Anonymous wrote:Op here. I forgot to mention that he also has speech delay. My older child is a special need child and he can read chapter books and does multiplication at age 5. Not for comparison, I would never expect that my younger child would struggle with reading/writing and he is not good with math. He has IEP or child find program since 1 year old, so I have been keeping track of his development. Preschool teacher has tried extra effort to do 1:1 on him, and it took him a long long time to learn phonics. His IQ seems fine, but I wonder if he is dyslexia. He is going to 1st grade, and we are not holding him back.

Don't compare kids. MCPS ES curriculum is not very good. I would get a reading tutor and ask his private SLP to work on it. My speech disordered kid was reading very early, other kids I know were but many were not. Our SLP did a lot of visual work and we read a lot at home. We used apps and workbooks as well. Handwriting/writing was delayed and we did about 10-20 minutes a day of Kumon workbooks and it really helped (not the class, just the workbooks). And, if he's not in private speech get him in private speech. Phonics never worked for my kid. It was sight reading. We also used the CC for videos and did a lot of reading vidoes.

Hi, I have been in this same position. I reasoned that if DS was dyslexic, it would be a lot of tutoring and likely outside of school / or in addition to school. So I taught him, we set a timer and we did not take a day off for months.

He was much easier to teach at age 7 (middle of 1st grade) than 6. There was never a magic moment but at age 7, I saw slow, steady progress. We did 20min/day (set a timer because this is longer than you think). He started 2nd grade reading above grade level.

Once you have reading down, it makes working on writing or math easier and math in particular, it's easy to find a tutor/do Kumon for repetition.

The problem may be the schools' expectations are not developmentally appropriate for all kids. It's within range of normal to learn to read at 7. Unfortunately the public system expects kids to do it at 5 and 6 when many just aren't ready for it then.

My oldest didn’t learn to read until sixth grade. Here are my thoughts.

Schools don’t admit to a problem until it’s way worse than you think it is. So this is a big issue.

Reading is one of these most important life skills.

If you were capable of remediating this, you would have. I mean, you’re an attentive and proactive parent but your school is worried about your kid’s status. So you need outside help.

If you’ve had all relevant testing done and nothing showed up, you can use a program like Huntington learning center. If there’s a disability, then you will need a specialized program that addresses it.

If you had neuro psych, that should have caught dyslexia.

Anonymous wrote:Op here. I forgot to mention that he also has speech delay. My older child is a special need child and he can read chapter books and does multiplication at age 5. Not for comparison, I would never expect that my younger child would struggle with reading/writing and he is not good with math. He has IEP or child find program since 1 year old, so I have been keeping track of his development. Preschool teacher has tried extra effort to do 1:1 on him, and it took him a long long time to learn phonics. His IQ seems fine, but I wonder if he is dyslexia. He is going to 1st grade, and we are not holding him back.

Why not hold him back? I have a son now in first who really struggled with reading in kindergarten. I worked on it every night with him and it drove me nuts how he just could not get it (we were still struggling with the simplest bob books), so what you are describing does not seem that abnormal me.

His reading really took off in first grade. His school had him meet with an orton-gillingham trained reading specialist daily, and I kept working on it at home with him every night (used a book called Teach Your Child to Read in 20 lessons, which I found to be MUCH easier to handle than the 100 lessons book. While I think the reading specialist helped a lot, I suspect a lot of it was that he was actually ready in first grade, like that part of his brain needed for reading finally developed. So I guess if I were you and really worried, I would consider holding him back if he has a late birthday. You could chance it that he will get it in first grade but first grade is a lot more intense than kindergarten, so that is a consideration.

Op here. I forgot to mention that he also has speech delay. My older child is a special need child and he can read chapter books and does multiplication at age 5. Not for comparison, I would never expect that my younger child would struggle with reading/writing and he is not good with math. He has IEP or child find program since 1 year old, so I have been keeping track of his development. Preschool teacher has tried extra effort to do 1:1 on him, and it took him a long long time to learn phonics. His IQ seems fine, but I wonder if he is dyslexia. He is going to 1st grade, and we are not holding him back.

I'd consider cross posting on the special needs forum. It is entirely possible that it is just developmental. My kids are now in HS and college, and I recall noticing when they were in kindergarten and first grade that most of the kids in the highest reading groups had fall birthdays, and the kids we knew with summer birthdays were among the slowest to pick up on reading. On the advice of our pre-school, we had held our late summer birthday son back because he couldn't read anything, and then, almost like magic, around the time he turned 5 and a half, he started being able to read letters and then words. Overgeneralization, but boys just start reading and maturing later.

With that said, nobody here can assure you that it's simply developmental. If your gut tells you there's an issue, I'd post on the SN forum and see if folks over there have advice or providers to recommend or simply things to look for.

If you haven't already, you may want to get a vision test from a developmental opthimologist. They should test his eye tracking, how his eyes work together to focus on objects, etc. Vision issues can impair reading and writing.

Have you tried writing with him? There is a great kids workbook on Amazon called Write to Read - it's a company out of Australia (Fremantle Education) that says writing is the key to reading for a lot of kids. My older kids did something similar overseas in their British school, Read Write Inc. They were reading and writing well ahead of grade level in just a few months. I've been working on Write to Read with my youngest and it's going very quickly.

My son is in the same boat in K. Speech disability and motor disability but no autism, no adhd, no dyslexia/dyscalculia (at least at this time - just had him evaluated but they acknowledged that could change), lowish IQ but normal range. Engaged parents who work with him. But he is still failing reading, writing, math. (Math is his weakest, but I think it's because reading gets so much focus at home and in his small groups).

We are getting pretty unanimous advice not to hold him back, but I'm not sure I buy the explanations. He is a summer bday (so is on the young side already) and it seems like it has to be better than going into 1st and failing more.

This summer I am thinking about trying All About Reading (at home program) with him. He doesn't quite pass the assessment to get to Level 1, but I will give him another month or two of school and reassess.

I learned to read and write at 8. I really wasn't ready before or interested and I don't have SN.
How do you expect DC to read at 5-6? All you can to is keep going. It will click when the time comes, but it's not at 6.

Get the learn to read in 100 easy lessons book. Do one with him every day. Do not skip days

Are you working with him at home? Some reading games, tracing workbooks?

I am no expert on this but I have a summer birthday boy that I did not hold back (mistake). It took him really until 1st grade to be able to write well. We never did any evaluations but later he was diagnosed with a fine motor delay.

Kindergartener struggles with reading and writing. He has IEP, and homeroom teacher and special educator admit that he is falling behind. He attended daycare and then preschool since 6 months old, and there's no other language spoken at home/school except English.

Other than worrying, what could I do to help my son? Any advice? I don't believe he will catch up because I had the same concern since he was 3 years old. Everyone tells me he will be okay, omg. We have paid a few thousands for evaluation(s) for the last few years, other than ADHD diagnosis, we have no clue why he can't read with phonics and why he can't spell. He knows abc, almost all letter sounds, and he recognizes a few words. He can only write his name, mom, dad, his pet name and I love you.

App? Tutoring? Free resources? Any free volunteering help?