A couple of thoughts for you CoastalMom - first thought is it could very well be DCD. My DCD ds has an even lower typing speed than your ds (and he's in high school). Keyboarding for him isn't *fast* but it's still much faster than handwriting is - so that's another way to look at handwriting vs keyboarding, rather than thinking of it in the sense of what keyboarding looks like for a nt student.
The other thought is - is he trying to use touch typing? Most of the professionals we've worked with for our ds recommend adaptive typing - where you let the child figure out which fingers to use on which keys. I've heard that most kids end up using what looks like texting-typing (thumb and index fingers) and it can be quite fast. My ds stuck it out with touch-typing while he was using a laptop but has lapsed into a more adaptive typing methodology once he moved to the iPad, and seems to type faster now that he uses adaptive typing. Could be simply that he's older and has practiced more too.
One other thought (I probably have more than a few lol!) - are you sure the pain is as insignificant as you think? With both my dysgraphic ds (painful wrists from handwriting plus fatigue from typing) and my dd with vision issues (severe double vision) I found out relatively late in the game that pain and discomfort weren't something that I was very aware of - they told me much less about it than I would have expected given the extent of it once I did find out. DS today still will have significant wrist pain and not say anything, he just assumes we all know his hands hurt. He definitely doesn't have a lot of stamina for typing, and we've been told by the OTs he's seen that's due to his DCD - but in spite of that, he's still better off typing than using handwriting.
Skipping forward, if your ds wants to use dictation, I'd let him. Since he's in early elementary you should be able to request scribing for certain types of assignments, and you can scribe for him at home. You don't want to scribe forever, but you won't have to. He can continue to try to find a more efficient way to type, and he can also use audio recording. You can try voice-to-text too - it works a lot easier on the iPad than using Dragon used to on the laptop, so don't be necessarily scared off by reading reviews online that say it's not doable for a young child. It might not be, but otoh it might work fine.
Can you share with us what signs you've seen that might be DCD-related, and why the pediatrician and psychologist thought it wasn't DCD?
Best wishes,
polarbear
