We all, as parents and educators, are looking at the world, by default, through our own perspective, through the filter of our own individual experiences. My guess is that you're going to hear parents of children who are dyslexic or who have reading challenges chime in with things that sound very familiar in their parenting experience and parents of children who are not challenged with reading chime in with things that ring true from their experience, hence some of us will be saying yes - definitely act now, check that out, and others will be saying don't rush into an evaluation, everything sounds completely typical and normal. The reality is it's very difficult before around the age of 7 or 2nd grade for parents and teachers to see what is typical vs developmentally challenging with reading (or writing) for any one child simply because there is such a variation in when neurotypical children are developmentally ready to learn. However - reading specialists and neuropsychs etc are trained and capable of teasing apart what is developmentally typical and what is indicative of a challenge even when a child is young.
When dyslexia or a related challenge is suspected, early remediation can make a HUGE difference, and waiting until it's so obvious that everyone in the child's life (teacher, parent, babysitter, distant cousin) can see that the child is struggling with reading means several years of missed opportunity for remediation + most likely several years of frustration for the child that can result in huge impacts on self esteem. So my personal advice is that when a parent has a hunch, test, evaluate, whatever. If you have an evaluation and find out everything is developmentally a-ok - that's GREAT. Wonderful on many levels - first because it means your child isn't going to struggle learning to read - it will happen, second because you can look forward knowing you don't have to plan remediation etc, and third because you don't have to spend the next 2-3 years as a parent wondering if something is a challenge or not.
Why are you suspecting dyslexia? It is not at all unusual for 5 year old's to be unable to read at this age.
I agree, it's not unusual for 5 year olds to be unable to read, but I see some other red flags below (disclaimer: I have a 9 year old 4th grader who has a reading challenge, so that's the lens I'm looking at this through).
knowing the sounds of the letters since he was 3, but not being able to blend
This absolutely happened with my dd who is reading challenged. She learned her alphabet sounds when she was very very young. She started trying to read when she was around 3 years old. She stumbled and struggled on sound blends - it was like hitting a brick wall. The same girl who was so eager to learn how to read books at 3, by the time she was 5, was refusing to try to read and still tries to avoid reading in 4th grade. Kids have to learn individual sounds before they learn blends, so it's totally typical to learn that first and not expect the blends to develop overnight. But if a child who was able to learn the sounds with no problem and who is interested in learning how to read stumbles over blends, seems to be frustrated over it, or is just not getting it in spite of instruction in which he/she is a willing participant, that's a red flag for a reading challenge. Same with other reading skills.
not being able to rhyme at all ("Bed and led rhyme. Can you think of something else that rymes with bed?" "Yes! Jacket!"),
This is also something that happens with children who have reading challenges, and happened with my dd. She still isn't very good at recognizing rhymes or will think something rhymes which is entirely not rhyming-at-all.
randomly guessing at words based on the first letter, and other little things like that.
Again, something my reading-challenged dd did (and still does).
One or two on their own wouldn't worry me as much, but putting them all together just seems to indicate something more.
I totally agree with this - added in with the fact that he's been trying to read and has had instruction in reading. I would also look at your general family history - are there any dyslexics in your family, or any adults who have struggled with reading or who just don't read.
A friend who was a special education teacher before taking time off said that it does sound like a definite possibility, as does another friend who's a school psychologist. I've put in a phone call to the school district about testing, but I think that they wouldn't normally test this early. And this is normal. But everything I'm reading about dyslexia says that it's best to catch it this young and start remediation before the child falls too far behind, that even when kids start to get help in 2nd or 3rd grade, they never catch up with kids who were better readers early on.
It sounds like you have people who know you and possibly your child also agreeing that there might be a reading challenge. I would second the concern that it's better to test and know early so you can start remediation (and appropriate curriculum/etc) early. There are many different skills that go into reading, so it's not as simple as saying a child is or isn't dyslexic therefore we pick remediation technique a or technique b. Having thorough testing is really key to understanding what is going on, especially when children are very young. And early remediation is sooo so very important - again, jmo - but what I've seen happen with my dd really makes me a believer in the importance of it with respect to reading. I don't want to scare you lilmiss, but teasing out what's the challenge can be tough without thorough testing, and it took us until 2nd grade to really get a good understanding of what was going on with our dd and then again another round of testing in 3rd to fully understand what type of remediation she needed. She's been tutored this school year (outside of school) and it's made an amazing difference in her reading ability, but in the meantime I can see what she's lost in the years that she wasn't reading well - while she was struggling her peers were taking in all kinds of information that she wasn't simply because she wasn't reading. She had a lot of stress in her life due to seeing how much and how quickly the other kids in her class read. She missed questions on worksheets and tests because she either misread directions or misread specific questions. Her self-esteem has taken a big hit and she has a lot of anxiety around schoolwork and reading. She loves to listen to audiobooks, but I am guessing she will never enjoy picking up a book to read - and even though it's easy to say that's not a problem in this day of high-tech, the reality is it's not as easy supplying your child with never-ending audiobooks as it is just having books lying around the house to pick up and read or going to the library for an afternoon and just browsing. I'll acknowledge this might be *my* personal challenge - so if anyone has any suggestions to make it as easy or easier please tell me lol! I so want to be able to open her life up to books and being excited about books - but I think remediation for her, honestly came just a tiny bit too late.
Sorry for the ramble, I just wanted to try to explain to folks who's children haven't struggled with reading why parents who's children have struggled would encourage a parent of a 5 year old to seek out answers/help/evals etc when the parent has a hunch something might be challenging.
Best wishes,
polarbear
