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Ive been MIA trying to get my head around a few things & we also had a big move.

I have to say we have had a really good start to the school year - DS1 has settled in really well to a new school & teacher. I was a bit hesitant initially as his teacher is quite young however she is fantastic & really clicks with DS1. We havent had any of the behavioural issues from last year.

So we had parent teacher today & the teacher reported that he is doing really well with most things - reading & writing still a bit of an issue though but he is progressing so she is happy with that. One thing that i found interesting - we hadnt told her about his IQ testing etc but she made mention that his comprehension is fantastic but his written assessments dont reflect his comprehension however he tests very well verbally.

For those who dont remember - DS's IQ test results indicated that he is highly gifted in comprehension/lanuage (GLC) but average FSIQ. So i dont know if there is a problem linking the 2 & whether we should investigate or let things pan out??

Sounds like possible dysgraphia. My DS11 is dysgraphic and I heard similar comments over and over until he was diagnosed. "Not putting forth enough effort on writing." "He is capable of better written work based on what he says in class" etc. etc.

How is your DS' spelling and handwriting?

Just to refresh my memory, I re-read your original posts about your ds from last fall. I agree with fwtxmom that it sounds like possible dysgraphia, as well as possibly a reading issue (I'm not sure about the reading - would need more clarification on what's up with reading).

I think that you're for the most part stuck in a bit of a tough place at the moment. You have a new teacher noticing the same things the previous tester noted (high comprehension, ability to express knowledge verbally, lower ability to express knowledge in writing) - so the consistency of seeing the same patterns among different observers and in different settings (testing vs classroom) are indicators that there may be a 2e issue. The flip side of that is your ds is still very young (I think he's 6 and in first grade?); the previous test results could be inconsistencies just due to immaturity or test-taking environment, and in the classroom it's possible he just hasn't hit his stride yet re written output and that will come with time. OTOH, as the parent of a child with severe dysgraphia, I can tell you that we had the same situation going on for the first few years of school - an inconsistent result in testing that no one thought was significant (ds was tested for a gifted program), and our ds appeared to be very gifted when he spoke but his written output was way below his other abilities. He had teachers that he got along well with and he did well in school the first few years, and they pushed aside concerns about written output as lack of maturity, lack of understanding it mattered, perfectionism, etc. Eventually that morphed into a teacher who wasn't so pleased with him and was convinced he had ADHD, and that's when we returned to a neuropsych for full-blown testing. I wish we'd had the neuropsych results earlier, so there's a part of me that would tell you - look into private testing now, you have enough indicators between classroom performance, teacher comments, and previous testing. There's another part of me, however, that thinks that perhaps the best thing to do at the moment is to seek more input from his teacher, try a few accommodations in the classroom at home to see how they work, read up as much as *you* can on this type of challenge, and plan to test (either privately or through the school) either in the spring or next fall. It's just a gut feeling on my part, but I think gathering a little data now combined with giving your ds 6 months to 1 year more maturing will perhaps give you a clearer idea once the new testing is completed, as well as giving you an opportunity to defend the new testing if a disability is uncovered and you need to advocate for services.

I would also consider sharing the results of the previous testing with his current teacher, and share any concerns you've had at home (I'm guessing you've noticed the same difference in verbal vs written output - have you noticed any other things, reluctance to do homework, fatigue, frustration over school, anything). Ask the teacher if there is something you can do together to help pinpoint what is going on. It won't hurt to ask if the school can evaluate him if you want to - I'm guessing his teacher may feel it's worth looking into. In that case, you'll need to think through for yourself, are you ready for the school to go through their eligibility for services process now or do you want another round of private testing first? There are good reasons to do both - nothing is ever simple with 2e kids!

Good luck and keep us posted - also, if you have time, could you tell us a little bit more about what's going on with reading? Is he just having a tough time responding to what he's written or do you think there is a reading challenge? We are still trying to figure that out with our 2e dysgraphic ds - even though he's 12 years old and we've known about his dysgraphia and expressive language disorder for years! He's always read way ahead of grade level, but struggles with summarizing what he's read. The thing that often happens with 2e kiddos is that there are many layers to their challenges, and you have to slowly peel off one layer and get through that before the next challenge becomes obvious.

polarbear

ps - I'll add one last thing - when ds was in early elementary and first showing signs of dysgraphia, we *often* heard - "Oh, it's developmental. He's a boy. Boys are slower to mature" etc. Be sure to ignore anyone who says "He's a boy!". ARGH. I still am annoyed about that one lol!

