Hello. We have a 17 yr. old daughter with Autism and what we believe could be Dyslexia. We have been suspicious of Dyslexia, since she was 8 yrs. old. The problem we are having is, NO ONE in any school district, will test our daughter for this disorder. They simply tell us, she is too low functioning and the test will not come out the right way. Basically, they are letting us know that this is A WASTE OF THEIR TIME. We also cannot find anyone in our community to test for Dyslexia either. Again, we are told that Autistic kids, no matter how high functioning they are, cannot be tested. All agencies we contacted, require a minimum I.Q. of 71. Obviously, I.Q. tests are impossible for kids with Autism. So, how can we help our child? This truly seems like a NO WIN situation. Thank you.
Hi,
i so sympathize with what you are going through. your story about getting diagnoses is so common. now do you know for certain that she is autistic because, contrary to what Ron Davies says, it if actually not possible to be both dyslexic and autistic, because both sets of people perceive the world in a very different way and they cannot overlap. have you done the tick box tests on my site? i do have one for dyslexia and one for dyspraxia. it is possible to be both autistic and dyspraxic , although i personally have never come across one. this is because dyspraxia is a caused by a slight brian damage near birth and autism is a perception problem. i have come across kids who are both dyslexic and dyspraxic.
now it is commonly known that autistic kids are actually potential Servants so i fail to see how they can be saying that autistic kids are all low IQ because is not true.
send me more details of your daughter’s problems and the results of my tick box tests and i will do my best to help you.
thanks
dawn
October 23rd, 2008
i’m an adult dealing with dyslexia, i stree out becase no one understands me nor can help me i have been turn away from a lot of organisation and place telling me that they can not help me as am adult. at the moment i am at tafe trying to get through my adult litarcy course and been told that iam wasting my time - i really do not know what to do any more my life since like am in between a rock and a hard place
if there is any thing or any one that can plase plase help am lost
hi,
i do realize that i should not be writing to you as you are dyslexic … but help will be coming soon hopefully. i am currently setting up dyslexic australia and one of the things we hope to do is to run a course Cert 1 in numeracy and literacy for dyslexics which i wrote for Central TAFE in perth. we are also intending to produce spoken word CDs for adults and sort out voice over for the books i sell so that dyslexics can hear them read to them. if you live anywhere near Perth i can help you now. i will bookmark your email and send you details as we get them, but setting up an national charity takes time and there is so much official stuff that needs doing.
thanks.
dawn
October 22nd, 2008
Hi - Due to complications with the current method of purchasing our e-books, we are pleased to announce we will soon be launching a brand new online store.
We will be announcing the launch in the coming weeks.
Best wishes
Dawn
October 14th, 2008
Can you please advise where you can get testing for motor dyspraxia or dyslexia in Sydney? My daughter has been diagnosed with auditory processing disorder and we are commencing some treatment for this - but I think she may also have motor dyspraxia
Continue Reading October 14th, 2008
Hi,
I have 2 boys - 11 and 9yrs old. The oldest one has had no developmental or learning difficulties at all. The youngest has had speech therapy and occupational therapy starting from 4yrs of age (speech). The school they attend has copies of all of his therapy. His writing is atrocious, he has excellent spelling and mathematical skills. He transposes letters, can’t write in/on lines, writes in a mix of capitals and lower case, all different size letters, takes forever to write anything and tidy just does not exist in his work books. He also gets severely frustrated especially at school when given a writing task - snapping pencils and crying at times. He failed his yr 3 statewide core skills test for writing (surprise surprise) and I have been unable to find any tutors on the list given out by the gov dept that organises the tutoring to do with the skills tests. So I am at a stage now where I will have to arrange for his tutoring to be done through the school he attends. My issue is this - they have been aware of his diffulties from day dot and have from what I can see just ignored them or put them in the too hard basket. My son is extremely intelligent and inquisitive and tries hard to please as long as he doesn’t have to write anything. I presently have him working on a touch typing CD rom hoping that if I can improve his typing I can convince the school to allow him to do his ‘writing’ on the computer …
Continue Reading October 14th, 2008
This came through as an email but I thought it may be useful for others.
