Could DC be dyslexic?

[LeveretWalks]

Home learning has given me much more insight into my children’s abilities. DS2 (9) learns in a very different way, and has a different skill set, to his siblings. I’m starting to wonder (again, I wondered when he was little then decided there was no issue) if he is dyslexic. Any thoughts on whether this is enough to look in to his further, and what else I should look out for, would be welcome. Issues as follows:
-He was really slow to learn to read, or even recognise his name. His P1 teacher did ? dyslexia but said it was too soon to tell.
-Aged about 7 reading seemed to “click”, and he is now in the 2nd or 3rd reading group out of 6 groups in his class - so a bit above average (does this rule out dyslexia?).
-He is still a reluctant reader, although loves stories and being read to, audible and story CDs.
-His writing is messy and he seems slow (although school would say average). He has spent half of lockdown making up and acting out plays with his sister, but struggles with handwritten creative writing. Does much better on a laptop.
-His spelling is phonetic and inconsistent (and overall worse than his 5 year old sister’s), despite practise.
-He still reverses some numbers (5, 2, 3) and occasionally letters despite us having gone over this again and again.
-He absolutely cannot learn things like times tables, however often we go over them (yet is in the top maths group, although has noticeably struggled with word problems over lockdown).
-Verbally he is bright as a button, he is quick, arty (draws really well), is very creative and loves making things. He gets very frustrated with traditional academic work but will do his own things in his own way unprompted (write scripts, make up little fact books).

Does this sound enough to warrant looking in to this a bit more? Or might he just be very different to his siblings who have more traditionally academic tendencies? He’s a lovely boy, sociable and fun and has been fantastic company over lockdown, but his brain is definitely wired differently to mine and our other children’s, and he is clearly happy not to have to go to school! My eldest DC has DCD (but is not dyslexic) and I don’t see the organisational issues which he has in DS2 (who is quite good at personal organisation).

What does DCD stand for?
I’d certainly ask the schools SENCO for their thoughts. It’s so easy to leave it and leave it always wondering that something’s not quite right.

I think it could warrant looking into further, he fits a dyslexic profile from what you're saying, although only further testing by an Ed psych could help diagnose and identify his strength and weaknesses. It is so lovely that this time at home with you has given such insight into his learning style! If he is dyslexic then he can be given lots of tips to make learning easier and a different approach to take to some tasks. Lidia Stanton does some brilliant books to learn help children learn high frequency words through pictures and she has a book on times tables. Multi sensory, acting out, using picture to make memory "hooks", recording in his own voice and playing it back (as this improves memorisation), are some of the learning techniques that may help him at school. He sounds like he has so many strengths, play to these.

Thanks both. This is helpful - I will definitely speak to school when the children go back. The Lidia Stanton books look good! I’ve ordered a couple to see how we get on. He is good at so many things but really conscious of what he struggles with, it’s hard to hear him tell me that his writing is “rubbish” or he feels “stupid” when he can’t memorise tables - anything that can boost his confidence here would be great.
(DCD is essentially dyspraxia- the diagnosis you get is Developmental Coordination Disorder”. DS1’s manifests as slightly impaired gross and fine motor skills, and bigger issues with processing speeds / personal organisation.)