teach your son to type.
while he might "grow out of it", it is very possible he won't. learning to type will help him overcome the written expression discrepancy.
if you want your school to accomodate him, he must qualify for special education. the teacher really is under constant pressure not to refer too many kids to special education for evaluation. Most likely she'd already used her quota on more difficult children. most evals are saved for severe behavior problems.
So, to get around that YOU must request, in writing (use email), to the principal, special education director and special education lead teacher, an "educational EVALUATION" for "all areas of suspected disabilities" (you just use those words...no need to specify any disabilities...it's just legal jargon).
This should help you parse out whether there is a true disability. His writing problems can be called "dysgraphia" but in and of itself dysgraphia doesn't tell you much. You need to know why he is dysgraphic. Is he dyslexic (highly gifted kids can be excellent readers and still have dyslexia, btw). Does he have ADHD? Is he dyspraxic?
Some of them will qualify him for an IEP and some will qualify him only for a 504. He may be perfectly fine, but it is better to find out for sure.
For us, the dysgraphia turned out to be a symptom of dyspraxia. Dyspraxics have a terrible time in written expression. We taught him to type, gave him Inspiration software to help him organize his far advanced ideation, and the sped teacher used a written expression curriculum for a year. He zoomed to the 99th percentile in his language arts and writing in 18 months.
your mileage may vary, but check everything thoroughly so it doesn't get to ingrained to fix, imo.
willa
