DS has a convergence issues and is severely dyslexic. We first noticed something in first grade and it became more apparent as he got older. In addition to what you mentioned, DS struggled to start reading at the first letter of a word. The schools provided extra resources but really their efforts did nothing to address DS’s issues. We finally had a neuropsych test done for confirmation (school won’t diagnose but we thought having it officially documented was important) and we paid for Lindamood-Bell. DS is not at grade level, but he can read now.

DS also had headaches from reading and it made him tired. Have you asked your son about this? We tried vision therapy, which is controversial and not covered by many insurances, but it eliminated the headaches and tiredness.

Op, if you think there is a gap between how you think your child should be performing and how they are performing on reading, do a neuropsych.

We did one for DC and it was helpful. DC can decode/do phonics, can figure out how to spell words, so doesn’t have dyslexia, but it did identify problems in some areas which are relevant to reading. DC does have problems with attention, and controlling their frustration/emotions, which also came out in the neuropsych.

DC is finally making significant progress on reading this year (first grade), but kindergarten made little progress. We moved DC to private school this year to get in-person learning, and I completely credit her teacher and the individual attention DC was able to get in a small class with the huge amount of progress made this year. I used to fight with DC for 30 min to do 15 min of reading. Now DC willingly reads (sometimes for 45 min!!!), but never voluntarily. Still loves for me to read to them.

In the end, DC does not have a traditional “learning disorder” but they do have several clinical characteristics of dyslexia and ADHD. This helps me understand that DC needs more support for reading/academics.

Anonymous wrote:My concerns are that he reads but skips, inserts or changes the words he's reading so it's something like what's on the page but not exactly. I suspect there's a quite a bit of guessing and reliance on pictures and context going on, as well as memory. At home he doesn't want to read new books, just books he's already read, and he has a scary-accurate memory for anything (he could easily recite sentences from a book he's read before from memory). His resistance to reading is also concerning -- it's a fight everytime to get him to read anything. His teachers assign only one reading assignment a day, which takes him like 5 minutes and is easy, but he never wants to read anything else. He is happy for me to read to him for an hour, but resists reading to me (not even every other page or parts) and never reads silently to himself.

The bolded described my dyslexic child before diagnosis and a 2-year, 3x/week Orton Gillingham-method remediation program. DC now reads for school and pleasure. I agree that balanced literacy programs can be the culprit in some circumstances. A good neuropsychologist should be able to tease that out.

Anonymous wrote:Kids who are jumping around the page when reading may have an eye tracking problem, and you would want a developmental optometrist to see him. I would start there. Make sure it is a developmental optometrist and not a regular one. Since he is relying on memorizing, that makes me think the problem might be visual.

While this is definitely a good idea to consult a developmental optometrist, I would line up neuropsych at the same time with developmental vision. Dev vision doesn’t have a whole lot of peer reviewed studies showing it makes a difference but anecdotally I have heard wonderful things. Since it sometimes takes so long to get into neuropsych for testing, I wouldn’t hold up on that for dev vision (they may recommend like 6 months of vision therapy - if your DC is not better after that, then it’s 6 months later and you’re still spinning your wheels).

Kids who are jumping around the page when reading may have an eye tracking problem, and you would want a developmental optometrist to see him. I would start there. Make sure it is a developmental optometrist and not a regular one. Since he is relying on memorizing, that makes me think the problem might be visual.

Anonymous wrote:This is OP. Thanks everyone for all the helpful responses.

I read over some other signs you spotted and I don't see them -- he's never had a problem identifying letters or numbers or the sounds that letters make -- in fact he was pretty early and accurate with that sort of thing. He's never written letters backward. But it looks like some of my concerns were similar to yours -- guessing on reading and just a general sense that reading should be clicking and it's not. So I don't know.

I am definitely going to get him an eye exam. He was screened recently at his checkup, but has not had a real eye exam. He does seem sometimes to have trouble following the words on a page.

If I do want to get him tested for dyslexia, what kind of test is that and who does it? Is that a neuropsych? I've heard those are expensive.

NP. Yes you will want a neuropsych. We used Mindwell in Chantilly. It was about 3k a few years ago. If you can afford it easily I would go ahead and have it done. Early intervention is so important. If it turns out not to be an issue, you will have peace of mind. We had our DD tested at the beginning of first (she has an October birthday so was old for the grade). We could afford it no problem and I viewed the 3000 to be money well spent to rule it out. Turns out our instincts were correct and she has moderate dyslexia. She did 3.5 years of tutoring 3 days per week with an OG tutor.

What phonics program does his school use? If they are using balanced literacy, that might be the issue.

This is OP. Thanks everyone for all the helpful responses.

