This describes my dyslexic kid who wasn't diagnosed until middle school because they were smart and always able to compensate throughout elementary. Teachers kept telling us they were fine till the academics got harder in middle school and they could no longer make up for poor reading through memorization, context clues and other strategies. OG tutoring is the way to go - we have been doing 3 times a week and seeing improvement. Every tutor we interviewed required at least 2 times per week.

My kid with ADHD was a delayed reader.

So was my other kid with dyslexia. In hindsight, the dyslexia was easier to remediate. At least it’s a clearer path.

My high IQ kid with ADHD and language processing disorders (likely due to early childhood ear infections) but NOT diagnosed with dyslexia clearly had difficulty similar to what you describe. He lasted a long time guessing what to read and cleverly masking in school. (One time he copied a poem from a dictionary in the classroom, and the school teacher used it as an example at an IEP team meeting of how my child couldn't possibly be dyslexic or have a reading disorder because he made this lovely poem.) He could guess short words from context, but the tell was that he would sometimes read contextually appropriate substitute words ("bench" instead of "pew"). And once he began to encounter unfamiliar, multi-syllabic words in 3rd grade, his reading really fell apart.

I believe in retrospect that the ADHD made it difficult for him to intuit the rules of sound/symbol relationships because he didn't really have the same executive function/mental organization that non-ADHD kids had thus impeding his acquisition in a way that is different than dyslexia. We pulled him after 3rd grade and sent him to Siena for a more explicit style of instruction in sound/syllable relationships. He learned to decode well but he still doesn't like reading, I think because the ADHD makes him mentally drift away unless the text is interesting. His other language processing issues also make it really hard to briefly summarize in his head what he read, thus making it hard to keep track in longer passages.

The skipping words makes me think ADHD as well as possibly dyslexia.

Teachers are strangely terrible at recognizing dyslexia and are far more comfortable with wait and see than they should be. Please get your kid evaluated. If ADHD is also in the mix, tutoring will be far more effective if properly medicated.

My kids didn’t have dyslexia but one of mine had ADHD and one had an LD in written expression and the school staff brushed off my concerns for years. I think it’s important to trust your gut and do testing if you’re concerned. The sooner you get a diagnosis, the easier it is to intervene and the less likely your child is to lose confidence. And if there’s no formal diagnosis, they can still offer suggestions.

I think most late readers have some form of dyslexia. Sometimes there are other causes for struggles in reading, like a difficult home environment, a crap school with a terrible curriculum not based on phonics, or medical or psychiatric concerns in the child.

Your child needs to be evaluated by a psychologist unaffiliated with the school. The people at school have a vested interest in not finding dyslexia, I hope you understand this.

My nephew was a delayed reader but not dyslexic. It was noted in first grade that he wasn’t reading at level and be continued to be behind until probably mid-fourth grade. He needed help in school and a good bit of parental help at home. But when it clicked all the sudden that kid took off and he was on fire trying to read all sorts of books. He’s a senior in HS now and still loves to read.

I don’t remember the curriculum because it was so long ago, but I do know that we have other family members that are teachers in other states. They recommended different reading approaches/books than his school used to supplement.

If she does have dyslexia you’ll have to go to 2-3 times weekly.

We enrolled DC in a specialized school for dyslexia for late elementary/middle school. She’s above grade level for reading now and has learned how to use assistive technology and self-advocate. We went to a specialized school since we didn’t have the option of getting services during the school day at her private school and she was getting exhausted from afterschool tutoring after long days at school. She will return to a mainstream school for high school, but will still need accommodations and tutoring in math. She’s a strong, determined, bright student — doing great and we’re very proud of her!

OP, you may want to read the book Overcoming Dyslexia which covers the topic thoroughly and gives many examples of successful professionals with dyslexia.

I went thru this with my son and it turned out to be vision issues - mildly far sighted, convergence problems, weak eye tracking. We had no idea - it’s not obvious and teachers aren’t trained to look for it. Make sure you do a full vision exam at an optometrist (not just a screener at the pediatrician) and tell the optometrist what’s going on with reading and school. Glasses have changed everything for my son. Good luck OP

Op here: for those whose kids were diagnosed with dyslexia, what helped? How is your kid doing now?

We are planning on an OG tutor once a week while we awaiting testing. Is that too infrequent?

She’s probably also gifted which is why her teachers aren’t picking up on it.

My DC wasn’t the worst reader either in her class—through guessing, context clues, and memorizing words she got by. Her reading comprehension was even above grade level in early elementary. But she would skip or get small words wrong like “and” or “but” when reading aloud. Testing revealed dyslexia, dyscalculia, ADHD and giftedness.

Op here. The curriculum is UFLI, which is phonics based. I don’t think instruction is the issue since so many of her peers seem to read very well. Something just isn’t clicking for her.

My kid like this is dyslexic and ADHD

Yes, this can be the result of poor reading instruction. What’s your school’s reading curriculum?

The good news is that with good reading instruction, these kids can catch up pretty quickly. The hardest part of stopping the bad habit of word guessing.

My 3rd grader tests at grade level for reading, but I think she’s just good at guessing on tests. When she reads to me, she skips words, makes tons of mistakes and guesses at the meaning. She only reads graphic novels and before she reads when, she goes through the whole book looking at the pictures so that she has a general sense of what it’s about. She then uses that to guess meanings when she doesn’t understand something.

My gut tells me that she’s behind in reading but her teachers say that she’s in the mix with other kids. I think they may be fooled by her generally good behavior and her capacity to guess.

She *can* read, but when I make her read to me, she struggles with at least one word in every sentence. If I weren’t forcing her to be careful, she’s happy skipping words she doesn’t know and just guessing at the meaning from the pictures.

We are on a waitlist for testing and I’m getting her an OG tutor. I’m wondering if anyone has had a kid like this who was not diagnosed with dyslexia.