Just so I understand, your DS6 is a great reader except that he has trouble remembering what one letter combination sounds like, and sometimes struggles to sound out words. But it doesn't sound like the problem is too extreme. Did I miss anything? In my opinion, that really isn't a problem at all at his age. He'll get it eventually. If there was some more specific thing that he had a problem with over and over (say, finding the next line of text, or being completely unable to sound anything out, or using an inordinate amount of effort to sound things out every time he does it) then there might be something. But, unless there's something else, he doesn't sound like 2E to me, just E. Is he a visual-spatial learner? VSLs sometimes have more trouble with learning to read phonetically. If you're concerned, the first thing I would do would be to get his vision checked - BOTH for acuity and for motor stuff (as in, by a behavioral optometrist
www.covd.org) - they are two different types of exams. All right I'm editing yet again - I did not mean to imply that being a VSL has anything to do with getting his vision checked - two separate issues... For VSLs, sometimes a whole-word approach to reading is best, and the phonetic stuff comes eventually. I only suggested a vision check in the event that he has trouble seeing the individual letters and their order, which is not something you can necessarily figure out for yourself (for dd, the letters kinda "moved").
