Thanks CAMom, I skimmed the questionnaire and the questions are pretty relevant. And like your son, mine doesn't look that uncoordinated. But there too,it doesn't fully fit. His life skills are not bad - he dresses himself, although we have not introduced shoes with laces yet. He is fine with a fork although will eat with his fingers but in that he doesn't seem different from his peers. He cuts with scissors, just very slowly. He has trouble hoping but can bounce a ball. I think he can do the balance beam but will check. He can't catch and throw well though.
Who do you work with about this - does your DS do OT and Speech. Is there something else we should be doing?
DeHe
Like polarbear said, it can be a random assortment of symptoms. She is my guide on all things dyspraxic, as we are new to it :-)
How it affects my son- delayed fine motor skills- can cut on a line but slowly, can use a fork and knife but grip is "caveman" and it is inefficient. He complains often of hand cramps when writing, has an immature pencil grip and can print well enough that his WIAT writing is a 121, but his repeated patterns (different test) is in the 2nd percentile. He struggles most with copy work and anything that requires replicating shapes. He would fail any beginning drawing class for sure.
His gross motor skills are oddly affected- he is a competitive fencer and does very well at it. But his balance is dreadful- if he stands heel to toe and turns his head to the right, he will fall over. He will fall about 30 degrees before he even realizes he is falling. He can throw a ball with extreme speed and accuracy but can't catch a large playground ball even if you're only 10 feet away.
We started with an ed.psych for dysgraphia and she said "maybe but not based on my system since he's fairly average" but you should get another opinion. So we saw a neuropsych who saw test results all over the board- from 99.9th percentile to 1st and 2nd percentile. She asked for a physical therapy and occupational therapy evaluation- which led us to uncover the major balance issues. The neuropsych, along with the other evals made the diagnosis. Our pediatrician had never even heard of it and was curious- we've spent time educating him now.
We have an excellent physical therapist who works with him on muscle tone, core strength, balance and cross body dominance. Our OT is not so good- she doesn't specialize or even really understand 2E (Autism is her specialty) so my DS hasn't bonded with her and finds that she talks down to him. Unfortunately, she's covered by our insurance and the only one in our area that is. So we're trying to decide what else to do.
