Is there a children's hospital in your area that has a Child Development Center? I'd have him tested privately. My GD was tested by the school for speech and said that she had no problem. A private speech therapist found that she was three years behind in her speech level when she was 5. The school finally retested her after I "pitched a fit" and said, OOPS, we made a mistake. I'd also get copies of all of the school's testing and study them well. You're going to need to educate yourself. If you have a computer there is a learning disabilities website with a lot of helpful information.

He sounds a lot like our youngest grandson. For years he just couldn't manage vowels. He'd spell ""drop" "drep" and "please" "ples." Reversed his bs and ds - the whole shebang. It was torture, getting him to read and his handwriting is atrocious to this day.

His school enrolled him in a special program where he gets more intensive teaching each day, and he has improved. But he will probably never be a champion reader, speller or writer. His math, science and motor skills, on the other hand, are through the roof and we're all betting that he'll have a nice career in one of the building trades or even engineering. As long as he can read and write well enough to be understood, that'll be fine. He just doesn't have that in him.

He also had trouble with Rs, and I tried so hard to teach him where his tongue should be to make the proper sound. Then one day I realized that it's next to impossible to say "squirrel" without doing an "R." It still took him a while, but he's no longer doing the "W" thing.

He, too, was tested and nothing was found other than very mild, borderline ADD. It's hard to think of this these days, but maybe it's true that some kids are "just like that" and we have to work with it??? HAHA

BTW, my brother was never good at reading, spelling or writing. In fact, he was awful! Yet he became a very successful photographer and sculptor and lecturer, and while he was never a bookworm, he did read a lot more once he was older. His spelling never did improve - we used to tease him about that all the time. He would often call me to ask how to spell the simplest words! LOL

Typical answer from school testing. Find a pediatric neurologist who specializes in learning. There may be some minor problem in his brain. A couple of things you could try: books on tape (or whatever technology they are putting them on now). See if he gains an interest in listening to the stories. If, or when, he does, start introducing books with lots of pictures. Take him to library at least once a week and see if he gets excited about books, which may create a desire to learn. Sight reading. As you drive help him recognize Burger King, MacDonald's, etc. These are words he can identify with. I did this our gs and by end of 2nd grade he was reading at 5th grade level. This will take time and patience but it may help as you seek further testing. Schools are limited in their testing and therapies. One more thing: take a cookie sheet or pyrex dis and pour about 1/8 inch of salt in it. Take his hand and trace letters of the alphabet. This helps him get the message to his brain by using touch and vision to communicate with the brain.

Thanks for the suggestions. I will try to find private testing . He loves books and I read 1-3 every night he tries to read basically by guessing what the pictures say , and even keeping my finger under the words doesn't help any. The teacher just sent home something saying he Learned all his letters on the computer game. ... I would like to believe that...he guesses . Every word that starts with m is me , regardless of how many letters are in it

Amazing how much our children have in common.

Just to add to the resource tool box, check out : http://www.ncld.org/

Hugs

interesting site. check out wrightslaw.com

Yes, I have a book called From Emotions to Advocacy from from him. Great info!

when we gaot our 3 gc the mother grandmother had applied for disability for her. she moved to another state so we had to take her to her hearing. Most of the stuff they had listed we have never seen. the comment was made that most of her problems were prob from her home life. She does none of that now. She does have some problems, but is able to over come them with meds. home life plays a big part in their lives that we generally dont think about.

Does he have ADD he may not have the hyperactivity with it, but that would definitely keep his mind racing so that he wouldn't be able to concentrate long enough to learn his letters. Maybe some of the medication for ADD would help him to focus so that he could learn.