Hi Bella,
My daughter was dx with dyslexia and dysgraphia a few months ago as a 4th grader.
The instruments used for screening dyslexia in schools won't catch fluent readers. DD scored 99%ile on all sections of AIMS WEB this year. This test seems most accurate for kids closer to the average with single -syllable phonological problems.
My daughter reads at a high school level or above (finally assessed as we were going through the IEP process), but the writing mechanics and spelling are much as you describe. DD cannot segment syllables of a word, and makes errors in pronouncing any letter with multiple pronounciation, like the letter g and all vowels. None of this was caught because she hasn't enountered an unfamiliar word in grade-level assessments, and the nonsense word reading was single syllable.
The diagnosis came from a neuropsych exam through differential performance on the WISC verbal section and the WIAT reading and writing sections. The diagnosis has been further substantiated by the director of the university reading program who observed DD in a variety of reading and writing tasks.
This was DD's only full length IQ test, but the scores were within points of group cognitive screening tests and the KBIT.
