Thanks aeh - that makes a lot of sense. It does sound like there might be some type of decoding problem going on with my DS. He reads fast now and can read for ages without getting tired but he did really struggle to learn at first and his spelling and writing are really poor. As you said, he probably is past the age of re-learning to read using other strategies so is this just something he needs to live with? Or is it something that we should do something about? And when he gets help for his weaker areas (writing, spelling, maths etc at school) is it likely that the sort of help he gets (in a mainstream public school) will be targeting his specific difficulty or is it likely that all the kids needing help will have different issues which the school can't possibly address? Sorry if these questions sound naïve - obviously I want to so what I can to support him but I don't want to replicate what the school is already doing. I don't want him to feel that there is anything wrong with being an 'average' student or needing extra help with things but also don't want him to be frustrated if he is in an ability group that he feels is too easy for him because they are addressing problems he doesn't have(he hasn't ever said this so perhaps it's not an issue).
