8yo still not reading

[wiltingfast]

My ds, turned 8 in June, is still not reading fluently. The school have said he is coming in just a bit below average for reading, which I find hard to believe to be honest since he still doesn't read independently at all.

He can spell, etc, great memory, likes maths, in general seems to be otherwise an average student and doing ok. No behavior problems. He just can't seem to get the hang of reading.

We read to him everyday, he loves the Wimpy Kid books so we read a page then try to get him to read a page, that kind of thing. We try to let it flow as well as possible so he gains confidence, but you can see he is just guessing a lot of time what the text is. He does not seem to retain any sense of what the word is likely to be given what he has just read (names for example, a mystery every time!). He is very easily discouraged and I find if i correct him too often, he gives up.

He is now going into 2nd Class here in Ireland (we have junior infants, senior infants, then 1st - 6th class) and I am worried as they really will just be expecting him to be able to read at this point and he just can't.

He has been getting extra support at school for this.

Should I try and source extra lessons for him? I'm useless at this kind of thing tbh, not enough patience, too easily irritated. It's not productive. My DH is much better but we're at a point where he needs to really improve and I'm not sure how we can help him do that. We're not teachers!

Any advice/similar experience appreciated.

Would a tutor be an option?

Is it that he's struggling when presented with larger chunks of prose then? If he's spelling okay then I can't imagine he's dyslexic. Have you thought about his sight? Maybe the words are getting blurry in the smaller text of a book?

Whenever there is an unexplained difficulty with learning, always check eyesight and hearing first.

If he is happy to read with you, then instead of reading alternate pages, you could try a technique called Paired Reading.

For this, you make reading time special and positive, somewhere quiet, comfortable and without interruptions or distractions. You and DS read a text that he has chosen aloud, together, and at his pace. If he makes a mistake or does not know a word, you wait and if he does not self-correct within 4 seconds, then don't ask him to break down, sound out, guess etc., just tell him the word and ask him to repeat it back to you, then carry on reading.

When/ if he feels confident, he gives you a pre-arranged signal and he carries on reading aloud. If he makes a mistake, give him 4 seconds then give him the word, ask him to repeat it and then carry on reading together until he gives you the signal that he is ready to carry on alone.

My DD was rather like this; she did need glasses. It was also the concentration...it took longer to develop. She began to forge ahead when I bought her a lot of different comics. The Beano, The Simpsons did it for her.

I don't think it's true that because spelling is okay he can't be dyslexic. Dyslexia is literally a difficulty with reading, so a sign of it is a spiky profile with lower attainment in reading. Of course there are different degrees of dyslexia anyway.

To be clear I'm not an expert in anyway but I think if you feel that his reading ability is clearly out of line with everything else then you know him best.