For parents and carers
The report explains how your child learns. The next few weeks are about turning that into a small number of changes at home and at school, and about how you talk to your child about it.
Step by step
In roughly this order. None of it is urgent in the sense of needing to happen this week, but doing it in this order tends to keep things calm and manageable.
Read the summary and conclusions first. You do not need to understand every test score to use a report well, the description of strengths, difficulties and recommendations is what matters day to day.
Explain what the assessment found in a few honest sentences, pitched at their age. Dyslexia is neither a disaster nor a superpower. It explains why some things take more effort, and it says nothing about how clever they are.
Usually the SENCo, along with the class teacher or form tutor. A short conversation achieves far more than emailing a document and hoping it is read.
A report can contain a long list. Families and schools do not need to do everything at once. Two or three well-chosen priorities will do more good than twenty half-implemented ones.
Before adding anything new, note the strategies and support already in place that are helping. Those are worth protecting.
For some children the recommendations in the report, applied well at home and school, are enough. Others benefit from school support, specialist teaching, or input from a different professional.
Talking about it
Children usually already know that something is harder for them than for other people. A diagnosis often comes as a relief, provided the framing is right.
Working with school
A report is most useful when the people teaching your child understand the profile it describes, not just the conclusion on the front page.
The SENCo or SEND lead usually coordinates support, but the class teacher or form tutor is the person your child sits in front of every day. Both matter.
Your two or three priority recommendations, what already seems to work at home, and any questions the report raised for you.
What the school is already doing, what it can adjust, and how you will both know in a term's time whether it is helping.
Specialist teaching
Sometimes. An assessment can identify the specific areas where structured, targeted teaching would make a difference, but not every child whose assessment identifies dyslexia needs a tutor.
Good specialist teaching is structured and cumulative, and it is informed by the profile in the report rather than being the same programme for everyone.
Defining Dyslexia does not recommend individual tutors. Professional membership bodies such as PATOSS maintain their own directories of specialist practitioners.
What families say
“Mark has been incredibly helpful in supporting our family to better understand our son's behaviour. His insight, patience, and guidance have made a real difference, helping us find better ways to support both his learning and day-to-day life.
Thanks to Mark's understanding and practical advice, we've seen positive changes in how our son communicates, learns, and manages different situations. We truly appreciate the care and professionalism he has shown throughout the process and would highly recommend him to other families looking for support.”
Knowledge Centre
Written for the weeks after an assessment.
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Read the articleWhere are you on the journey?
Depending on what the report suggested, one of these is probably the useful next move.
