Hello there,
If I may offer our story about the only thing that has worked for DS7.5
When reading "Chapter books" and Potter, school books, around 3rd grade level + etc. - we hit this wall in Kindergarten and bitter-sweetly, had it not been for his vision issues it would not have been on our radar at all.
We 99% suspect that DS has Dyspraxia, Dyslexia, Dyscalculia, Dysgraphia with mannerisms that strongly support Developmental Expressive Language Disorder. Still waiting for some official stuff.(Personally we feel that all these should be a part of one Umbrella as I hear this from so many moms, it's almost common.)
ALL THESE THINGS seem to also present with VISION issues - our son has anisometropic amblyopia and lately becoming astigmatic as well.
The weird thing about this amblyopia is that your child can pass basic vision tests and this won't be noticed! The only symptom we noticed, in hindsight, was rubbing his eye frequently.DS did not know he had vision issues either, until he saw the difference (We have therapy, etc.)
What has helped and made him happy:
Audible books where he does NOT visually read at all. He literally cried when we said he did not have to read books! He was so grateful to finish the next 2 Potter books as quickly as he wanted. He is so eager to please and too proud to admit he had any problems. Fortunately, it does manifest as anxiety, etc, which is what finally clued as in.
His brain was compensating so cleverly, that it was hard to notice and I'm his teacher!
He has always loved "reading" and learning - he loves the touch laptop where he can expand fonts and pictures as needed. Chunking, white or colored font, dark/white background, the list of things that can affect reading goes on.
Other:
Dim computer screen.
Glasses, glasses, glasses - should have as many features for non-glare, polarization, correct prescription, correct PD measurement, correct position on face, do glasses hurt? slide down, pushed up and down? need a strap? need wipes?
Without insurance, we spend about 6-700 USD for son's glasses with all these (necessary) "extras". Am able to reduce to about 300 with direct to lab orders on internet. Be careful as quality is really critical for your DS vision - find the exact name of the coatings, etc. you need and shop those. You can search rxframesnlenses (no endorsement implied) as prices for some coatings (brand name) were direct from lab.
Ultimately, happiness REALLY WAS just about providing him material that was less taxing on his vision system. This has liberated our whole family.
When he does read, we use the Dyslexia font on the large setting - the letters are about 1/4 inch high or bigger is better. It spreads books out over a longer period, so adjust for time.
We stopped him from reading any books that he had to struggle to read the font - spacing, bunching, page size, colors, so many variables. We tell him not to waste more than a minute - if it's too tiring we find another version/media.
His opthalmologist insisted we NOT stress his vision and leave him to think about what he was reading and let him just absorb it without effort. CONTRARY TO opinion of some OT's saying we had to work harder, read longer.
He barely had any mental energy left to even absorb the material after a while. May not notice for short periods, but very taxing day-in/out. (not talking about eye exercises which we do)
We signed up for our library card and audio book option has been simply the best thing for him.
Online learning ala carte has been the only way we manage this as we cannot skip material integral to a lesson.
Not implying this is all applicable to your son, but hoping something might prove useful.
We are grateful we learned all this early enough to keep him happy still about learning. He was so happy when he realized that "learning" did not automatically equal pain, discomfort, stress, shame, guilt, etc.
Good luck to you and yours!
Lucky
