I'm another 2E mom who will encourage you to get testing and intervention immediately-- BEFORE it becomes an issue. Early intervention for dyslexia can make a world of difference. It's very likely your son has it considering the writing and reading issues you describe, but most especially combined with the fact that his grandfather has it-- there's a genetic component. While neither my husband nor I have it, it turns out his uncle does. I don't believe intervention will take away his dyslexia, but it will give him tools to mitigate the problem.

My son with dyslexia is a twin. He never had trouble with letters or letter sounds, but he just could not sound out. His DYS twin learned to read at 3. I started to wonder about a reading issue at 4 because the boys are so similar otherwise, but I realized it's ridiculous to worry about dyslexia in a 4 yo. At 5, he told his K teacher he was worried he'd never learn to read, which she ignored. He made very little reading progress in K, but she said it just clicks later for some kids and she admonished me not to compare him to his obviously brilliant twin. This went on for 2 more years. So at that point I had suspected for 3 years there was an issue, and teachers were telling me there wasn't. Sadly, I wasn't informed enough to do something about it. I wish someone had grabbed me by the shoulders when he was entering K and said "GET HIM TESTED." So, that's my story. You have nothing to lose by getting him tested, but he has a lot to lose if he has dyslexia and isn't taught in the way he needs to learn.

ETA:
I also wanted to add that my son had the same writing issues you describe. Writing was and continues to be torturous to him. His name starts with a "J," and he still reversed that letter up until 2nd grade-- on his own name!! The woman who diagnosed him said that it was his writing that made the dyslexia most obvious to her.

I also want to mention another reason why it's important that your son read at the level of his IQ-- my son with dyslexia missed about 5 years of reading time and practice compared to his twin without dyslexia (ages 3-8). His twin devours books and spends almost 2 hours a night reading magazines, encyclopedia-type books and novels, and that began well before age 5. That is a LOT of information going into a developing brain that my dyslexic twin didn't have. We did read to him a lot, but we have 3 kids, so I couldn't just sit on his bed and read for an hour (although he would have liked that). He's a good reader now, but has decided he doesn't like reading. I really wish we could have prevented that.

Last edited by syoblrig; 08/11/12 11:47 AM.