We have an appointment in the fall with the Eides so I suspect it will all be sorted out then. Any combo of issues could be possible. As my DH put it, the more I try to figure DS out and read about various reasons behind issues, the more he looks like he has everything and nothing at all.
I think your dh has a good point - there are so many symptoms that overlap among different diagnoses that it's easy to come up with theories while researching that could lead a parent to wonder about all sorts of possible diagnoses applying to their child. And, at the same time, as a parent you really have no idea to what degree those symptoms need to be seen in order to be a part of a diagnosis.
Polarbear, are there therapies for dyspraxia or is it more of a different timetable/expectations thing?
Both. You can address individual skills with OT, for instance, things like buttoning or tying shoes or handwriting etc. OTOH that doesn't mean that the skills will last. Please know I am not an expert and I'm only speaking about my child *and* I have no idea if any of this applies to your ds - so there you have my disclaimer lol! Anyway, dyspraxia is a complicated challenge in that it can impact people across many different body systems and in that it doesn't impact anyone in exactly the same way. In my ds, the way his brain coordinates fine motor skills is impacted, and he needed *lots* of repetition (way above a neurotypical child's level) to learn things like how to tie shoes, how to print, and how to create written expression. He also sometimes loses skills he doesn't continually work on - for instance, the year he learned how to tie his shoes (3rd or 4th grade), he also forgot how to tie them when he had a school holiday for a week and didn't wear shoes he had to tie for that one week. It didn't take 8 years for him to learn how to tie them again (maybe a few weeks), but it was obviously noticable compared to a nt child. He learned how to write in cursive starting in 4th grade, continued to practice and learn it in 5th grade, then didn't use it in 6th grade and by the second semester of 6th grade no longer remembered how to make any cursive letters except for being able to write his name in cursive.
There are things that he hasn't been specifically through OT for that have improved over time. One of those is coordination at things like throwing frisbees and catching balls. He'll never be a sports superstar, but regular work on those things in PE at school combined with (I think) maturity have helped him find a few sports he enjoys.
There are also other things we just don't worry about because they are small things in the big picture of life stretching out ahead of him, and he also has limited free time as it is with fitting in the therapy we feel he absolutely needs and with the demands of schoolwork (which takes him longer than a nt kid - not because he doesn't understand concepts, but because handwriting is slow, his movements are slow, and he struggles with written expression).
So - for any 2e child, as well as any child really, we pick and choose what to put time/effort/$ into and let some things go.
Re timetables - there were quite a few things in ds' early development that either came late (but not late enough for us as parents to realize they were anything other than quirky-late), and a few things he totally skipped (he never babbled or experimented with baby-talk, just was quite for 3 years and then talked like in complicated complex sentences; he also was late crawling, tried it a few times, then really didn't crawl much ever at all).
We plan on sticking with the OT at least until the assessment. We all really like her and she is a nice advocate at his school for us. The handwriting help has been huge. Six months ago he couldn't write his name and could only write a few letters and even fewer numbers. Now he is proud of his writing and his teacher is too.
It sounds like things are going well! You'll understand a lot more about what's going on with your ds after his eval by the Eides. I know it may seem like things are moving slow sloooooow at this point, but your ds is doing well, and you've got a good plan in place for now, so know that you've done a great job so far!
Best wishes,
polarbear