First of all apologies if this has already been asked or covered elsewhere - I did a search and it didn't crop up...

At the risk of asking a daft question (!), can a child with dyslexia read quite well (and enjoy it) and 'only' have trouble with writing?

Thanks!

trouble with writing...because of poor pencil control...dyspraxia?

or not being able to be creative, therefore lacking confidence to actually put pen to paper?

This lad seems to have quite good pencil control - he jumbles letters though and his writing slopes away from the margin... I didn't think of dyslexia to begin with but then I found today that if I let him copy off an individual whiteboard sloped up in front of him and rub each word off as he went, he didn't get 'lost' and miss out words and his writing was relatively neat, staying on the line and starting close to the margin. I'd heard a short while ago that the above might be a sign of dyslexia (as a general point, not related to this child), so I just wondered...

could be that he is losing his place on the board as he looks up and down to copy, especially if it isnt clear, and highlighted in colours

or may need an eye test, but a lot of dyslexics dont like and cant copy from the board

a sheet would be better or the way you did it today with the whiteboard

Thanks, DQ, yes - he was clearly losing his place, which is what made me think of giving it to him to copy on a whiteboard in front of him... he was trying to copy it down without taking his eyes off the main board you see, so you can imagine the result.

Do you think it's likely that he's dyslexic, then, even though he can read really quite well? Sorry for my ignorance!

i really dont know, but may be worth adopting strategies and making the necessary changes to help him access the work

so less copying from the board, sheets with notes, pastel colour sheets not bright white, any multisensory ways of learning will help him and the rest of the class

Righto! Thanks, DQ.

oh and mention to the Senco that has she thought he may be dyslexic, or are there any other problems

Hi medusa,

I am three weeks into a dyslexia course and could pm you the things suggested to look out for if you wish. There are varying degrees of dyslexia, so your pupil doesn't need to tick all the boxes. The things you mention are possible signs.

can you post the things to look our for too please Lbee? it may be useful for others too

Consider it done dq. It's probably nothing you don't already know though, because you've already done a course haven't you?

yes i have, and just started another one now

Thanks, Lbee, that would be extremely useful. We touched upon it for our NVQ one week and I've been looking online as well, but I'm only just starting to learn really...

I mentioned my suspicion to the teacher today and she said that she had wondered about that too... so we're going to try to put some measures in place to help him. So even if he's not actually dyslexic, hopefully he'll get the support that he needs in ways that will work.

Thanks!

using strategies that will help a dyslexic student will help the rest of the class as well, as any multisensory methods of learning will benefit all learners

You say he 'reads quite well'. Is he accurate, can he decode new words, or is he relying on a sight vocabulary? How is his spelling? Some children develop bad handwriting to 'disguise' their poor spelling.

Sounds as though he may have dyspraxic tendencies, also optical 'tracking' difficulties.

Does your school teach pure synthetic phonics or 'mixed methods'? 'Mixed methods' contribute greatly to reading & writing problems.