His teacher mentioned possibly bringing in a specialist if he still shows sign of struggling. Has anyone else had this issue???
FWIW, I think that having a teacher who has noticed he's struggling and suggested bringing in a specialist is one very positive indication that you've placed him in the "right" school! And as has been mentioned above, it's very definitely possible to be gifted and have a learning challenge all at the same time. As the parent of 2 2e kids, my experience has been the 2nd e is going to present challenges and frustrations, but it is also going to be easier to tackle the 2nd e if you have your child placed appropriately for their intellectual abilities.
So - don't second guess your choice of school. What you should do is request that the school bring the specialist in to look at what's going on. One of my 2e kiddos has a reading challenge which she was able to compensate for in early elementary so it went undiagosed until 3rd grade. I would give *anything* to be able to turn the clock back and have the knowledge we got through her diagnosis at the time she was starting to learn to read in school.
I also wouldn't spend much time trying to think through - is he intimidated by the older kids' abilities in his class. Maybe he is - but otoh, maybe he isn't. It hurts *nothing* to have a reading specialist give him an evaluation - and if what you find out at the end is "everything is a-ok" that's great. OTOH, if you put off having an evaluation because you make an assumption that it's something else going on that will pass with time.... if there *was* an issue that needs remediation... later on when time has passed and nothing has improved and there's still an issue, you'll be wishing like crazy you'd had the evaluation now.
One thing to be aware of with reading challenges - they aren't all "dyslexia" - there are so many different skills that are a part of reading.
Best wishes,
polarbear