I read over some other signs you spotted and I don't see them -- he's never had a problem identifying letters or numbers or the sounds that letters make -- in fact he was pretty early and accurate with that sort of thing. He's never written letters backward. But it looks like some of my concerns were similar to yours -- guessing on reading and just a general sense that reading should be clicking and it's not. So I don't know.

I am definitely going to get him an eye exam. He was screened recently at his checkup, but has not had a real eye exam. He does seem sometimes to have trouble following the words on a page.

If I do want to get him tested for dyslexia, what kind of test is that and who does it? Is that a neuropsych? I've heard those are expensive.

OP, I could have written your post when mine was in first, and I encourage you to listen to your mom intuition. Mine is now in fourth and she is severely dyslexic. We are leaving public for private next year. But all the signs were there early. And everything you mention was part of it.

Public schools are lousy at recognizing dyslexia (and they’ll never call it that) so I would encourage private testing. But it can be expensive.

https://dyslexia.yale.edu/dyslexia/signs-of-dyslexia/

Check out the above link.

I noticed similar things with my child in first grade. She too was at grade level and the teacher didn’t recognize signs of dyslexia at all. We also noticed sequencing issues, difficulty telling time, and spelling was a real challenge. We had her tested at the end of first grade. She is severely dyslexic and has dyscalculia.
I always tell people to trust their intuition and that one of the biggest signs to me was that it didn’t make sense that she was having such a hard time learning to read. We knew she was smart but why wasn’t it transferring to reading skills. We found out how many compensating strategies a dyslexic child can use to make it look like they are doing ok.
You do have a point about not receiving regular instruction this year but if you have concerns, I would really look into it.

Has he had his vision tested? That's always the first question I ask. Not a screening but an actual eye exam.

My child was tested in 1st grade and the neuro-pysch indicated dyslexia. Other than that, one big thing that we noticed was that he could never tell the difference between a 6 and a 9 or a 5 and a 2. Sometimes the reading issues are tricky but the numbers issue was clear. He does not have dyscalculia so it was purely an ability to identify written symbols.

My kid is mildly dyslexic. As compared to his older siblings who are not dyslexic, he:
- Took 2 years to learn his letters
- Couldn’t get b and d straight for another couple of years after. (I would place a ball on one side of the table and a photo of Dad on the other side of the table to show which way they pointed. This helped him FINALLY get it)
- Skips words, replaces words, reads very choppily
- Has trouble with sound deletions/substitutions. (Say “sent”. Now say “sent” but don’t say /n/. Kid should be able to respond “set”. My kid took a ton of practice to be able to do this kind of exercise.)
- His writing was not as good as his non-dyslexic siblings. He frequently seemed as if he was “drawing” his letters rather than forming them normally. Spelling was/is atrocious.

We tried an Orton-Gillingham program and it didn’t help him. What is finally helping is DAILY practice using the materials by Abecedarian/Dr. Michael Bend. The approach is called Phono-Graphix. (Reading Reflex is also Phono-Graphix but seemed more complicated for me to implement.). We also do a second session each day of him reading aloud to me from a reader (like Frog and Toad type thing).

I was so happy a few weeks ago when we were at the DD drive thru and he said, “Mom! Free coffee!” My little guy could read a sign!

Also - have you had his vision checked recently?

I'm wondering about my first grade DS. He is supposedly on grade level, according to his teachers, who have raised no concerns, but school this year has been disrupted so I'm just not sure they're giving particular attention to a kid who's not significantly behind. This is a private (non DMV area) that has been hybrid most of this year, but in-person is only 2 days a week.

My concerns are that he reads but skips, inserts or changes the words he's reading so it's something like what's on the page but not exactly. I suspect there's a quite a bit of guessing and reliance on pictures and context going on, as well as memory. At home he doesn't want to read new books, just books he's already read, and he has a scary-accurate memory for anything (he could easily recite sentences from a book he's read before from memory). His resistance to reading is also concerning -- it's a fight everytime to get him to read anything. His teachers assign only one reading assignment a day, which takes him like 5 minutes and is easy, but he never wants to read anything else. He is happy for me to read to him for an hour, but resists reading to me (not even every other page or parts) and never reads silently to himself.

On the other hand, he does well in the phonics study they do in school and unprompted can read signs or instructions that are new and do not have picture clues. He's a bit of an anxious kid who doesn't like trying new things that he can't get right immediately, so maybe that is part of the problem?

I don't know, I have a niggling concern in my mind that something is not quite right, but maybe I'm off-base, and am just arrogant in thinking that he should be ahead of where he is because his parents are smart and his older sister read above grade level on her own with seemingly little effort?