They told us they need something from a psychologist to access AT.
We've been through this too - but keep in mind our provincial education system doesn't actually care about clinical diagnosis, per se, they care about functional impairment in the classroom. So you don't need a diagnosis of LD from your psych (although it often simplifies things, your board may also just reject/ ignore the diagnosis, because they "Identify" using educational, not clinical, criteria). What you do need, and your psych can provide
without a diagnosis, is a letter from the psych stating that your child cannot access their education without [specify the AT required]. Your son's slow writing speed alone is more than enough to justify the letter, as is the DCD diagnosis. Your board is likely to have specific wording they want to see in that letter in order to make what is called a "SEA application", so ask them for their required wording, and provide it to your psych to use in her letter.
Our own psych did not think our DS was clinically LD (but that's a whole different problem for another day), but she did note a significant discrepancy in writing ability, and recommended AT based on that. She provided the specific letter on request, and a board SEA laptop was approved. DS has no clinical diagnosis, nor LD identified on his IEP. If handwriting is a barrier to your DS demonstrating his knowledge and participating in his education, then he is entitled to accommodations, period. And yes, for the long term, even if you are providing your own laptop, it's important to have that SEA approval on his IEP, to ensure it's seen as his right, and not a special privilege some teachers may choose to grant.
The psych we met with seemed to brush aside the DCD diagnosis - told us they don't deal with gross motor.
This bothers me. A lot. You can't talk about LDs and ignore dyspraxia, which goes way beyond gross motor. Honestly, if it's remotely feasible, you may want to consider taking your pile of results to another psych (thoroughly pre-interviewed!) who has a less limited view of their role, and more experience in this area. If nothing else, I cannot imagine concluding "no LD in writing" without doing any timed testing of writing fluency. The question is not "can he?" It's: can he form letters/ words/ sentences
in an appropriate amount of time, with appropriate accuracy, and - the million dollar question -
with appropriate levels of automaticity?
It sounds like you may need a bit of further testing to figure out if the problem actually is dysgraphia or (and) something else. The physical problems associated with DCD may actually be all that is slowing down the writing. If he produces ability-appropriate written output when he bypasses the physical constraints via typing (if that doesn't also hurt) or voice recognition, then the problem is probably just DCD. Which still fully warrants AT and other appropriate accommodations.
If, like mine, taking away the pencil removes the physical pain and takes writing from impossible to merely excruciating, then there are probably other things going on, too. Dysgraphia is a cognitive processing deficit, not a physical one: it's specifically about lacking automaticity in letter formation. Each letter has to be carefully thought out, how to produce it, every time it's written. The whole brain is sucked up with this, and no other thinking or listening may be possible while he's writing letters.
ADHD can have
huge impact on the ability to organize thoughts and plan out writing. (note: people with ADHD may be able to focus for long periods; the problem is that they cannot choose/ control where to focus, rather than that they can't focus at all). I'd suggest reading a range of descriptions from reputable sources, and see if they resonate with you. ADHD can be a very helpful label - as long as it is the correct label. And as he gets older, it will matter more and more that teachers recognize critical skills gaps as "can't", not "can't be bothered". If he's ADHD, he may need a lot of extra support, explicit and repetitive training in basic executive function skills, and scaffolding and accommodations where skills are lagging or missing entirely. But if ADHD doesn't feel right, or like the whole answer to you, or your psych seems determined to go there without carefully considering other potential explanations, be cautious. Unsupported LD creates huge anxiety in the classroom, and anxiety can look an awful lot like ADHD. If you and the teachers are seeing similar issues in academic AND non-academic tasks, ADHD may be part of the puzzle. If the issues are only being seen around school work, unrecognized LD and anxiety could well be making the child unable to take in what's being said to him, and to shut down or act up when faced daily with tasks he can't handle without extreme effort.
Just to muddy the waters though, I should note that work that is way too easy can have the same effects.... our psych, for example, wasn't willing to assess for ADHD as long as DS was not in a gifted classroom, as being in an inappropriate environment (whether too hard, too easy, or both) can cause similar anxiety and behaviour. An amazing number of kids in our board's primary gifted program are referred to psychs for ADHD assessment, not giftedness - and for most, the ADHD behaviours disappear in a gifted classroom.
And just to throw it in there, another possibility is expressive language deficits, which can make it really hard to access and organize words and ideas. For what it's worth, in our case, I suspect my DS's writing problems are a mix of fine motor issues (hypermobility), extreme inattentive ADHD and expressive language - pretty much everything but dysgraphia. Still trying to find a psych who can untangle this...
