DS9 is in occupational therapy. He is not dx w/ dysgraphia but has almost all the symptoms. He doesn't put proper spacing between letters and words. If there are spaces, they are usually in the wrong spot. He isn't reversing letters but is excessively slow writing the alphabet. Sometimes his 0's look like 9's, pencil strokes on anything are not consistent and his writing looks very much like preschool writing. On the BOT for fine motor he was in the 5th or 6th percentile for most of it, but the motor coordination subtest of the Beery VMI he was .02 percentile (I think this involved doing mazes and staying in the lines, which he didn't). His overall score on the Beery VMI when he did it in the past (without the motor coordiation subtest, which may be supplemental), was around 65th percentile becasue he does fine on visual perceptual tests. So the poor motor coordination subtest goes along with his DCD diagnosis from a few years ago. He has an awkward pencil grip, tends to press down too hard or too lightly when he writes, complains about his hand hurting after a while, etc. He has low muscle tone/low strength in general.
The OT can't diagnose dysgraphia but has been doing visual perceptual type activities w/ him. But here's the thing. DS can draw perfect, detailed maps from memory. I gave him 4 sticky notes with the names of random states written on them (Alabama, Missouri, Ohio, and North Carolina)--I deliberately didn't do any "square" states. His drawings are almost perfect. Who knows that there is a little protrubance on the bottom left side of Alabama with a bay in the middle? But DS did know that because it's in his drawing. DS has never been to Alabama. He did these drawings in about 1.5 min. for all of them. The only thing that's a little off is that North Carolina isn't quite skinny enough. He has never drawn any of these states before and he hasn't been studying maps, or at least not in a way that is odd or obsessive. He does tend to enjoy looking at maps.
So how am I to reconcile this with his preschool level artwork at school, illegible handwriting, not lining up columns for math, not writing on lines...basically all of his schoolwork is a mess, no matter what it is? What is his issue? If you can draw a perfect outline of Ohio from memory, shouldn't you be able to write a legible 9 and put spaces between your words?
Last edited by blackcat; 08/30/16 08:10 PM.