Hi there,
Recently my partner, heard about dysgraphia while watching a documentary, and explained to me that he thinks he has it. He has struggled with hand writing ever since he was a child, and I know that dyslexia runs strongly in his extended family. He little trouble reading, but when he is writing has trouble forming letters, he swaps letters around in every word, and misspells words even though verbally he can spell them absolutely perfectly. He will run all the letters he writes together unless there are lines on the paper to guide the writing. His biggest trouble is taking notes and copying things down which he has to do a lot for work, and if he forces himself to write neatly it is slow and he forgets what word he is writing. So he basically avoids writing at all costs. I’ve always thought it’s odd how rarely he writes things down, and why he gets annoyed at me when I ask him to write in a birthday card to his mum or jot down a phone number! He also said that when he is reading often the lines of text “bend” or jump, which I’ve heard some people with dyslexia have?
I was wondering what sort of help is available to help him, and how he can go about getting that help? It’s something that has impacted on his life for so long without him realising and has affected his confidence. Now he’s got a feeling about what it might be, and that he’s not the only one out there with this problem, he wants to do something about it. Any advice you have would be of great help! Your website is terrific.
hi,
he obviously has dysgraphia as that only actually means “problems with writing”. what is important is in finding out why.
do the tick box tests for older students in both dyslexia and dyspraxia and see if either of them fit.
in the mean time stop writing and word process. you don’t actually have to write nowadays and most people who find writing hard find word processing easy once they get good at it.
cheers
dawn
October 8th, 2008
This email was recently sent to me and I have posted it, incase anyone can help with the school suggestion.
Recently my 6 year old was diagnosed with dyslexia and adhd. We have enrolled him into a school that teaches the Orton Gillingham method. We will be moving to Melbourne, VIC and needed to find a school similar if there are any. We hear that you may only need a couple of years if caught early and it’s severity.
I have been searching the web for Australia Melbourne schools but they don’t have any listed for dyslexia.
September 10th, 2008
There is a big difference between mathematics and arithmetic.
Dyslexics are generally good at mathematics, if taught properly, but not always good at arithmetic.
Continue Reading July 29th, 2008
I use the Fun Writing Game” (sold downloadable at $8.00 from this site) to get kids to enjoy writing. Some kids are natural writers and when given this game they blossom into little authors.
Continue Reading July 29th, 2008
Please note …
Before encouraging a pupil to use this times table square as an arithmetic aid, ensure that the pupil understands the concepts of both multiplication and division.
You can test for this by showing times and divide sums and asking the pupil to predict the answer.
CLICK HERE for accompanying file
- If s/he gets the answer totally correct every time then s/he does not need this aid.
- If, on the other hand, the pupil is able to make a fairly accurate guess then s/he most probably understands the concepts and may find this aid useful.
- If the pupil’s guesses are wildly out then s/he needs to be taught the concepts before being given this aid.
More on this can be found in chapter 17 of “Dyslexia –How to Win” by Dawn Matthews.
Please print out the “Times table square” on off-white or white paper or card.
It has been designed to be multi-coloured and some text will be lost if printed out on coloured paper. It will be easy to read, even for those with Irlen Syndrome, because no black is used.
Please laminate before use.
Do not stick it into a math book, as then the pupil will have to be constantly flicking backwards and forwards from math sums to times tables sheet. Please keep it separate so that the pupil can put it next to the sums.
You will note that each horizontal line is a different colour and each vertical line a different font.
I do understand that this breaks every law of design but the varied colours and fonts are used to make tracking, both up and down and side to side, easier.
It can be used for both multiplication and division.
Multiplication
Find the intersecting point between the bold numbers on the top row and on the side row. Eg. 4×5 find 5 on the left hand side and 4 on the top and follow 5 horizontally and 4 vertically downwards and you will find 20 is the point where these lines meet
Division
eg. 21÷7 Find 7 on the top line and look vertically down the line until you find 21. Then go horizontally across to the left dark numbers and you will find 3. 3 is the answer.
July 29th, 2008
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