OK I may have to resign my job to look after my children`s special needs. They (twin boys) have been diagnosed with learning difficulties, dyslexia? I am a trained teacher and one option would be to go down the home schooling route. Does anyone have any information with regards to unemployment benefit and or other benefits etc.

The International school that they are presently in, may not be able to support their learning difficulties. We are looking at all options, seeing what funding is available from the Kanton, since they need support in the English Language. How would a Kanton handle this, since English is our native language and the children practically speak no German. We have been told that putting them into a German speaking environment, ie Swiss school may harm the boys progress further.

Are there any English speaking dyslexia help groups in Switzerland?

May be of interest : www.dore.co.uk

A friend of mine was taking his son regularly to UK for this somewhat controversial approach - he believes it has helped a lot.

I believe their approach is to train the mind in a general sense to deal better with non-focus stimuli (ie what we all do naturally without thinking) so that it can deal with focussed stuff (ie reading etc) more easily. Something like that anyway...seems to involve lots of physical exercises like juggling whilst standing on one leg etc. I don't mean to make it sound frivolous - it's about my limit of knowledge on the subject.

What I would suggest though with respect is that being a teacher (of normal academic stuff for normal academic kids) may not be the appropriate skills for dealing with attention deficit, dyslexia etc.

Wish you luck.

I wish you the best of luck and feel for you in this difficult decison.

I don't know how serious their learning disabilities is. I do have a feeling though that doctors (especially in Switzerland) are very quick to diagnose dyslexia and other learning and behavioural difficulties. If you're not convinced, do get a second opinion. You might save yourself a lot of hassle.

How old are your children ?

Have you done speech therapy, occupational therapy options ?

Have you considered Montessori Primary/Elementary school ?

Who did the 'diagnosis' ? Have you got an educational/development assessment by an independent educational/developmental psychologist ?

Unemployment benefits depend solely on whether you have worked the prescribed minimum period and paid contributions to unemployment insurance.

However, your intention is to stop working. Hence, you may not qualify for unemployment benefits. Prerequisite is that you are actively seeking employment.

Both boys are 6 years old. We do question the results, since both boys sat the tests in three hours, ie this is just one test made on one day. An English speaking educational psychologist came and did a number of tests on the boys today and drew his conclusions. The tests which they fell down on were a quick memory and recall test and reading. They read fine at home.

The only bit of advice I can give is to have a word with your Doctor who might be able to help and to not make any hasty decisions
When my son was small we had real problems as he was dyspraxic and it was really affecting his speech. We lived in the french speaking part and he could not speak any french. My doctor put me in touch with someone but it was not helping.
I took him over to the UK and embarked on therapy and got them to suggest exercises etc and was then confident enough to do it myself.
This was some time ago and I am sure that now there will be groups etc in your area which can support you.
Can the International school help at all - do they have any teachers who might be able to help privately?
I really hope that you sort something out - I know how stressful it is - there must be other people who have a similar proble.
Good Luck

if you have the slightest doubt, go for a second opinion. I know I would ..

Try contacting the moderator of Swiss-Schooling@yahoogroups.com she is very knowledgeable about such matters. Good luck and I hope you find the help you and your kids want.

Who did the testing ?

There is a child psychology section attached to the kinderspital in Zurich - a parent of my daughter's classmate works there..there seems to be plenty of systems to provide support, if you know where to look...and can access things with the right language...

I would separate the children and take them in one at a time to be tested, for a full 'barrage' of tests, if that is what you feel you need...

Where there any particular 'issues' arising at school that meant you went looking for an assessment ?

At 6 there are heaps of things going on - were your twins premature or born with health issues ? Have they had periods of hospitalisation ? Do you have specific educational goals for them, how are they managing at school in general ? Have they changed schools more than once, has all their schooling been in a consistent language, are you confident that their teachers are well-skilled and positive about teaching your child ?

Putting them into swiss school might cause more challenges, or it might actually solve them - the general impression is that primary schooling starts light and adds more and more as they go along here - so your boys might actually have a year or two two 'transition', and the focus will be on learning more than one language, and some other 'cultural' subjects like sports and handcrafts, which we find are more emphasised here than in Australia...less 'sink or swim' perhaps if you stream them through an 'intensive language' support programme, than putting them into a competitive international school classroom - who knows ?

Our initial concerns are - The support, we are being told has to be in English and we cannot afford to fund anything private. Since we pay our school taxes, then I guess the problem goes back to the Schulgemeinde and the Kanton. If the psychologist is saying that German schooling would be decremental to the situation, I am wondering how the authorities will react. The boys have to attend school and the International School is a small one, with limited support and we may be faced with a letter from them saying that the school cannot support the boys schooling anymore. I guess the Kanton would do their own test, but it does beg the question what happens if your childrens languages are not the National ones.