My DS7 (this board goes by ages rather than birth order) in 1st grade sounds very similar to yours. It's wonderful that your teacher has picked up on the discrepancy between intellectual capacity and output. Our teacher picked up on it too, but probably wouldn't have said much to us if we hadn't voiced our concerns two months into the school year. Our DS does not have dysgraphia, and a dyslexia test over Christmas indicated he doesn't have dyslexia either, but his slow processing speed affects his reading fluency, writing speed, and ability to perform under time constraints. We have WPPSI testing showing the lower processing speed (50th-ish percentile) in relation to other subtests (98th/99th percentiles).

Our WPPSI tester recommended that we allow him to dictate to us throughout his school years, when teachers will allow, so that he can get out on paper the thoughts that are in his head without the writing/processing slowing him down. We're in the process of looking into a 504 for him, which the dyslexia tester recommended, and I should be able to report more on that after we meet with his 2nd grade math teacher about it tomorrow.

We decided to pursue a 504 for him because his 1st grade teacher already initially thought he was just being lazy when his writing output didn't match the abilities she sees, and I keep reading that dyslexic children are often labeled as "lazy" when they get to older grades and their smarts are no longer able to hide their learning issues. (Although DS7 isn't dyslexic, that seems to be the closest "labeled" LD to his processing speed issues and their effects on his reading and writing output.)

I typically spend a decent amount of time finessing my posts to make sure they say what I want them to say, but am pressed on time here. My main thought is that if your teacher is noticing these things this early, and if you have testing that corroborates her observations, pursuing additional evaluations that will narrow down what's going on will help you help your DS, and can result in getting accommodations in place now that may make a big difference once he gets to 3rd/4th/5th grade. When I shared the results of our dyslexia testing with DS7's 2nd grade math teacher, she said it suddenly helped her make sense of some of her observations, and told us that getting something written up into a formal plan would help the school place him appropriately from year to year so he gets adequate challenge and isn't labeled as "lazy." We wouldn't have been able to move forward with this without the dyslexia evaluation and its resulting recommendations.

I should also mention that we have DS in tutoring twice a week to improve his reading fluency so that his reading can catch up with the rest of the skills. This was a recommendation of his WPPSI tester a year ago, but we were hesitant to do it until our dyslexia tester recommended it. She classified him as an "at risk" reader and recommended tutoring to improve his fluency. He reads almost a full grade level ahead, but nowhere near the rest of his cognitive abilities. The tutoring has really made a difference in his reading abilities, and the Orton Gillingham method works very well for him.

Thanks for your replies.

To answer your questions - yes he is 6 & in grade 1.

Writing - it is/has taken a while for him to grasp spaces between words & writing between the lines. He often tries to rush his written work which means it can be messy.

Reading - he struggles with sounding out the words & reading sentences. He seems ok if you give him sight words but reading a sentence is a problem. He isn't heaps behind in reading but his teacher made mention of it & where she expects him to be at the end of the term.

Homework - for most of his home work he is really good & loves it, however, part of his home is writing 10 words x 3 times & he absolutely hates it. It becomes like pulling teeth so the teacher has made some suggestions on how to work with him on that.

An example she gave us was his spelling test which he does tend to do quite well at but what he is does he reads through the whole thing at the start of the test & by the time he has done that others are half way through & he is only just starting.

Overall his teacher doesn't appear to be concerned about where he is, well enough to mention it to us at parent teacher but not enough where she has recommended any external intervention. She has suggested things we can do at home. I'm wondering if I should meet with her again to discuss further or what??

Your DS may not have an LD or dysgraphia (not sure if that's called an LD or something else), but your descriptions sound like it's a possibility. With an IQ of 152, your DS's brain is working several years ahead of grade level, and even if he has an LD that affects his reading and writing, those are likely to still be at or above grade level. This means most public schools aren't going to be able to help you identify whether an LD exists or not.

For us to identify what was going on with our DS, we had to go to outside testing. The school wouldn't test him for dyslexia unless he was 2 years below grade level in reading. His teacher initially thought we were a little bonkers, but as she got to know him over the course of the year, she agreed with us that his reading and writing output, and his performance speed on writing assignments and tests, were not what she would have expected based on his verbal demonstration of his thought processes.

I'd suggest talking with the teacher if you're inclined to do that, and at the same time, do some more research on this board and elsewhere on dysgraphia, dyslexia, and processing speed and/or working memory issues (and others here may chime in on other possibilities), and see if any of the symptoms of those LDs click with your observations of your DS. It took me a good three months of research, discussions with DH, and wondering if I was making a mountain out of a molehill before we finally decided to go ahead and test for dyslexia, and I'm very glad we did it. I just went back and looked more closely at Polarbear's post further up in the thread, and think all of her suggestions are really good, as they always are.