DS seems to be getting worse in some ways while better in others?

[yawningmonster]

Brief history
DS has Aspergers
He is 7
He is struggling at school and we have just had him assessed for specific learning disabilities.
We are waiting for the official paperwork but have verbal confirmation of dyslexia.
We are on the waiting list for behavioural optometrist to check for visual issues and for occupational therapy for sensory integration.
There is also some pressure from one particular source to assess for ADHD despite his psychologist, teacher and us all believing this is not an area of concern (he is highly distractable but I believe it is more of a sensory processing issue rather than ADHD) (This person (professional) suggested that if he were not medicated he would not ever learn to read!!!!(I didn't take it very well tbh)

Life on the whole is better than it was, the constant meltdowns are less often and less severe.
He has achieved a whole heap of stuff of late
he dived under the water at swimming...actually got his whole head under voluntarily and without hours of stress and drama and post reactions.
he managed to operate a hula hoop for about 3 twirls!!!!
he coped with his sister having chicken pox and his whole routine changing as a result of this
his pen control has improved exponentially and he can now colour inside lines!!!!
his autonomy is growing, he has been able to be at some friends places without me and to stay at parties without me

the stuff I am worried about is mostly the dyslexic side of things...

            he went to school with NO letter reversals then started reversing his s's last year, this then led to 5's and 2's, then a's, then 7's and 3's and today I have seen him for the first time ever reverse d's
            he went to school understanding when and where to put a capital, they now show up inconsistently all over the place
            he went to school with clear speech, he now says 'at' consistently for that, has trouble with word retrieval, has trouble with multi syllabic words when he never has before and so forth

We got the dyslexia assessed because despite the school thinking he was fine, I was positive that he could not actually read but that he could memorise from guided reading extremely well...I just couldn't understand if he was on the level he was on, why he couldn't read anything other than the reader from school or an equally well known text. I also couldn't understand why they were not freaking out about his inability to write as I sure am. (He will generally put the first letter of a word and then make up the rest)

Is this a normal pattern, for the signs and symptoms to actually get worse??
Is it a case of he is getting so overloaded as he moves up in school that he struggles more and more errors creep in???

Anyone share any insights or ideas or experience??
BTW please ignore spelling and grammar mistakes.

Hi yawningmonster - when I read the thread title I thought this was going to be about behaviour/obsessions getting better in some areas and worse in others, which is definitely the way things seem to be for my 8 year old Asperger's son! But I'm afraid I can't really help with your dyslexic issues, am bumping for the Brits who might be getting up and logging in around now. My son is also very behind with his literacy and showing dyslexic tendencies but is making progress in the right direction albeit extremely slowly. We still have a lot of letter and number reversal but that has always been the case. For it to get worse does seem baffling, hopefully someone more experienced than me will come along soon. I can only guess that like you have said, maybe the overload of school stress is showing in his work?
Does he have any 1:1 help at school?

thanks suburbandream...the behaviours and obessessions like you say seem to ebb and flow as well so what is happening maybe an aspect of that. I am used to the Aspie stuff now but the dyslexia is something new, they wouldn't assess him before 7 as it could have been Aspergers affecting the reading and writing and still might be but the assessment did show that even if it is Aspergers influenced he has clear phonological deficits and word recall difficulties.

At the moment he gets wait for it 1 hour a week of 1-1 help. Once the paper work from the SLD assessment comes through we can fight for more but as for his Aspergers he is too high functioning to qualify for much.

Hi Yawningmonster. I'm no expert either, but have done some research into ASD and have a 10 year old DS with AS. The brain is a very complex thing and basically, as far as we know, makes new pathways as it experiences new things. For these to be established the experiences have to be repeated over and over again. If we stop practising something, then the pathways become less well maintained. I'm speculating now, but I guess if your son is working more on other areas, like co-ordination, then his attention may not be completely on what's already there. However, I am no expert, so could be off the mark with this.

My own son went, went from having perfect grammar when talking, to making the same mistakes as his sister (NT). We just repeated it back to him correctly and generally he's back to perfect grammar, but it took a long time. I hope and pray you find some answers.

As far as I know and IME, reversing letters is a normal developmental stage once DC get more confident with writing. When they are very slowly and laboriously writing, letters tend to be correctly formed. Once they get a bit of speed up formation goes a little to pot and reversals are more common. In an NT child this may be most common in Y1, so for your DS, it may just be a stage he is going through a bit later than others. Obviously, it may not just resolve itself and if he has dyslexia there could be other reasons why he's reversing, but I thought the information may be useful. [busmile]

Hi Yawningmonster, like suburban I had thought from the title your post was likely to be about the waxing and waning obsessive behaviour typical of many dcs with ASD. Maybe you could repost mentioning dyslexia and regression in the title to get some responses from posters with experience in this area too?

I think creatavator has a good point about regression in one area being almost a defensive reaction to being overloaded in another area.