I have a 6.5 year old son who just took the WISC-IV as a prerequisite for applying to a gifted school near us. He's shown a number of characteristics of being gifted ever since he was born. He is currently in Kindergarten in our local public school and has a summer birthday (he's one of the oldest in his class).
My spouse, who started reading when she was 3, has often expressed to be that, given his very noticeable and precocious vocabulary, it's a little odd that he isn't reading "better." In the past, I've always just thought that he would learn on his own time and that it's something that could just unfold naturally (I was not an early reader, so I think I have a different perspective). Within the last month, he's starting to read fluently (probably on par with what they are teaching in a second-grade classroom) so he's maybe about a year ahead of average.
The test results really surprised us in that he scored much higher than either my spouse and I were expecting (scores deleted)...
Anyways, so both of us have been doing a prolific amount of reading about gifted education since we learned the test results. One of the articles I came across today describes something they termed
stealth dyslexia. I'm sure I'm reading into this, and it sounds crazy to me to think that my child might fall into this category, but...
- he occasionally writes letters backwards (though this is apparently somewhat common?)
- he misspells words (such as 'sik' for 'sick')
- he writes very slowly
- he tells us that he reads faster in his head than he can out loud
Are these things that will work themselves out as he gets older (i.e., how much of this is him simply being a typical kid learning to read)? Or should I try to get him assessed for
stealth dyslexia, and if so, where in the world would I go to do this? I can't help but think I'd get laughed out of most psychologist's offices if I even asked the question.
Thanks for your help in advance.
