My 6 years old can barely read and seems to have really poor memory that is required for dealing with school academic stuff.
His writing and other fine motor skills are ok and he doesn't seem to be 'thick' generally.
But I cannot understand why he doesn't seem to remember what the word and (for example) looks like. When he reads and he will read it as if he's never seen this word before and goes as how he remembers from phoenetics in school: 'Aaaa eNNNN Duh ....it's and'. Next minute he'd repeat exactly the same. He does it with all words. I don't think there is a word that he recognises instantly by sight. Maybe his name?
He passed phoenetics test in Y1, strangely enough.
He's ok with writing - 'this is my favourite fruit' he wrote like 'tis is my faforit froot' and his writing style is no worse than his peers. Very normal, it seems.
He couldn't talk until he was 3. Even now his pronunciation is still slightly off. Slow to adapt to corrections, often repeats same mistake over and over again beofre things change.
What can this be? We read to him most bedtimes and even encourage him to sound out the words, but it's too exhausting for him. I've GP booked to refer him to have mild hearing loss ruled out, but ..what about slow memory? The rest of his family has photographic memory. I don't want him to struggle at school all his childhood and compare himself negatively to his brother.