BlessedMommy, everything you've written fits with a diagnosis of Developmental Coordination Disorder, and nothing raises a red flag outside of DCD which might indicate Dyslexia - so, jmo, based on this additional info, I think you have what you need to move forward with accommodations and remediation. The DCD diagnosis combined with observations by yourself and teachers re academic work should be sufficient to get your ds the accommodations and help he needs at school (and should be what is needed to advocate for either an IEP or a 504 plan).
Dysgraphia is limited to an impact on development of automaticity of handwriting; People with DCD often have issues with development of automaticity of handwriting but also are challenged by a wider umbrella of symptoms. The accommodations for the handwriting challenges due to DCD or dysgraphia are essentially the same, although some people with DCD, like my ds, are not able to develop quick keyboarding skills due to the additional fine motor challenges of DCD.
For grammar: does your ds understand grammar concepts when they are taught independently of writing essays/stories/etc? If so, let him learn grammar that way, and provide him with keyboarding or voice-to-text or scribing (while he's young) when writing paragraphs etc.
For spelling, study spelling as it's own subject, but for writing assignments let him keyboard and use word prediction and auto-spell-correct. This won't eliminate 100% of his spelling errors; proof-read his work for him. Ask for an accommodation that allows for him to not be marked off on grades due to spelling errors when using handwriting.
The fact that he's a strong reader is also going to help him tremendously with spelling and grammar and eventually will help him with written composition.
If the school thinks it's important to understand whether or not dysgraphia is also a diagnosis (in addition to DCD), then request an evaluation through the school. They *should* be able to provide this. Our ds wasn't diagnosed through the schools, but I'll list his diagnosis history here because it illustrates how the path to an absolute diagnosis isn't necessarily straightforward, and how the names of diagnoses can get confusing based on who is diagnosing. And... I'll repeat... even though it might not sound like it after you read this, ds' diagnosis was *much* more straightforward than my dd who has reading challenges
DS' first diagnosis was DCD, thru a neuropsych eval at the end of 2nd grade. After receiving the neuropsych's report I found information about dysgraphia for the first time online, it seemed to fit, so I returned to the neuropsych and asked if he might have dysgraphia. The neuropsych said "yes". Nothing official on paper, just that acknowledgement that his DCD symptoms fit dysgraphia. I believe that the neuropsych diagnosis didn't mention dysgraphia specifically because it wasn't included in the DSM when he was diagnosed. The neuropsych also mentioned that she used the language she did in her report because it was the language school staff would recognize and acknowledge. As part of ds' recommended remediation, he was referred for an OT evaluation for handwriting OT. That evaluation did *not* diagnose him with dysgraphia, but instead found him to be a good candidate for handwriting remediation based on his fine motor abilities. If you look at that report, it looks like he's a-ok but the report is actually stating that he has enough fine motor ability to benefit from handwriting remediation. It doesn't mention that he is dysgraphic, but if he didn't have DCD and dysgraphic challenges, he would not have needed handwriting OT. A few years later, when it became clear ds had difficulties with expressive language, he went through an evaluation by an SLP who diagnosed him with dysgraphia as well as an expressive language disorder. If he hadn't had the expressive language challenge, he never would have had a report from any professional stating that he has dysgraphia - but the DCD diagnosis was useful and appropriate from the start for advocating for and understanding his needs re support and accommodations for handwriting/spelling/grammar/punctuation/etc.
Hope that makes sense!
DS is now a teen almost out of high school, and he'll be the first to tell you, he's dysgraphic
He also still relies on keyboarding, word prediction, spell-check and proof-reading
