One reason I suggested word making self-discovery is because we did reading and pointing as well as having Closed Captioned on TV and DS8 has a wicked memory and he remembers all these whole words to read, but not the construction of words. Recovering spelling after being a voracious whole word reader since he was 2 has been challenging.
It could be his vision issues were key to his not deconstructing words, but I also think in retrospect that earlier grapheme type awareness might've made things easier on him now.
