Does it sound like my child could be dyslexic?

[Kokomjolk]

Posted this elsewhere but I think I chose a bit of a dead forum so trying here where it seems a bit busier..

DS is 6, nearly 7, and has finished one year of school (we're not in the UK). I'm a bit concerned about how he's progressing with his literacy. In the end of year assessment he achieved the standard that 90% of children are expected to reach, so not in the bottom 10% but not better than that. The assessment is based on number of words read correctly per minute, don't know if that's a common metric but he got 36.

He's bilingual, which might make some difference, but the local language is his dominant language and obviously what he has been learning to read. It's a very phonetic language, very simple with few exceptions, so it should be one of the easier languages for learning to read. Of course children start a little later in school here (the year they turn 6) and we did not really push him with literacy skills before he started, but they usually progress quite quickly because they are that much older.

He always does his home reading 5x a week as the school asks but it is heavy going. He reads very slowly with no expression and because it takes him so long to get to the end of a sentence he often doesn't have a good sense of the meaning by the time he has read it. He can see the same word written twice in a row or twice in quick succession and the second time reading it is just as much of a struggle as the first time. He frequently muddles up b and d and many vowels. He is very easily distracted while reading and stops frequently to talk about something else so it can be a struggle to keep him on task.

He still writes in a mixture of upper case and lower case. Many letters and numerals he still forms backwards. He sometimes doesn't even spell his own name correctly (misses out a letter).

He dislikes reading and writing and will never choose to do it of his own accord. It seems to exhaust him. He will sometimes pick up a book to look at the pictures.

He does however love listening to stories and has excellent comprehension of both his languages. We read to him daily. He is fairly good at maths.

Does this sound concerning or is it too soon to tell anything since he's only been in school a year and he just needs time for it to 'click'?

It may not be dyslexia.

There are a number of other possibilities.

Firstly, can he see properly? Trading is very hard if he needs glasses. If he hasn't had a recent eye test get one.

Secondly, phonics relies on accurate hearing. Again, if he hasn't had a recent hearing test get him one.

If both of those are ok then start thinking about dyslexia.

Thank you, that's very good advice and we do have an eye test booked for him just to check as genetically he's likely to need glasses. Unfortunately waiting times for eye tests here are insane and his appointment isn't until March But it is in the calendar at least.

My bilingual niece was behind at first as she muddled up the two languages writing and appeared to be really slow with it - the reality was she was thinking about which word. She soon caught up once her brain seemed to automatically click!

The writing backwards and the missing letters, alongside the reading pattern do suggest that there is something going on - dyslexia/dyspraxia - what have school said?

He only mixes his languages when he's speaking English - then he will use words from his dominant language here and there when the English word doesn't come to mind. But he doesn't put English words in his other language, iyswim.

So I don't think he gets muddled when he's in his dominant language mode, but it's possible it has some kind of effect.

School say that since he's meeting the minimum standards for reading and he is making some progress then there's nothing they are going to do right now, but they do say his writing is below expectations. The school have also been doing an experiment with Year 1 where the whole year group has three teachers and they frequently mix up the groups. So he doesn't have one teacher who knows him really well. I'm not too happy with it but that's another story.

We are trying to work on the writing at home but little success - I'm not a natural teacher. Any tips welcome!

He's on summer holidays right now so I can't really address it any further until the autumn term.

As a teacher, I'm not picking up many major alarm bells given that he is a bilingual child in the very early stages of his reading journey. He is the equivalent of a child finishing Reception in England in terms of his reading journey, only one year in. Many children, bilingual or not, are still where you describe your son to be by the end of Reception (slow to decode each word, not automatically picking up on repetition, reversing letters etc). Muddling vowels is especially common with bilingual children as vowels can sound very similar in certain languages.

I'm not saying there definitely isn't an issue but I wouldn't worry at this stage. Many children grow out of these things as they gain more experience with reading and writing. If they don't, then the possibility of dyslexia can be explored. Age 7 (Year 2/3) is the prime age for a dyslexia assessment/diagnosis in Britain as that's the age traits tend to become more apparent, ie it's not just something they will grow out of.

Hopefully it just hasn't quite clicked yet with your son. You could mention your concerns to his school but it's probably worth waiting another year or so to see how he develops.

That's very reassuring, thank you.

It's not quite the case that Year 1 pupils here are the equivalent of reception kids in the UK - they are older and they generally learn quicker because of it. My daughter did. When she finished Year 1 at the age of 7 she could read pretty much like an average British 7 year old. They're not normally two years behind children of the same age in the UK.

But I do take your meaning and a year is a year in any country, which is indeed not so long to be practising a skill. It's an encouraging thought.