Posted by Laurie4b on 17:36 Jan 15
In Reply to: teaching the alphabet and counting posted by Jo
What you describe is indication of pretty serious difficulty at his age. I would go get an evaluation that included phonemic awareness and rapid naming as well as a WISC-IV (an IQ test). The scoring of the subtests of a WISC is often very helpful in pinpointing what particular issues are in play. In other words, it's not the overall IQ that is the big deal, but the differences between subtests that is the key to pinpointing issues. Going to a neuropsychologist who can do the WISC plus the phonemic awareness tests plus any others he or she sees as necessary would save you a lot of dead ends in experimenting with this curriculum or that. You can usually get the WISC done by the local school system for free if you are not afraid to go that way. You just write a letter to the person in the school district in charge of special needs (it can be called different things, like exceptional children) stating that you think your child has a learning disability and that you would like an evaluation. It is not a good idea to do this in PA, but I'm not aware of issues in other states. You should check with your homeschool association just to be sure.
Were there any problems with language development?
I would read "Overcoming Dyslexia" by Sally Shaywitz.