His teacher has him in a much lower reading group than we expected, mostly because he can't seem to retell a story that he just read. But the SLP discovered that he can't retell a story that he just heard any better, so the problem doesn't really necessarily seem to be reading comprehension.
This, plus what TomN contributed, sounds similar to my DS8. He was diagnosed last summer with oral apraxia as well as social communication disorder. We see the issue of story retelling in spades, despite the fact that he clearly comprehends what he hears and reads. (He will, for instance, act out a story as I read it) We also have issues with very slow response times, even when I can see on his face that he's formed an answer (e.g., "do you want chocolate or eggplant for dessert?" takes several seconds for him to spit out that he wants chocolate even though I can see him looking at the chocolate, for instance). Asking him what he did at school almost feels like a cruelty. He cannot answer it without about a minute of thought. Journal writing was also painful. He can write just fine, but a free form "put down some thoughts" was impossible.
DS also shows signs of the oral apraxia through inability to say complex words, particularly with multiple syllables formed in the same part of the mouth, as well as significant oral motor issues related to eating. It was hard to get the diagnosis, and harder to find a SLP with the right skill set to treat it. The one we have has done an excellent job on some of the issues, and has been unable to touch others.
I discovered last year that DS could retell a story 5-10 minutes after reading or hearing it, but not immediately after. We describe things as taking the scenic route through his brain. I'm not sure the speech therapy has helped on this point much (I asked her today to revisit this issue), but it did help to script him on what "retelling" means. I gave him a sequence of questions to answer, which helps by reducing the number of options of what to describe, but also seems to help in scripting the order of how to respond. We practiced for a month - first with written questions to read and answer after a 5 minute break, then fading the script and reducing the "rest" time.
We did go get another evaluation (on the school's request, we've done 3 autism evaluations, negative each time), and the above diagnoses came from a hospital team evaluation that constituted the child's 6th speech evaluation. We also ended up with an ADHD diagnosis. I know last year's teacher agrees, but no one, including this year's teacher, the principal, or us as parents agree (and when I finally got the report, all the surveys and rating scales). However, since we have some sequencing problems, boredom, and basic young wiggly kid issues, we have established a series of accommodations that fit the kid and got DS a 504. The 504 game him things like supervision during lunch time so he doesn't choke. Overall, I don't care if the ADHD is right or not, it is getting him what he needs.
No idea if you're dealing with any of the same issues, but hope something in here helps.
