Long bit of history and then some questions
So DS showed an early interest in, well, pretty much everything educational. At 18 months he saw a random fridge magnet I had from my old job and started saying emma, emma. It took me a moment to figure out he was saying M. So I ordered some standard wooden magnet letters and sat down with him to go through them. Turned out he already knew all of them. The only exposure he had had was through books, we often read him B is for Bear and Dr. Seuss's ABC Book.
Around 20 months I sat down on his bed with him and went through the letters and sang that song the leapfrog toys sing (the B says buh, the B says buh, every letter makes a sound the B says buh). We had no media in the house or talking toys, so I figured I would just sing the song that the toys sang in many other homes. The next day he knew all of the letter sounds when I quizzed him on them (whether he learned them from me singing the songs for the letters the prior day or already has some knowledge of them I have no idea). He was also able to name things that started with each letter.
From that point on I would spell short words with the magnets and he would read them. Sometimes he would sit down with the magnets and write things on his own. Shorty before he turned 2 he wrote craccrs for crackers for instance. I thought it was pretty good, considering his age
From 2 to 3 he continued to be interested in letters and words, but was not interested in reading books. He would read funny sentences I wrote about the family, but that was it. I didn't really try to push him, but I did wonder why if he could read words and loved letters he didn't want to read books. I figured he didn't have some other needed skills for actual reading.
At 3 I pushed him a little and found a few early readers he was interested in. Of course he quickly memorized everything I gave him, so I had to constantly look for novel books that he was interested that were around level 1. He hated any word he didn't already know and would refuse to read at all as soon as he either made a mistake or didn't know a word. Clearly this made reading practice difficult. I ended up trying Dick and Jane books and they were perfect. No new vocab and everything was very simple, but at least he was practicing the skill of reading.
After he had some decent success with easy stuff and developed some confidence, we moved on through leveled readers until content got too inappropriate for a 3/4 year old.
By 5.5 we felt pretty confident moving him on from early readers to short chapter books and he started reading Magic Tree House and some other short kids novels. His reading vocab really expanded since then (he just turned 6) and he knows so many obscure words and scientific words. He reads individual words very quickly and seems to have great comprehensions of what he has read (for instance, he remembers the age of kids in the story, what time it was in certain scenes, the exact words used to describe a certain smell). I bought him a 4th grade reading workbook for homeschool and he is doing very well in it.
Now, finally, on to my questions. First off, I wonder if I taught my son to read before he might have been ready or if I just facilitated his own learning? He certainly didn't pick it up on his own, I told him the letter sounds and read books that teach the letters. OTOH, I think most families do and it's probably pretty normal to encourage reading? Because of some specific issues with his reading I worry that maybe he learned before he was ready or something?
His reading now is honestly worse than it was at 5.5 and he has stopped reading chapter books and no longer wants to read much of anything. Not that he was ever really keen on reading actual books, but he seemed to get some enjoyment out of actually accomplishing something and I know he loves the stories and learning. He would sit half the day to listen to me read to him, which is pretty impressive for a kid as hyper as he is.
So, our main issues are slow reading, skipping words, skipping lines, skipping whole pages sometimes (reading left page, but not right), and guessing at words, even words he knows well. Like he might read "They all went to the car" as "They were at the car," missing all, changing went to were and to to at. He will reread the sentence if it doesn't make any sense and figure it out. He is also stopping constantly while reading, very often in the middle of a sentence and just staring. I often have to prompt him to continue. I think he is daydreaming, perhaps thinking about what he has read? He starts right back up reading as soon as I prompt him.
He is not diagnosed with it, but we are all certain he has ADHD. I am having him entirely reevaluated next week, especially for ADHD. He is currently diagnosed with Tourette's and ASD. Is this normal reading for a kid like him? He is not able to really enjoy reading because it just seems like so much work for him still. But then some days he will just seem to be really on that day and read rather fluently again like he used to. Some people have suggested internal distraction as a reason for his difficulties, but that isn't really very helpful as far as working on the problem goes. I just want him to enjoy reading because he loves books so much and reading is one of my greatest joys in life and I would like him to be able to experience that as well.
Math also became more difficult for DS about 2 months ago. He suddenly could not calculate in his head like he used to and refuses to concentrate at all on math. He used to love math and carried his math books around like security blankets. I feel like his working memory is shot. At the same time, in December he had his IQ test and scored very well on working memory, which was a huge surprise to me. Then I wonder if his interests have just changed? At 3 he could add 764 and 893 in his head in a matter of seconds, right now he can barely get through it on paper. In September he was really into fractions and could add, subtract, multiply, and divide them in his head, and then reduce them, just for fun, now he just complains it's too hard if I ask him the multiples of a given number. But he is just as capable of understanding things as ever. We talked this morning about global warming and alternate energy sources and he was so engaged in the conversation and really got all the science and showed so much concern about the issue. So I know he's OK cognitively other than the specific issues he's having.
As far as writing goes, he isn't great at it, but he's getting better. He still writes letters starting at the bottom and reverses the same letters and numbers he has reversed since 2 despite daily practice using an app recommended by the IU. He loves the app though, so even if it's not working, at least it isn't work! Spelling is bad, but I think spelling is usually bad at age 6 barring exceptional talent at spelling. He is able to compose sentences and get them written down on his own, but does better if I help with spelling and remembering the sentence for him while he works on the writing. He has trouble with spacing and always forgets punctuation. He mixes upper and lowercase letters, using whichever is easiest to write. I don't usually correct him, but I do occasionally talk to him about the rules of writing and I do remind him to add punctuation after each sentence.
Does any of this stuff sound like I should be concerned or am I just overanalyzing things? The IU has just stated for the last few years that he shouldn't be reading anyway, but now he is 6 and 6 year olds read. Since he is in homeschool and out of preschool we don't have contact with the IU or district at this point, but I guess we could bug them to evaluate his reading if needed? I'm sure they will just say he is way ahead and not be concerned about his speed at all, just comparing him to his peers. And maybe it's really nothing. Or just part of ADHD. Hopefully we will get some answers next week as well.
