Janey V Posted March 22, 2019 Share Posted March 22, 2019 Hi All I'm new here and hoping to find some much needed help! We are in the process of doing a 189 visa. Our daughter is 7 and her teacher thinks she might have dyslexia and will be sending her for testing, so my question is if she have it does that count as an intellectual impairment? The top reason for denying visa's due to medical reasons! Any help is appreciated before we pay for all our visa's etc for nothing Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Quoll Posted March 22, 2019 Share Posted March 22, 2019 Probably not going to be an issue but with medical conditions the recommendation is to always talk to one of the agents who specialise in medical conditions - George Lombard or Peter Bollard are the two most usually mentioned but I know others now have medical specialists. The issue may be if she is statemented - however, kids with dyslexia don't attract additional support from disability programs in Australia so she won't be getting any additional support unless the school uses its own resources hence she wouldn't be a burden on the tax payer. They may need to be sure that there isn't an underlying cognitive impairment which would make her eligible for disability support. Hopefully the assessments will include an iq test which would indicate intellectual disability (or not!) but if they can also do an adaptive behaviour test and current level of functioning that would also add to the battery of information. Also, if her eyes haven't been tested you could try a developmental optometrist (I assume they have them in England) as functional vision deficits (Like tracking or fatigue) often go hand in hand with reading difficulties. But all reports are helpful to make the case. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
VERYSTORMY Posted March 22, 2019 Share Posted March 22, 2019 As a severe dyslexic, no, it isn't on its own likely to affect the medical, though as she is so young I would say seeking professional expert advice is wise. However, you should be aware of the points raised by Qoull in regards support. It is barely recognised in Australia, which resulted in a fair amount of issues for me. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Toots Posted March 22, 2019 Share Posted March 22, 2019 5 hours ago, VERYSTORMY said: As a severe dyslexic, no, it isn't on its own likely to affect the medical, though as she is so young I would say seeking professional expert advice is wise. However, you should be aware of the points raised by Qoull in regards support. It is barely recognised in Australia, which resulted in a fair amount of issues for me. My second son is dyslexic though not severely so. It was diagnosed when he was 5 years old. He had lots of support during his primary and secondary education and also during uni and then during post grad studies. He must have been one of the lucky ones. Of course dyslexia is recognised in Australia. Did you study here or was my son and one of his mates just lucky to have the support they received? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Skani Posted March 23, 2019 Share Posted March 23, 2019 13 minutes ago, Toots said: . Of course dyslexia is recognised in Australia. What Toots said. A teacher friend of mine was working on special programs for dyslexic students in rural/regional Tasmanian schools 35 years ago. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
VERYSTORMY Posted March 23, 2019 Share Posted March 23, 2019 6 hours ago, Toots said: My second son is dyslexic though not severely so. It was diagnosed when he was 5 years old. He had lots of support during his primary and secondary education and also during uni and then during post grad studies. He must have been one of the lucky ones. Of course dyslexia is recognised in Australia. Did you study here or was my son and one of his mates just lucky to have the support they received? No, I didn't study there, but I did volunteer in schools in rural WA and teachers were very good, but didn't really understand it and had very little training and there were no real resources for dyslexic kids. I was also supposed to start teacher training shortly before we left and as part of it had gone through a long assessment program for Teach for Australia which included meeting a number of head teachers all of whom had made similar comments. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Quoll Posted March 23, 2019 Share Posted March 23, 2019 6 hours ago, Toots said: My second son is dyslexic though not severely so. It was diagnosed when he was 5 years old. He had lots of support during his primary and secondary education and also during uni and then during post grad studies. He must have been one of the lucky ones. Of course dyslexia is recognised in Australia. Did you study here or was my son and one of his mates just lucky to have the support they received? It's recognised of course, but not as a funded disability - except perhaps in SA, I know they used to do things a bit differently. Otherwise it's very much luck of the draw how kids are supported through school funding and support is often through accommodation such as increased time for exams, access to alternate technology (although everyone probably had that now) etc Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Toots Posted March 23, 2019 Share Posted March 23, 2019 15 minutes ago, Quoll said: It's recognised of course, but not as a funded disability - except perhaps in SA, I know they used to do things a bit differently. Otherwise it's very much luck of the draw how kids are supported through school funding and support is often through accommodation such as increased time for exams, access to alternate technology (although everyone probably had that now) etc In that case our son was very lucky. He went to a primary and secondary school in North Ryde (Sydney) close to Macquarie Uni. The students attending the Department of Educational Studies at the Uni helped out at his schools with children with dyslexia. I'm also dyslexic and there was no help at all when I was at school. I left school a couple of weeks after my 15th birthday. His support at uni was as you say Quoll - extra time to read the exam paper. The exam papers and writing booklets were printed on green paper which helped a lot. When doing the graduate conversion and post grad he could use a PC. All helped a great deal. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Quoll Posted March 23, 2019 Share Posted March 23, 2019 3 hours ago, Toots said: In that case our son was very lucky. He went to a primary and secondary school in North Ryde (Sydney) close to Macquarie Uni. The students attending the Department of Educational Studies at the Uni helped out at his schools with children with dyslexia. I'm also dyslexic and there was no help at all when I was at school. I left school a couple of weeks after my 15th birthday. His support at uni was as you say Quoll - extra time to read the exam paper. The exam papers and writing booklets were printed on green paper which helped a lot. When doing the graduate conversion and post grad he could use a PC. All helped a great deal. Yup, very lucky! A few miles up the road from Macquarie Uni and the teachers would have been going "huh???" Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Janey V Posted March 23, 2019 Author Share Posted March 23, 2019 Thanks all for your comments they are a great help, we are looking at going to WA and hopefully if she is dyslexic we will get help, her teacher doesn't think it's severe as she is only slightly behind in reading and writing but excels at all other subjects and socially etc. I was just worried that it would come up in the medicals and we would not get the visa. Thanks again all 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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