I posted back in May concerned that my DS6 was having some attention issues in Kindergarten and got some great feedback. Unfortunately, by the end of K his issues had gotten much worse but we were not informed until July when the report cards were sent. His teacher wrote that his high energy level was now interfering with his ability to learn. His grades all went down except in reading comprehension which stayed above grade level. His poorest areas were in writing, paying attention, following directions and speaking/communication skills which were all below grade standards. After receiving the report card we took him to his PCP to start an ADHD evaluation but the PCP told us just to wait and see how he does in first grade. We also sent him to a child therapist who speculates he may have ADHD/ASD/ and or a language disorder. We have been working on a behavioral plan to help his attention/focus issues and appropriate communication issues. So far behavior is okay this year but too soon to get excited. Current concern is his reading. We have noticed at home when reading chapter books he omits small words (a, the, of, etc), adds his own words or changes them (a for the) . He does not do this with more difficult longer words. Is this normal for a first grader or something to be concerned about?

Dropping small words is definitely something dyslexics do: they tend to jump to the meaty, content-laden words, which allows them to absorb the gist of meaning while skipping bits like articles and suffixes. Thus the oddity that comprehension, especially for 2E, is often better for more complex words or passages.

HOWEVER - kids with dyslexia usually do a lot of other weird things too, so if this is all you see, I wouldn't worry. If your child is a fast silent reader and tends to be looking ahead even while reading out loud, then some of what they speak tends to be what they remember the text saying, rather than what they are reading in the immediate moment. Result: occasional paraphrase, especially of unimportant words. (Confession: I do it myself, reading to the kids).

2E kids often don't look much like the LD descriptions you find anywhere else. I have found this forum by far the best resource for understanding what various LDs etc could look like in a gifted child. Even here, though, our kids vary wildly in how they compensate and therefore how they show their challenges, so it's worth looking at a range of experiences. Here's one thread mentioning a number of possibilities:

http://giftedissues.davidsongifted.org/BB/ubbthreads.php/topics/212491/Stealth_dyslexia.html

This is what we noticed first with our dd who has vision challenges - her eyesight in each eye was a-ok, but her eyes didn't track consistently and she had double vision. There were other signs that our dd was having trouble with vision, but we didn't notice them because they weren't at all obvious when she was in early elementary and our dd didn't realize that other people saw the world differently than she did.

I'd suggest looking into this further if his teacher is noting his difficulties are interfering with his inability to learn, rather than starting with a behavior plan. It's key to understand what's at the root of the behaviors first: if there is an undiagnosed LD or something else going on that's causing the difficulties, it will need to be addressed as the primary issue. Please take my advice for what it's worth though (not much lol!) - I'm not a professional, just the parent of 2 2e kids (and the non-2e kid with vision issues I mentioned above!)

Best wishes,

polarbear

Thank you for the info. Platypus101. This information was reassuring. I have not seen any other signs of dyslexia. He does read fast and is always looking ahead when reading. I often have to tell him to slow down when he is reading.

Thank you Polarbear. You are very helpful!