I guess going into the Swiss system could go two ways, it will either make the situation worse or perhaps solve it.

Forgive me, but if your boys are only 6 isn't that a bit early to diagnose learning difficulties, even dyslexia - they're not even past the starting line in terms of education.

Ok I admit that I was a crack reader at the age of five, but I also remember a load of old school buddies who had problems until secondary school who then took off in terms of ability, and quite a few of them went on to be somewhat more successful than I've been.

`They were compared with UK national scales.

Hi Andy, sorry to hear about your troubles.

Not that I know anything about this, but 3 hours of testing seems a lot for anyone .

My mother was told by my sisters boarding school that she had learning difficulties, and insinuated that she was simple. Soon as mum offered her a walkman to pass a maths test, she got 100%.

Could they possibly be falling down on the memory as the dual languages they are surrounded by confuses them?

From the sound of your posts, you seem to think that sufficient testing has not been done? You should get some more opinions

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I resemble that remark.

I agree the way it was done was a little strange.

I think that we would like to repeat similar tests in order to see if the same results occur. Luckily the school paid for these tests, since the guy was based out of Switzerland and the Health Insurance wouldn`t pay, because he was not accredited by them and not based here. So we need to find someone in Switzerland and have the test repeated and paid for by the medical insurance.

Sorry missed the bit about the 3 hour test.

A 3 hour test for 6 year olds WTF. Of course they're going to lose interest during that time. Hell, even today I'd shudder at an exam that lasts 3 hours.

As you say you're a trained teacher, so the question is what do think about their abilities?

You maybe over reacting a little, the kids are 6 years old and not everyone is destined to become a brain surgeon, as you say, they read fine at home.

I'm dyslexic, diagnosed as an adult. I don't know anything about unemployment, but I can suggest a couple of resources:

This is a really good article about dyslexia, talking about the different ways it can impact both children and adults, and it gives some insight into why it's difficult to diagnose.

http://mislabeledchild.com/html/Libr...h_dyslexia.htm

Like a lot of dyslexics, I learned to read really early, but had a history of erratic performance. You can learn to compensate, especially if you have good language skills and intuition, but for me, it would have meant a lot to know that I was just different - helps avoid thinking that you're lazy or stupid.

In Switzerland, there is an organization in Geneva, called ASK (all special kids) that provides some advocacy for parents. You can find them online at

www.allspecialkids.org

Since I am not a parent, I don't really know enough about them, but someone there might be able to help you. I know it can be tough for parents, and I hope you can find some support and some help. But i also agree that a second opinion is important, because the diagnosis is never clear cut.

Good luck!

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"Time flies like an arrow, fruit flies like a banana." Groucho Marx

Have a friend whose kid is english/Italian speaking....had difficulties in swiss school. Then they moved to Canada...with english and french...lots of difficulties again....found out after a lot of tests and changing schools that the son is dyslexic....

They found a tutor who specialises in teaching dyslexic children and they are now very happy...Apparently there are ways or methods to teach these special kids to learn or process information so they will be able to work like other kids, but just in their own special way....

point is...start early to get an accurate diagnosis so you will know what decisions to make for you and your children....

I can give you the name of the English-speaking psychologist we used recently in Zürich if you want to PM me. I was impressed with her. From what I understand the usual amount of time spent on testing of this type is actually 4-5 hours (although I don't know if this is age-related). Unfortunately, the cost is pretty high (CHF 1,500) but as I mentioned to you in a previous thread, our insurance has contributed as I got the referral through our Pediatrician.

Without meaning to sound patronising, are you sure you are interpreting the results of the tests correctly. I mention it as there were some comments on the report produced on my son which I took to be rather serious. However, when I discussed it with our Pediatrician, he was able to put things into context and told me that every 2nd child would achieve the same result. This was also backed up when we discussed the issue with the school.

As someone else has mentioned, if your children did enter the Swiss school system they would start off with 2 years in Kindergarten which doesn't include any academic learning. They would be picked up for German lessons supplied by the school and if they demonstrate any difficulties, they would also be seen by the school speech therapist and again the cost of any therapy would be borne by the school. Obviously the therapy would be in German though. I can also give you the contact number of an English speech therapist in the Zurich area, but the cost is a rather prohibitive CHF 155 per 45 minute session (this is the norm).

If your children are diagnosed as dyslexic, another point you might want to consider is that English is a non-transparent language and therefore the incidence of dyslexia is higher than in transparent languages like German (according to the research I did when I thought my son might be dyslexic). On the other hand, of course, I can well understand your concerns about introducing a second language, particularly when you have been told it could be detrimental to their development.

In any event, I wish you all the best and hope that you quickly find a suitable solution for all of you. Best of luck.