Thank you for all the helpful insight, aeh! I hadn't made the connection between his OT results and OLSAT results, but that does make sense.
I have been wondering about DCD because he has some characteristics that seem to fit. He's not generally "awkward," but he's "slow" in some ways (if that makes any sense). For example, he is a very (very!) slow runner and swimmer (although he can do both for a very long time) and just doesn't seem to be able to coordinate his all the movements his body needs to make to pull off those tasks efficiently. It's almost painful to watch him, since I know he's expending so much energy and covering so little territory! He does play baseball (has for years)--and is a decent first baseman, but can not bat well at all. He's also "lost" if he has to play another position. I've assumed he's just not a great natural athlete, but always wondered if there's more that's going on with him.
The big question I've have about him and DCD is that he does have an (diagnosed but very obvious) speech difference. He can't make "r" sounds at all. It seems to have gotten worse in recent years--so much so that other kids ask if he's from another country and comment on his accent. The school district's SLP listened to him a few years ago and said his differences weren't enough for speech therapy and that they'd work themselves out in time.
Am I right in understanding that speech issues can be part of DCD?
I'm curious about NVLD too. He seems to do fine making friends, so I'm not sure about social skills deficits. The other pieces seem to fit though.
His OT goals are pretty basic. They're aiming to get him to write a "legible" (or at least functional) signature and be able to make simple lists for his own purposes (like shopping lists). They haven't worked on handwriting much yet--more on fine-motor activities and some visual activities.
We're focusing on keyboarding and speech-to-text at home--and making that a priority was one of the big reasons I decided to homeschool. His school didn't have computers in most classrooms and couldn't take a keyboarding class until high school. He was required to do a lot of note-taking by hand because he can't keyboard fast enough to take notes. It was all exhausting and painful for him.
Some of my caution about vision therapy is that the one local developmental optometrist practice seems to bill themselves as dyslexia specialists. Every authoritative source I've read seems to say that vision therapy is not the answer for dyslexia. I've heard good things about the practice from people I trust though, so I'm torn. I may think about taking him out of the area for an assessment. I want to do one, but just don't want to have the wrong focus.
Hmmm. More to consider! I think I will talk to his pediatrician. I'm sure he'd have no problem with referrals to a PT, neurologist, or SLP to help us get more information.
