Stealth dyslexia

[NeverTalksToStrangers]

My ds2 is 7 and is very bright. He's at a high reading level but makes really simple spelling mistakes all the time. When reading he guesses some words (uses logic rather than sounds them out), misses basic words out (he's in too big a rush) and even now would write some letters back to front at times.

At his parent teacher meeting I suggested to the teacher that he may be dyslexic. Her response was "if he was dyslexic he wouldn't be able to read at the level he is".

I accepted that, but now I realise stealth dyslexia is a thing. Does anyone have experience with this? How do I go about getting him assessed? Is there anything I can do to help him at home in the interim?

I would recommend you buy ‘The Gift of Dyslexia’ by Ron Davis. Skipping ‘trigger’ words when reading is a sign of dyslexic disorientation (eg what, when, for, ever, even etc). At lot of bright dyslexic children cope up until the age of 6-7 but it becomes noticeable as work becomes harder and they start to sit tests.
I don’t know what relevance the baby stuff is?
Good Luck!

Most schools lack the money to carry out the tests, as well as the expertise for a teacher to spot the signs. Even more so if your child is doing well academically. If you can afford it then get a private assessment by an EP, or if you live near the Helen Arkell Centre then they're meant to be good. It's worth is as whilst he maybe OK now, you might find he starts to dip as the curriculum picks up in later years. My DS was diagnosed and now has an EHCP for dyslexia when a year ago I was told by the SENCO he didn't have it.

He also crawled.

The teacher is talking nonsense. I have dyslexia and have a PhD so can read to a decent standard. If you have a decent vocabulary and good general knowledge a dyslexic can read reasonably well as we read the context of what is written, basically we are good skim readers, if we understand what is being said we are fine. Unfortunately, it only takes misunderstanding one word to change the context then we have a problem. 😁

Dyslexia is a bigger issue than just reading, I have major issues with spelling even the most basic words because I just can’t visualise what letters are in a word. I write back to front, I miss vowels and writing can take an eternity.

However, there is a lot of support and resources for dyslexics that I would persue regardless of the teacher said, tbh, I find a lot of school teachers just don’t understand dyslexia.

I would also like to add there are lots of benefits to dyslexia in the way that we think and look at the world. I would encourage anyone with a child with dyslexia to promote the things that dyslexics are good at and that the problems faced not to be dismissed, but should be taken seriously and the additional stress due to trying to participate in mainstream education, which is a very difficult place for dyslexics to work in should be acknowledged and adjustments should be made.

The testing in primary school will only pick up "common" dyslexia. DD had no problem with reading - in fact was ahead in her reading and comprehension. Her handwriting was also fine. She also crawled at an early age and started walking at an early age. However, when she was FINALLY diagnosed by a specialist, it turned out that she was severely dyslexic with a very slow processing speed. She was given 25% extra time and a scribe for her GCSEs. I hope you get some answers.

I have dyslexia. My mum could never understand why I could read well but not be able to spell or learn times tables.

Have a look here for more details on the wider affects of dyslexia www.bdadyslexia.org.uk/dyslexic/dyslexia-and-specific-difficulties-overview

In my sons case, his dyslexia affects sequencing, processing, memory and word retrieval more than reading. So at the age of 11 he doesn't know most of his times tables, his working memory and processing are very low so you can say something and it goes in one ear and out of the other. He needs more time to comprehend what's said and lots of repetition until whatever he's learning makes it into his long term memory. He also finds his speech is sometimes mumbled as he finds it hard to say the right word. There are also lots of other conditions that co-exist with dyslexia. In his case he also has a speech and language disorder and coordination problems.

I'm my experience, schools know very little about dyslexia. Our SENco sat with my son for 10 minutes and got him to read a passage from a book and on that basis decided he wasn't dyslexic. That would have only tested his sight recognition of words which for him is alright. I suspect his reading age is very low though. If she had asked him about what he had read, or to tell her the days of the week or given him a string of instructions to follow then she would have seen a problem. Dyslexia is misunderstood and underestimated by many.

This is also useful www.helenarkell.org.uk/about-dyslexia/parents/what-are-the-indications-of-dyslexia-in-children-.php