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We had DS8's IEP meeting this week. So to back up and give his history...

He skipped third grade this year, and is now in fourth with DD9 and a teacher that we adore. He reads on a 7th grade level, but that has been stagnant for more than a year. He is at the top of an honors prealgebra group for math. Last spring (in second grade), we put him on an IEP for poor articulation, and included OT and accommodations for handwriting concerns. He has A LOT of trouble with writing, including extremely poor handwriting/letter formation and unexpectedly poor spelling and conventions. He has trouble remembering to space between words, letters are a mix of capital and lower case, and punctuation is rare. He's made little-to-no progress in writing despite OT and practice at home. He also has vision issues, including strabismus and far-sightedness. Recently he has starred complaining of words "disappearing."

He has, at this point, made enough improvement in speech that they decided he is no longer eligible for IEP due to speech. We were hoping to keep him on the IEP due to the fine motor/ dysgraphia issues. However, the school says he's not currently eligible. The OT that has been working with him has suggested that we consult with a neurologist for a possible cause of his fine motor issues (specifically bilateral arm/hand hypotonia). She mentioned possible mild cerebral palsy. So in the same meeting we took him off the IEP and put him onto a 504, we signed papers to request a new IEP evaluation, which will take place next fall, after we've had time to pursue a medical diagnosis. We've been discussing the vision issues with his optometrist. Now we're waiting for a neurology referral from his pediatrician.

Does anyone here have experience with CP? It seems unlikely to me to be that because he met his gross motor milestones on time? What else should we be looking at here?

Your DS8 sounds like my DS8's twin. Mine skipped K and is now in 3rd, reading at a 6th grade level or so. He was in speech for articulation for the last 3 years, but is about to graduate. He's been diagnosed with dysgraphia and dyslexia, but the school refuses to believe it, and has refused to provide any services or even reference his dx in his IEP. I've been to 2 rounds of meetings about it. All of this describes my DS:


DS has been in private OT for about 18 months and his writing is minimally better, but still kinda crappy and difficult for him. Since the school has repeatedly refused to do anything about the dyslexia, we've also been using Nessy.com and doing other things at home. But, the things you listed above all sound like reasonably common issues with dysgraphia and/or dyslexia.

Have you gotten any evaluations outside of the school? I would suggest that's a good path to try. DS's latest evaluation was with a pediatric neuropsychologist specializing in 2E children. It cost a small fortune because insurance won't pay for anything related to dyslexia evals and it didn't occur to me ahead of time that at least some of the testing could've been done as "ADHD-related" instead (DS also has ADHD, so totally legit, too). I saw in another thread you were applying for DYS; if that works out, since you're in NV, maybe they'd have some names of appropriate specialists.