Yang's dyslexia assessment

When Yang first had spelling in primary one, I realised he couldn't spell well. I thought maybe it was only primary one and he could learn at a different pace from Kai. I also discussed this at PTM in May last year. His teacher was not concerned. Eventually, I sent him for phonics upon JY's recommendations. The phonics teacher said he could sound out words. He could indeed, when I tested him on the worksheets he did.

But his spelling did not improve in primary two. In the same vein, his hanyu pinyin was very bad - I could see some improvements now, maybe coz I made a big table on pinyin that exist?! :p 

Then his Chinese teacher called me to complain - not listening to instructions, terrible handwriting. She was worried as he is in the better Chinese class - ok that was new to me! Kai was - still is - indignant coz his Chinese was better than Yang's (in terms of spelling, knowing words etc) but he's in the regular class. I suspect it was coz Yang could speak better... Not much work in primary one to assess otherwise!

Anyway, I also read more and found that dyslexia is not just about reading but also spelling and writing. I dropped a love letter to his form teacher and got a call back quite quickly. She didn't think Yang was dyslexic but agreed his handwriting needed improvement.

Eventually, I couldn't take it and called up Dyslexia Association of Singapore (DAS). At first, I wanted to do a risk assessment. Then, heck it, go for the full assessment instead of waiting more! I applied towards the end of term 2. In early June holidays, DAS told me that they didn't get the response from Yang's teachers so the application could not be processed. I had to wait for term 3 to ask the teachers. Ended up DAS expected it over email but it was snail-mailed. Sian - I had told DAS to wait for snail mail; I also don't understand why the school policy is to snail mail *.*

Anyway, we were lucky to get an appointment sooner than the typical 10 to 12 weeks after application! I took Yang out of school on 26 July and headed far west to Jurong Point for the assessment.

But first, tic tac toast for breakfast!

My baby is hidden in a jacket...

I went to Orchard to get uniforms for the boys during the assessment. Travelling alone took three hours?! Gosh...

Lunch was a hotdog bun and some OCK fishballs

Fave spot on the LRT

I also like this part of the ride - the scenery is beautiful :) And my babies in front of it? Priceless!

He finished my fave taro milk tea that I brought all the way back from the far west!!!

Due to conflicting schedules, I only managed to speak with the psychologist on his assessment results on 17 August. Summary: There is insufficient evidence that Yang has dyslexia. My stats from 20 years ago and my work experience reading psych reports came in useful - this does not mean Yang does not have dyslexia; it means there is no proof that he has it *.*

Anyway, recommendations are to do structured phonics and see how; if need be, can reassess two years later. Psych also recommended occupational therapy for his handwriting. Will go into that separately.

So for now, I'm the phonics teacher. I CAN READ downstairs doesn't provide phonics for Yang's age group and I don't know if there are available classes at DAS for his level at our selected centre on selected days. I'm ahem, accomplished enough in English and have gone through much of a structured phonics syllabus with Yu on the Reading Eggs app. So I pulled online resources into a still-growing phonics curriculum to teach Yang. 

Gosh, it was very hard work to get it going! Besides the lessons, I had to make my own exercises! And we have agreed on phonics twice a week! Want to die ah... Due to Yu staying at home these two weeks, we have not had lessons. Just gone through a revision round with him this afternoon so that we can continue our lessons next week. 

The other hard part is to get Yang to focus and learn. Very often, I have to remind him to sit up straight, focus, speak up etc. He's really a piece of work!

But no choice. He has started writing lines in school. Next year, it would be composition drafts. No more copying lines from the board. He needs to know how to spell or at least try to spell words he wants! I'm glad he can read on his own. Need him to continue doing that as we work on spelling...

Good luck to us!