My son Aiden is 5 and is a smart kid. He started reading spontaneously when he was still 2. From the beginning in pre school he hated phonics with a passion! His teacher thought that he had a photographic memory and was memorising the pages and using the pictures as a trigger for the words.

Fast forward a few years and his reading is now at early chapter book phase - Fly Guy etc.

My concern is that he himself gets frustrated over his inability to figure out words on his own, he asks and he recalls the word always after that. BUT with words that start the same and end differently he always always struggles. So the, then, them, that, those etc - he always reads "the". when he writes numbers and letters he writes not only the main ones backwards and muddled (d, b, p, q) but others too - 3, 5, 7, 9, e, g, n, a. Even if he is copying a sentence from my careful writing, he will get things backwards, and then say that it's exactly the same - it looks the same to him.

I think that he has taught himself the shape of the words he is reading and remembers that - more like an image than a word made of letters. And I think that it's the reason why he has this barrier to his writing and reading. If I look at his writing now, its worse than when he was 3 in both style, formation, neatness, size - everything. His reading is reluctant at times, but he will sit for 30 minutes trying so hard to decode a book he really really wants to read (ie Harry Potter) and then throw it down in anguish and not want to hear about it again for weeks. IF he chooses a short book, we are asked to read it to hi 2 or 3 times and then he can read it easily and fluently to us.

Now his younger brother who also started reading and writing spontaneously at 2 is really making fast progress in reading and writing. At his current rate of self-done progress he will surpass both Aiden's reading and writing abilities before the end of this year.

I don't think it's just an age thing - he has been reading and writing for close on 3 years now, and surely all the regular glitches like this would have cleared up in that time.

I cannot find a professional who will listen to me as he is "so young still". I have no one else to ask, so am asking here... is there an issue here? How do I go about testing for it or helping him out here?

Is it dyslexia? could it be a sight thing like convergence or something? is it something else? please, any ideas will help here as I am almost certain there is something blocking him here...

I am not much help as I can only go on one example but it seems like there is something going on. DS 4 also started reading at 2 - whole words only, photographic memory. He used to guess words based on the beginning and ending and couldn't sound them out at all... In contrast the phonics and sounding out have come this year without any teaching. He occasionally mixes the letters around with writing and doesn't always notice. Also the fact that Aidrn's brother is catching up suggests that there could be an issue also. No idea what the issue is though. Makes it difficult if no-one will look into it because of his age. I hope there are more helpful answers for you!

About the only way you can get a valid diagnosis is through testing. Our son's was diagnosed when he was six by a neuropsychologist. The speech therapist began using the Wilson Reading Program, and his reading and decoding skills exploded. There are several programs like Wilson that are a better fit for readers with dyslexia, so that might be an option for actually teaching the skills - although your older son may feel it is a backwards move and resist.

thank you bobbie - I think I just needed to voice my concerns in a safe place where someone would agree that I am not a neurotic, pushy mom

ABQMom - thank you I will look into the Wilson program too. He is wading through reading eggs now, but it's so boring for him and the older part of the site he manages to get through pieces with a bit of spot reading and mostly lucky guessing... I think he will be okay if it will help him kwim?

I agree it's worth a good look, though I'm not sure that you'll be able to find a person or a test that will give you the info you seek at this age. They do routine testing at school and if you are lucky, you might find a teacher who will show you the tests so you can pick it apart and try to get an idea of what's going on.

In our house at that age, we provided work arounds at home as well as remediation until the issues reached a testable threshold.
My DS is 12 now, and his problems are with spatial/written expression/writing. We knew something was up by age 5 because he was spelling phonetically at age 3- big words, but at 5 still wasn't able to recognize more than single letters in print. Still age appropriate so not on any radars. But, he is so smart that we were able to find other ways for him to learn. By doing this, we eased frustration, prevented him from backsliding too much, and kept his love for learning alive. It wasn't easy! But it was the most fruitful thing we did. It helped us in advocacy and in getting appropriate testing (age 9!), and it helped more than I can say with maintaining his self esteem against a barrage of negative messages he was getting and giving himself at school.

Vision definitely could be a factor. A full vision test is in order, including how the eyes work together, track, etc. That can be done now, no need to wait. You can also look at his eyes now by noticing things like: Does he look at his hands when they are doing fine but muscular work like peeling an orange? Does he watch himself write? Do his eyes come in together if he is looking at something very close to his nose and do you see one eye resist, move out, etc. Does he track close things smoothly in all directions?

