He currently has an IEP that just says 'gifted' and that they are supposed to provide 'appropriate' work for him in class.
OK, I was thinking the IEP was for a challenge rather than gifted - our "Gifted IEPs" in my school district are different from traditional IEPs, aren't inclusive of the same groups of staff members as team members, and don't really operate the same way in terms of updates/etc. So ignore my previous comment about calling an IEP update meeting
[quote\From what I've read over the weekend, in Ontario (where we are) OTs cannot diagnose anything. She suggested that if we want an official diagnosis we see his pediatrician (and also to rule out any other causes of motor delays).[/quote]
It occurred to me after I'd replied earlier that the issue re diagnosis was probably due to differences in the structure of our medical systems (US vs Canada). I have friends here who have had their children diagnosed by OTs, so that's why I was confused at first.
I do think that having a follow-up eval (with ped or whoever the ped would refer you to) is a good idea - if the OT is correct and it is dyspraxia, a eval to follow-up on her supsicions should give you additional insight on your ds' needs and how to remediate/accomomdate/etc. It's also possible that the symptoms the OT saw are due to a different challenge, and if they are, you'll want to know that before going down the road of making decisions based on an incorrect assumption of diagnosis.
Not sure it is of any use, but my ds was diagnosed by a neuropsych. That's where his label of "Developmental Coordination Disorder" comes from - it's a definition in the DSM manual which psychologists and psychiatrists use for diagnosing. Dyspraxia is a term which is essentially the same set of symptoms but not used widely in the US, and I think it is used more often by medical professionals here. DS' neuropsych diagnosis was based on scores on the WISC (IQ) and WJ-III (achievement) combined with his developmental history (provided by parents), review of issues at school, and observations during testing. In addition to the ability/acheivement testing the neuropsych did a visual motor processing test, an assessment to rule out/in ADHD, executive functioning tests, and some brief motor skills tests. She referred ds to an OT and later on to an SLP and they both did their own assessments which showed areas ds was weak in (related to dyspraxia).
Gotta run again - hope that helped!
polarbear
