Hi Keet,
Welcome!
I would see if they are going to do a individual IQ test such as the WISC as part of their assesment, so that you get a 'free' IQ test out of this aggrivation, and maybe so you can argue 'well his handwriting isn't a problem for a child of average IQ, but given his actual IQ the handwriting really needs to be stronger - please give us services - although this rarely works.
It sounds to me like (as a mom) the problems are exactly what Handwriting without tears helped my son with. Bright kids need to look at things analytically to use their minds to help out thier weak areas. So for about 20 dollars you can by their special paper and Printing Power Price: $6.35 Code: PP Grade: Gr. 2 and throw in Can-Do Print for 5th graders if you boy is cute-phobic and hates being talked down to.
For 50$ you can order the Print tool which fully analyzes printing, (I'm still waiting for mine) or for 200$ you can attent the print tool workshop yourself and learn all the insider tips and teach him yourself.
I would start now, and start with typing lessons as well. Wait and waste is a pretty good characterization of what happens in public school environments, and if your home lessons don't help, well then that's one less avenue to go down. Trial and error is the state of the art, BECAuse each kid is different.
Prepare yourself - things that seem difficult and mysterious to all the people at school are not nescessarily going to seem difficult OR mysterious to you. I would try the HWT route at home first before shelling out for the private OT IF your child doesn't seem to have other small and gross motor difficulties. There may be tears though.
My son also had the "the spaces between words are sometimes not there, he uses the lines as suggestions not as a place to rest the letters, and his letters are not formed correctly." thing going. He got tremendous improvement using HWT 5 minutes a day for 5 days at age 10, and it took about a year to show up. I think it was a maturity plus being able to start using his intellect. Maybe if we had done it more, the improvement would have shown up sooner, but it was a very busy year.
Smiles,
Grinity
