refer to specialist specific learning difficulties services.

A friend of mine has dyslexia, hence my interest in this area. He was fortunate that his school tested him for dyslexia, and once conformed, he got special arrangements put in place. Though not everyone is as lucky.

I do know that there is an organisation called the 'Sheffield Dyslexia Centre', which offers a free half hour advice surgery on concerns you may have. This may be worth a shot - link: http://www.sheffielddyslexiacentre.org.uk/index.php/ct-menu-item-5/ct-menu-item-7

But like you say, if GPs can refer to assessors on NHS, then I'd be tempted to go down this route first.

[tzijlstra]

Janus, at my place of work we use a program called QuickScan, it is only available to our students but it might be worth seeing if you can find a more public place that has it available.

 

Chances are that the person is dyslexic, 1 in 10 is and you'll be shocked to find out how few people ever realise(d) they are. Being dyslexic leads to poor performance in writing and a reluctance in reading. One quick test I do is to use coloured overlays on a white sheet of paper with a standard printed text, asking them which colour is better (different people respond better to different colours).

 

There is also an excellent site with practical tips from the Adult Dyslexia organisation: http://www.adult-dyslexia.org/ trying some of their practical solutions (changing background colours etc) might already give some indication on the spot.

 

Finally - speak to the public library, hopefully they (still) have a member of staff who knows about dyslexia and how to deal with it, usually to be found in the educational unit if that still exists.

[Obelix]

But like you say, if GPs can refer to assessors on NHS, then I'd be tempted to go down this route first.

 

They don't Dyslexia is considered an educational issue not a medical issue and your average GP has probably had no training in it.

 

You could try this assemssment here...

 

http://www.bdadyslexia.org.uk/common/ckeditor/filemanager/userfiles/Adult-Checklist.pdf

[Janus]

Thanks for these replies/links. I will look in to what has been suggested.

[medusa]

As a teacher you tend to get used to the sort of errors that people with dyslexia tend to make because they're quite different to most people who simply have poor reading and writing.

 

The errors made by someone who has poor reading and writing are likely to be phonetically vaguely appropriate, so if you read out what they write very literally even a guess is likely to sound sort of like the word that they wanted. It may include a single letter when a double is correct, or have 'shun' instead of 'tion' but phonetically, both of these make a similar sounding word.

 

The really big signs of dyslexia (and yes, I know that it can be a lot more subtle than this and that there are big long tests, but this tends to be very clear) come when the substitutions bear no resemblance to the phonetic spelling of a word. A document which is full of substitutions which can't be sounded out to be anything like the word that they're looking for is a big signal to me, and if you combine this with struggling to read some words, not all, just some apparently random words which don't hold still to be read properly, this is a really quite a strong sign.

 

All of my friends who are dyslexic show the same sign too, which is that between the words that won't hold still or come into focus to be read, there are a whole selection of words that are completely clear, so in both reading and writing this can also be quite apparent.

 

What I don't know is how this young man would go about getting an official label, for all the help that it may or may not be. I've never needed to explore that I'm afraid.

[Lex Luthor]

Hi, and thanks for your reply.

 

No not on a college course. He is signing on at job seekers, and what happens these days is that they send the claimants on work experience, I believe it’s called. So this young man-early 20s, is on this 6 wk `hands on` construction course. Tiling, joinery etc. However, he has told me that he has failed the mock exams 3 times for the CSCS card (construction skills certification scheme). Apparently his basic written word is poor. (He does not know how & when to use capitals etc for example).That`s what he has told me.

 

The tutors running the course have suggested getting checked out for dyslexia. It’s either dyslexia or simply very poor at writing. Whichever one it is will not be a concern for me-I’m still on board to help. I’m just trying to establish how/where he would get checked. Don’t GP practices get involved with this sort of thing, or any aspect of the nhs?

 

As far as I'm aware, if he's on jobseekers then he can ask DWP to organise and pay for a dyslexia test. I would also contact the local Dyslexia Society/Association about this.