Education Quandary: 'My dyslexic daughter has found timed mental maths SATS questions a nightmare. Aren't tests like this unfair for children with her problems?'

Hilary's advice

I have great sympathy for your daughter. One of my children had similar problems and so much of conventional schooling was a struggle for her.

The problems are numerous. For example, if you have a poor short-term memory any sort of exam revision is a battle. No matter how hard you work to stuff information into your brain, much will have gone by the time you sit down and turn over your paper.

And many dyslexics share your daughter's problem of needing to work slowly and only being able to hold one thing in their head at a time. So for your daughter to try and work out a timed maths question, at the same time as her teacher is reading out the question again to be sure everyone has heard it, will be a nightmare for her.

There's a detailed account of how dyslexic children need time and quiet to solve mental maths problems, by Mari Palmer of the University of East Anglia, in the March 2006 issue of the Proceedings of the British Society for Research into Learning Mathematics. Her research raises many questions, including whether extra help from, say, a teaching assistant, is something that helps or hinders dyslexic children.

So, to answer your question, yes, of course it's unfair, and her results will in no way reflect her abilities.

You do not say whether your daughter has a formal diagnosis of dyslexia. If not, you must talk to her teacher and the school's special needs coordinator and take steps to get her tested. The results may mean she is allowed extra time in exams in the future – although it is often easier to get this for GCSEs than for SATs tests.

Read the many good dyslexia support websites to find out how you can ease her path through school and do everything you can to make her feel she is not handicapped by being dyslexic, but simply approaches the world differently. It's a cliché to suggest you point towards the many successful dyslexics, such as Richard Branson, but it is a condition that often encourages grit and creativity.

Reader's advice

You need to be on the ball on this. It will get worse as she goes through school. In our experience, teachers often refuse to accept that these sorts of problems are real and can shred a child's confidence with their sarcastic remarks. Our son was always told to stop "day dreaming" and to concentrate. His dyslexia did not show up in tests until he was in his teens, when he finally got extra help and time in exams.

Mike and Lesley Marchand, Staffs

Has your daughter been tested for dyslexia? It doesn't sound as if she has. If she has, surely the school should be taking this into account when it comes to taking these tests? This sounds like the teacher hasn't been made aware of the problem. Have you talked to the school? It's your job, as her parent, to make sure that every teacher she has understands her problems.

Jenny Curtis, Essex

I teach Year Three at primary school, but I have taught Year Four and know how hard these mental maths questions can be for any child who has problems like your daughter and even for those who just need to go at their own pace. Time pressure in anything, not just maths, always causes panic among some children. I understand why it is important to know your numbers well enough be able to compute them quickly, but in real life there are not that many situations where we have to work things out without even time to draw breath.

Sandy Dulley, East Sussex