DS is 8 years old and currently doing very well in school (year 3). He has always been at the top end of the class performance wise and none of his teachers have ever raised any issues about his academic performance. However, compared to my other 2 DS, I have always been a bit worried about the way in which he reads. He frequently misses out small words and despite having a reading age that has measured a year above his actual age, his reading to me seems a bit strained as if it takes him a lot of effort. I have also had concerns about his spelling - while he is capable of scoring 100% in his spelling tests, it takes him a lot of effort (compared to my other children) and his spelling when he writes normally is riddled with silly mistakes. I asked the school to conduct a dyslexia screening test to put my mind at ease but unfortunately it has come back with a few areas of significant weakness (everything else was above average)....he scored very badly in the backwards span test, and badly in rapid naming and semantic fluency. While I am not surprised that something has come up, I am a little surprised at the areas as they would point to a working memory issue. DS is perhaps the least scatty person I have ever encountered. He is perfectly able to remember a long list of instructions and carry them out to the letter (unlike my other sons who I send upstairs to fetch things and never come down).....and he is also pretty amazing at working out complicated mental arithmetic in his head (he is top of his class in mathematics)....it just seems very odd that he can't retain 3 numbers and say them backwards? He is being referred for a formal assessment but this is not until June so in the meantime I am going a little crazy trying to work out what is going on. Does anyone know anything about these screening tests and what this could mean?