My son is 6 1/2. He just completed his k5 year and has been in speech for two years. The speech therapist believes he has a language based delay. K5 was very difficult with the phonics approach. After 6 mos of trying to teach him the alphabet and sounds with little success, I bought a leapfrog DVD. Surprisingly, within a few weeks, he knew ALL of his letters and sounds. As far as going to blends, it was an epic fail. He got "t" says "tuh" and "a" says "a" but couldn't put them together after weeks of practice. My mother in law told him to spell the word "cat" - c-a-t, and to remember it at the end of the day. And he did. I was approached about teaching him word language because breaking up the words for him is difficult and he looks at me like he has no idea what I'm saying. He just wants to hear the word. I found a special needs teacher and he has started sight words - first clapping, eyes closed, and writing. 5 letters first week got all but 1 (same one all the time was wrong), week 2 overwhelmed but got them all, week 3 we had to back down to 2 and got 9 of the 12 right and always the same 12 right. Now trying to make a three letter sentence. "I see you." Knowing all those sight words by themselves, he gets overwhelmed seeing the "sentence." Last year in speech he did "around the room." He would make it through the kitchen, missing one here and there, but each time they changed - one day he couldn't tell you the name of the fridge, and say "ummm, the...." and get frustrated, they next day he would get the fridge right and forget the oven. So I see difficulty with reading visually and memory retention. Retention really concerns me because every aspect of learning builds. Because I homeschool, I have seen LITTLE cooperation from the school. They help with speech but have refused an IEP for my other concerns unless I enroll him, even though this is against the law in IL. I will fight the school but in the meantime, any diagnosis terms I should be concerned? Pls help