How is his motor development? Did he crawl for very long or at all? Was he on time? If you notice anything there, an OT eval (and possible tx) might give more insight into the writing and possible perceptual issues.

I had questions about DS a year ago at 5 as he was flipping letters and had a great deal of difficulty writing We heard the same things - too young, too gifted to test because he actually reads quite well. But I am dyslexic. After all the testing with an OT, we determined his writing is primarily an OT issue. However, we did get him vision tested and he has difficulty tracking things across but not down lists. We are going to a more sophisticated test of his perceptual vision to determine what he sees. We went to a teaching hospital/school, they were very helpful. I would recommend those tests to rule out, rather than rule in dyslexia.

Also he is no longer flipping numbers and letters - so that might have indeed been appropriately developmental - but his words are still huge and he has trouble with spacing between words and internally. I have to have a conversation with someone because his supply list calls for wide ruled notebooks and he can't write on them!

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Thank you for this! That's exactly it! Two of my brothers have serious issues with dyslexia or similar, my late brother was in a "special school" as he just could not read or write - he became a baker in a very busy bakery shop and memorised every single recipe he ever needed. My younger brother has dyslexia severely too.

Thing is, he used to write beautifully aged 3 and 4, and suddenly now it's huge and all over the place again. He struggles to form letters - he swears he wrote it "the same way" even though things are the wrong way around. IT looks the same to him it seems.

I think we will start with a full vision screening first, and then go from there. Thank you!

This sounds similar to my son, although he does have some phonics ability (he's 8). He has a language processing disorder, and for awhile I thought he had dyslexia.

He can read 2-4 grades above grade level, but I need to be there to catch the words he doesn't know. The more basic the words are the harder time he has remembering them because he confuses them with each other (the longer, more complicated words have more elements that he can "grab hold of"). When he encounters a new word he'll give it a shot, sometimes get close and sometimes he's not even in the ball park. Once I tell him what the word is he remembers it, and if he encounters another new word that is similar, he'll call it the word that he has learned, rather than trying to sound out the new word.

My answer to this has been to build his vocabulary with exposure to new words by having him read out loud to me. He or I will follow the words with a finger as he reads and when he doesn't know one, I tell him what it is.

I always choose above grade material so that a) he has this new exposure and b) if the text is too easy he gets silly and squirmy (i.e. bored).

Something I did with my daughter might work for you and your son. She was an early reader, very phonetic, no problems at all. My issue was that she was zooming through the books we had, buying new ones was costing too much, and my son was too hyperactive at the time (DD3, DS2) for the library. Anyway, I started writing stories for her.

You could take the stories that your son reads fluently, use that vocabulary that he has memorized and write new stories, but add in a few new words to give him that "new word" exposure without overwhelming him. Try writing stories about him and his life to keep him engaged.

Meanwhile you could ask about getting him tested... the more information you have, the better. Vision testing is an excellent idea. My son has strabismus (wandering eye), and it may have impacted his earlier reading. He's received excellent care, no longer needs his glasses, and has good stereoscopic vision. His doc is really pleased.

Good luck - I hope it all goes well

CCN thank you for sharing your story with me! The way you explain the reading is what we get here too! We will get a full vision test done at the opthalmologist to ensure nothing is missed from that angle before looking at anything else.

Of course when I start thinking about all this he then reads so beautifully from a brand new book tonight - but again the smaller easier words are the ones always tripping him up! and yes he reads at least 2 grade levels up from his age too

thank you for giving me something to start from

I'm slightly worried as well because when my son's tired he's reading words backwards like tub instead of but. But he reads so if there really is a problem we'll never know at this point. We don't have any problems consistantly, you can just tell when he's still trying to read after he's ran out of steam. He'll start guessing at words, skipping lines, rephrasing entire lines of text, but surprisingly often getting the gist of it right. Also at this point I can tell he's reading ahead of himself because he'll move his eyes and look at the picture while he's still reading a sentence out loud.

The handwriting I still recommend HWT grade 2. It's got just a little bit of copywork on each page and it still gives instructions on how to form each letter correctly. For example, did you know an "o" is supposed to be counter-clockwise and started from the top even though kids want to write them clockwise.

And I have been reading that reversals and tracking issues and such are common until the second grade. I do want to sympathize that it's hard to know if what you're seeing is normal.

You're welcome - glad I could help