I think you call both his ped and the school and (from the school) request a formal evaluation for a learning disability. Let them know you are specifically concerned about dyslexia. The ped can help you with more details, I think.
Mom to a fabulous 7 year old!
I had/have similar concerns with my son - he's just 5 1/2, about to start kinder; but he has so many red flags for dyslexia. I've been talking to his pedi about for about a year now. she referred me to an education center in our city (it's amazing!) and they referred me to people who could an evaluation and/or tutoring. Since we aren't in the school system - yet (he starts next week) - I disn't go through the school. I know you that you can even in pre-k, but I didn't want him to have some long record of evaluations and then it turn out to be nothing, or something that can be helped on our own. I talked to tons of people over the course of the last 9 months, in preparation for kinder, and the general consensus was to wait for a professional eval until he starts kinder.
Sorry for the rambing...but, to answer your questions, I would start with his pediatrician.
Definitely call both. the sooner you get it checked out the better. I am dyslexic as is my nephew and we both got assistance early in school and had no serious issues in school afterwards.
DSD--23, DS--11, DS--9, DS--3, DGD--4.
My son is the same as yours, just started 1st grade, has ADHD and a diagnosed Learning Disability and Apraxia of speech with severe articulation problems. He has been writing his name backward, turning lots of letters and numbers around since preschool and it hasn't improved. We are always correcting him. I suspect Dyslexia too and I brought it to the attentionof his teacher in Kinder and sh says they usually watch for it more in first grade. Once the year gets going more I will probably bring it up to his teacher to see what we should do about this. He already has an IEP for his learning disability. My son also retains nothing, he really should of stayed behind in Kinder but we didn't want to do that because he has lots of anxiety issues and they said it would hurt him more to do that.
Over the hill mom to my adorable devils:
Tyler 5/9/06 (Dyslexia, LD, ADHD) and Blake 10/29/07 (Autism, ADHD, SPD and ODD, what a mess)
My DS (now age 10) was/is severely apraxic and I've done a LOT of reading on the subject.
Studies vary slightly, but a child with any kind of unresolved speech issues after age 5 or 6 has about a 50% chance of reading issues. A child with severe speech issues after age 5 or 6 have close to a 100% chance of reading issues/dyslexia. If you don't believe me, ask your speech therapist. Apparently it's pretty common knowledge among the speech community, but they don't tell parents because I guess they don't want to worry us or something.
What you need ot do is to be proactive NOW. Does your school use the DIBELS test? If so, take a long hard look at your son's NSF (nonsense word fluency) scores. If not, request IN WRITING that the school test your child for phonemic awareness issues.
Once you have scores that prove there's a reading issue, use your son's speech IEP to get him reading services. What you will want is a sensory based reading curriculum like Orton-GIllingham (although there are several types of Orton-Gillingham out there). He will probably have to spend some time every day in the reading resource center.
Do NOT let the first-grade teacher tell you "He's right where he needs to be" or "He's coming along fine" when you know better. Your son is at EXTREMELY high risk for dyslexia and if he doesn't get extra reading help early, he will hit a wall in second or third grade.
PM me if you want more information.
Apraxia of speech often goes hand in hand with reading difficulties. Formally request an evaluation IN WRITING. The school has 60 school days (not including holidays, in service days etc) to do the evaluation which means it could be January before the process is complete, so start now.