Gifted Issues Discussion homepage Forums General Discussion New here

Hi...I am new here. I am mom of two boys, one of whom is and 11. When our 11 year old son was 4, we had him evaluated and found out he is gifted.
Fast foward 7 years to now....
we are having him evaluated again next week because he struggles so much to spell. In addition, when he reads outloud, he often omits words. The person who will be evaluating him told me that from what I have told her, she suspects he has something called Stealth dyslexia. I had no clue as I thought that people with dyslexia had problems reading, and my son was reading at age 4, loves to read, etc.

I am not sure what to expect with the eval. It is a 3-4 hour appointment. The person doing the eval is very familiar with gifted kids and supportive of homeschooling. She said I might have to take him to an eye doctor to check his visual tracking.

Are there certain tests I should make sure to ask for?

My son is VERY strong in math and science. He is a happy, easy going child, eager to please, respectful, and responsible. He does not like to write, I think it is because spelling is so hard for him.

Any advice you can give would be great!

You might want to consider a Behavioral Optometrist. Sometimes it is visual/perceptual skills that are not up to par. www.covd.org is a great site to find a qualified Practitioner in your area.

My dd7 has "dyslexic type" issues and has been in Vision Therapy for 2 months and I have seen dramatic progress.

Often GT kids can mask problems with their intelligence. A number of the kids we discuss here have visual issues that generally have been fairly hard to ID.

I agree--checking with an expert is a good plan!

Thank you!

Thanks..that was helpful.
Here is a link I found about stealth dsylexia-

http://mislabeledchild.com/html/Library/DyslexiaReading/Stealth_dyslexia.htm

Thanks for the article Suzanne. I found explanation about the paradoxical difficulty reading short passages, like tests, especially useful. It will help me better explain to DD7 why her subtle word substitutions and skips can cause functional problems.