Jono's Reading Problem

Jono had two significant appointments yesterday. One was with his pediatrician (a check up) and one was with the school councilor (an IQ test and a test for dyslexia). It's mostly good news. He is average height for his age, but below average in weight for his age. I'm not surprised by this, the boy eats like a bird. Everything else is just fine.

The tests at school showed that he has a high IQ, but that he is not reading on par with his IQ. We knew that already. So what's the problem? The tests show he does not have signs of dyslexia! She did say he was "kind of wiggly". Ha! No surprise there either.

His wiggliness may be reflexive of a lack of maturity, or of ADD. I don't really think he has ADD because he can focus when he wants to and doesn't show some of the other signs. So I think it's just immaturity.

This is resulting in his teacher having to reteach him things she has already shown the class. He doesn't ask questions if he doesn't understand. Instead he just sits there and does his own thing until she notices.

"Jono, do you understand what you're supposed to be doing?"

"Umm... no, not really."

With all this, we have decided to go ahead and have him repeat first grade. We're going to have one more conference with his teacher, but I'm pretty sure that's what we're going to do.

We are having some angst, however, about telling him. We obviously want to put a positive spin on it, like "Jono guess what? You get to be in Mrs. W's class again and be her helper next year!" or some such. Can I get some advice from the blogosphere?