Thank you so much for this detailed analysis. All I got from the SLP that did the testing was that "His writing is fine. He should probably learn more spelling and punctuation."
These results really surprised me. But I know he was pulled out three days for this test, so I'm guessing he just did it very slowly and carefully. Do you know how long it usually takes to do this test?
The idea of the restricted writing vocabulary makes *so* much sense. And now that you've said that, I think that's probably some of the reason he hates writing so much--because he wants to say so much more than he feels comfortable spelling. And his spelling is still relatively low because the letter formation is so difficult.
Do you have any reccomendations for working on the automaticity of skills like spacing and correct capitalization? His spontaneous/recreational writing still has lots of words with mixed cases and he still missed spaced between words even when he's working on class assignments. He knows the rules for those things, but it gets lost somewhere before he actually gets the letters on paper unless he's thinking about it with every word.
Another question that came up at our meeting is whether his fine motor skills are falling even further behind his age peers. He had the Berry VMI test in April 2017 with scores of VMI: 93%-ile, VP: 99%-ile, MC:30%-ile.
On his recent BOT-2, his fine motor composite was 8%-ile, and that OT (a different one than before) noted visual perception as a weakness. The OT wasn't at our meeting to consult with.
Do you think those two tests are comparable enough to be concerned about the drop?
To my eye, his handwriting hasn't changed much at all since he started forming letters at 3 and 4--it may have even been slightly better in kindergarten than it is now. I happened across one of his notebooks from when he was 4 the other day and his name looked almost identical to how he writes it now.
We decided to have him take the Beery VMI test again so we could make a direct comparison of the 2017 scores and now, and meet again in two weeks to discuss those results.
If it does seem his motor skills are falling farther behind his age peers, despite the interventions we've already got in place, what do we do next?
We saw a neurologist last summer who didn't believe there was a neurological cause for his fine motor weakness. If his fine motor skills are indeed falling further behind, it's clear we need to investigate that further, but I don't know where else to look for answers.
